Page 13 of Stars Shine In Your Eyes

Then Mari picked up her father’s children’s story. “What did you think?”

“I absolutely love it! Every word, every drawing, the storyline. This is going to go on my must-read list for people who come to the retreats and are divorcing or are already divorced with children.”

Mari beamed. “The publisher has high hopes for it. They want me to do some press as well, though I’m not completely sure how I feel about telling my story to the world once the first book officially releases on Thursday.” She swallowed, her skin going slightly pale. “The big launch party is only a few days away, and the PR team working with the book has already set up several interviews.”

“Just do what’s right for you and forget about the rest,” Josie said. “If you want to talk about your past and your story with people, great. And if you want your story to be something that only you and the people you love know, then that’s perfectly okay too.”

“You sound exactly like Owen.”

“I’m going to take that as a great compliment,” Josie said with a grin. “I look forward to meeting him. And if you want to talk anything through at any point in the future, people have told me I’m a good listener.”

“I can already tell that you are,” Mari said. “Now, since I know exactly how it feels to get off a plane from the US a mere hour or two ago, you’re probably at the point where you could simply close your eyes and fall asleep.”

“I’ll admit that it wouldn’t be too hard to fall asleep right on this sofa.”

“I’m getting ready to close up in about a half hour. If you want to look around the shop for a while, how about I make you dinner upstairs? We won’t talk shop until tomorrow, but we can at least get to know each other better. And then Owen and I can walk you back to the houseboat so that you can get some much needed shut-eye.”

“That sounds perfect.” For the next thirty minutes, Josie had a wonderful time continuing to pore through the books in Mari’s store, both old and new. She chatted with some of the Mathilda Westcott fans, sharing some of her favorite books in the series. To her delight, the Mathilda Westcott section was decorated exactly like the amateur sleuth’s living room, where she often puzzled over clues. One of the fans let on that there was talk of a TV series being made about the books and that it would probably be filmed right here at Elderflower Island Books.

As Mari began to close the shop, the cat jumped up on the counter beside the cash register as though it was his customary spot, then closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Josie then happily went upstairs to Mari’s charming second-story flat. The large windows looked out on the river, and the wood-planked floor had obviously experienced plenty of footsteps in the last two hundred years. The roast chicken dinner Mari made was delicious. Owen Sullivan joined them, and Josie had to admit he was very easy on the eyes. It was lovely to see the devoted way he gazed at Mari and the heat that arced between them when their gazes met.

Owen was very sweet, and handsome, but he didn’t make her heart flutter like his brother Malcolm did.

The only awkward moment came when Owen mentioned that one of his brothers had done a foreign exchange program in Coeur d’Alene. “You didn’t happen to know Malcolm Sullivan then, did you?” He’d said it as a joke, as though the likelihood of them having ever met was nil.

For a moment, Josie didn’t know what to say. She and Malcolm hadn’t discussed what they were going to tell his family about them having known each other. But she figured the easiest thing to do was to tell the truth.

“Actually, it’s kind of a funny story. I do know your brother.” Both Mari and Owen looked shocked by this revelation. “I was as surprised as both of you obviously are. When I saw him waiting to pick me up at the airport, I was sure my eyes were deceiving me. Because what are the odds?”

“Wow,” Mari said. “It just goes to show how small the world really is.”

“Were you in the same year at school?” Owen asked.

“I was two years behind. And I didn’t really know him. I mean, everybody knew about the British exchange student, but it’s not like we ever talked the whole year. Only once at the very end, and that was just for a few minutes.”

She could feel her cheeks going pink. Because she and Malcolm hadn’t talked. They’d kissed, a kiss that had felt like all of her dreams rolled up into pure beauty and pleasure.

And then he’d casually crushed her to smithereens with a few harsh words.

As though Owen could read a little of what she was thinking, he said, “I hope he wasn’t an arsehole.”

Josie laughed at his assumption that his brother had been rude. Then she shook her head. “Like I said, I didn’t really know him back then.” Desperate to change the subject, she said, “I love his houseboat. It will be such a treat to stay on it for the next two weeks.”

“I remember helping him rebuild it,” Owen said. “He loved working on that thing. For a while there, I thought that was what he might decide to do for a living—just chuck in the financial world and rebuild houseboats. But that wasn’t his path. I guess the allure of all the cash and power in his world of international big-money deals was too much for him to resist.”

To Josie, it didn’t seem as though Owen was judging his brother. Instead, it was more that he seemed a little worried about whether his brother was truly happy.

Josie suddenly yawned, a yawn so big her jaw popped. “Sorry about that. I don’t mean to be rude. I guess now that I have a full belly from that delicious meal, all the blood has rushed from my head to my stomach, and I’m completely ready to nod off.”

Mari pushed back from the table. “In that case, why don’t we walk you back to the houseboat? I was so exhausted the first day I got here that Owen found me curled up on that couch, fast asleep while he cleaned up the mess my father had made of the flat all around me.”

“Let me help you clean up after dinner first,” Josie offered.

“Nope,” Owen insisted. “Mari and I can take care of that later. Right now, our only goal is to get you to bed so that you can regain a few of those hours of sleep you lost changing time zones.”

The three of them headed out a few minutes later. As they walked to the houseboat, Elderflower Island was even more beautiful in the moonlight. “It’s so pretty here. Do you ever get used to it?”

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