Page 19 of Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop

Ever heard of personal space, Rosie?

My cheeks pinkened and I stepped back, clearing my throat.

“Anywho. Puffins. I’ll see what I can find.”

“I’m looking specifically for enrichment exercises for an injured puffin.”

“Maybe Tattie would like a game of Wingspan.” I grinned at him, my inner board game geek delighted with my joke, since Wingspan was a bird-centered board game and had puffins in it, but he just blinked at me. “Um, the board game?”

“You think my injured puffin would like to play a board game?”

“No, I …” I lifted my hands in the air. “It was a joke.”

“Oh.” This time it was Alexander’s turn to look embarrassed. “Sometimes I miss those.”

“It’s okay. I mean … it was a niche joke. Easy to miss,” I said, rushing to reassure him.

An awkward silence fell between us, and my brain whirled at ways to fill it. For some reason, I didn’t want him to go, and at the same time, I wanted to be alone inmyshop to try and process all these emotions swirling inside me from making such a huge change.

“Um, so I can also look if I can order something in for you?” I rounded the table and opened the ancient laptop that had come with the store and grimaced as it beeped angrily at me. Yes, I know computers are not sentient, but I heard anger every time I’d tried to get this damn thing up and running. “Never mind. Stupid computer.”

“You’re having computer problems?” Alexander’s tone lit up like I’d just told him he’d won the lottery. I nodded, raising an eyebrow at the change in his demeanor, and turned the laptop to face him.

“Ah, cheeky bastard. I see what you’re on about.” I stared at him as he bent to the laptop, mumbling to himself, his fingers flying rapidly over the keys. Beeps sounded and Alexander grimaced. “Och, it’s giving me a wee battle.”

More beeps rang out, and I watched, entranced, at Alexander’s steadfast focus on the computer.

What would it be like to have him look at me with that level of focus?

Heat flushed through my body, and I turned away, silently rebuking myself. I couldnotfall for the first tall, dark, and handsome man that walked through my door. No matter what Jessica said, I was on a sabbaticalfrom men. My choices simply couldn’t be trusted. Rosie 2.0 was here.

“Listen, it’s tied itself up.”

“Tied up?” I repeated, my thoughts short-circuiting as they went down a decidedly different route than what he was speaking about.

“The computer?” Alexander gestured to the laptop, and I smiled brightly at him.

“Oh, right. Yeah, I have no idea how to fix it.”

“It’s a wee beastie, that’s for sure. I know the programming on this one, but I need to check a few things. I’ll be back to work on this sometime this week.” Alexander stood and strode to the door.

“Wait … you’re going to work on my computer?”

“Aye. It’s what I do.” Alexander opened the door and paused in the doorway. A brisk wind entered the shop, carrying the scent of rain. “Right. I’m off. Good luck finding poles to sit on.”

“Damn it.” I banged my head against the table as he promptly closed the door, the gentle tinkle of bells seeming to laugh at my dismay.

I was never going to be able to show my face in this town.

Chapter Eight

Alexander

Good luck finding poles to sit on.

I can’t believe I actually said those words out loud. I just couldn’t help myself, the image of this lush woman wrapped around my waist making my thoughts scramble, and now I felt like an absolute arse for bringing it up.

As I mentioned before, I’m not the best in social situations. Give me computers and they made sense to me. Logical, orderly, and usually presenting problems that weren’t hard to solve.

---