Page 68 of One Touch

“Wait. What?”

I took a deep breath, hardly believing the words I was speaking. “Yeah. I’m thinking about selling the bookstore. Seriously considering it.”

Silence hung heavy on the line for a moment before Mary-Beth found her voice. “Wow. That’s . . . unexpected. What brought this on?”

I shrugged, forgetting she couldn’t see me. “Ever since the wedding, I just . . . when I think about romance, it makes me feel hollow.”

“So, romance is the issue? Love?”

“Yeah. The steamy stuff I can do. The first kisses and hot sex and dirty talk. I can do, like, the first 50 percent of romance novels. But all that stuff that comes later, the conflict resolution, the dark night of the soul, the hot reunion . . . I just don’t buy it. I don’t believe in it anymore. In fact, I’ve started to think that it might be poisonous.”

“Right. Poisonous. Are you . . . okay, Lily?”

“I think so. I don’t know.”

“Do you need to get away from Bluehaven Beach for a while? You must have so many awkward memories of Vlad there. I mean, if you want to make a clean break, I might have something for you. We’re looking for an agent.”

“I don’t want to be a romance agent, Mary-Beth.”

“Not romance. Horror!”

I nearly choked on my own tongue. “Horror? Me? You must be joking! I don’t know the first thing about horror!”

“Hey, you love books, you’re smart, and you work hard. That’s what counts. The rest you can learn.” Her voice softened. “Seriously, Lils. Think about it. It would be amazing to work with you. Like, seriously amazing. And Coco already thinks you’re a superhero for what happened at the wedding, so I don’t think she’d take much convincing.”

I blurted out a laugh. “Yeah. Thanks. No. I have . . . commitments here. I can’t just up and leave.”

There was hot sex to be had. Nannying to be done.

But maybe when the no-strings sex finally grew strings?

“We have great coffee here. Maybe not as good as the ones at your bookstore, but pretty good nonetheless. Oh, and on Fridays, we sometimes get to drink Champagne. Only if there’s been a book deal that week. Good Champagne, though. The real stuff.”

My head was spinning. “Thanks Mary-Beth. I’ll think about it. Now might not be the right time. Look, let’s timetable in the book signing with Marge. That will be . . . fun.”

“You’re sure? You’re not about to sell the bookstore in the next few weeks?”

“I’m sure. I’m not rushing into anything.”

***

Mary-Beth’s unexpected offer buzzed around my head all afternoon. Me. In New York. Starting afresh. Could something like that be good for me?

Clearly, things with Ethan weren’t going to last forever. He’d made that perfectly clear. At some point, I was going to have to think about my future.

Wasthatseriously my future, though? A horror agent? It sounded pretty unlike me . . . but then again, hadn’t I needed to shake things up lately?

I was still thinking about it when I picked up Ava from school.

“Great news!” Ava announced as I grabbed her schoolbag for her and slung it over my shoulder. “I got a dyslexia test!”

“You did?”

“Yep! Miss Brown said they contacted the state specialist, and they’re sending someone out to test me in a couple of weeks.”

“That is great news!” I beamed, giving her small body a big cuddle, then we got into the car. “Actually, I have some more good news for you.”

“Ooh, what?”

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