Page 26 of Highland Hearts Holiday Bookshop

“Listen, I feel like I’ll get used to this assistance at some point, but honestly, this freaks me outa little. Or startles me, I should say.” It was true, too. I wasn’t scared by what was happening in the shop. Excited. Interested. A bit on edge. But scared? No. Because the magick or ghost or whatever was here didn’t feel evil. There were no scrapes down my skin or bloody words showing up on my mirror.

If I had to be exposed to magick, well, this was the perfect kind.

Unless a falling book took me out one day.

That would not be good. I’d already had one blunt force-induced epiphany this year, and I wasn’t really looking for another. Pulling the notebook closer, I flipped it open.

“And we’ve struck gold.”

It was a list of Moira’s customers along with their orders, preferences, and contact information. Certain pages had little red hearts at the top. Taking that to mean she’d matched them, I cross-referenced the names in the matchmaking book.

“Yup, okay, I see. And the rest? Surely they all can’t be single?” That’s when I noticed an individual letter at the top of each page. S. M. W. D.

“Single. Married. Widowed. Divorced.”

This was starting to fall into place. I had to admit, I was absolutely transfixed with the possibility of being able to bring people together over their shared love of books. My fingers paused as I came across Alexander’s name.

Alexander MacTavish.

Sighing, I reachedfor my coffee. His full name sounded even sexier than just his first. Telling myself that this was simply professional curiosity, in case a perfect match came in for him, I checked the letter at the top of his page.

“Divorced. Hmm, I wonder what happened.”

None of my business. I then scanned his purchase history. His listed favorite book had a question mark after it, but it made my heart dance.

The Hobbit.

I mean, it wasn’t unlikely thatThe Hobbitwasmanypeople’s favorite book. It had been my gateway into reading fantasy and magick books after all, and I am sure many others. But still, it was a foundational block for my love of reading and seeing that next to his name made me warm to him.

“Let’s see, what else, Dr. MacTavish? My, you have a varied reading list, don’t you?”

It was as eclectic a list as mine. It seemed the man bounced from science fiction to murder mysteries to self-help books. I paused at one title.

“Get Divorced, Be Happy.Aww, poor guy. At least he sought some advice for it.” I had to admire a man that reached out for help, even in the form of a self-help book, after a breakup. Not all men, frankly all people, were sufficiently in touch with their emotions to do so.

“Losing a Parent.Navigating grief. Oh, buddy. That’s a tough one too. Jeez, you’ve had some wounds, haven’t you?” It made me think back to our stilted conversation yesterday. I made a note to try and be as gentle with him as I could. Who knew what level of grief he was currentlydealing with? Discreetly, I checked the dates next to the sales.Over three years ago. I hoped he was in a better place now.

Even so, I made a mental note not to add him to my dating pool. He hadn’t come in and asked for the “special,” and it was clear he was taking some well-deserved healing time.

“It’s astonishing what information you can glean from someone’s book choices.”

Curious, I flipped through until I found Esther’s page. Or pages, I should say.

“Oh, you’re a hopeless romantic.” I laughed at the endless list of romances she’d purchased through the years, everything from deeply erotic books that I’d read and had even made me blush to sweet, clean closed-door romances. It seemed that Esther didn’t discriminate in her romance choice, she just wanted everyone to find love.

I wondered if they’d like to be involved with the matchmaking.

Turning the thought over, I paused as I saw Esther’s favorite book.

Pride and Prejudice.

“Is that right?Interesting.” I drew the word out as I thought about Daniel. They were similar in age, from what I could guess, but I wondered how his sweet nature would do with Esther’s battering-ram approach to life. Would she just steamroll the poor man?

“I’ll think on that one.” In the meantime, I needed to get these accounts sorted so I couldhave my first proper day of business. Which also meant I needed to take stock of what books were in this shop.

The disorganization was surely going to keep me up at night. While the Book Bitches had done a great job getting everything cleaned, dusted, and sorted yesterday, I still had entire shelves of books that had no rhyme or reason to how they were put away. I suppose that was the easiest way to do it, just shove a book onto a shelf when you were done with it, but no way was my brain ever going to allow me to function in a shop without some sort of order.

The music flipped off.

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