Page 16 of The Bookbinder's Guide to Love

Ford said he’d always been a live-and-let-live person, but he should have intervened for the family’s sake. Instead, he watched his son treat his grandsons coolly and saw how it shaped the men they became.

They were distrustful and put work above relationships. Above family.

Sera took a sip of her café au lait, leaning back in her chair and finishing her snack. Had Ford left her the books to somehow help Wes?

Stop.Ford didn’t have to want something from her to leave her a gift. She was the leading lady in her life, and she didn’t have to justify why a dear friend might give her something. That was old thinking and she hated that she still fell into it. That was foster-care Sera trying to figure out how she had to pay back everything given to her.

She drove back to WiCKed Sisters and parked behind the shop. When she entered, she heard Liberty’s voice, and as she walked into the shop, she saw her friend had Merle cornered near the tea café, which was empty, as it was almost closing time.

“Help,” Merle said, looking over at her. He was tall, at least six-five, and lanky. He had thick brown hair that was shaggy and in need of a cut, but the look suited him. He always wore jeans and some kind of branded comic T-shirt or sweatshirt, depending on the season. Never the big movie-franchise comics, the more obscure ones.

“With what?” she asked, putting her bag on the counter and walking over to them.

“He won’t say if he wants to curse, charm or confluence me,” she teased, but there was a look in her eyes Sera recognized. There was more to her teasing Merle than just trying to needle him.

“Leave Merle be. Did the boxed card decks come in today?” she asked. “I was hoping they would before Valentine’s Day.”

“They did,” Merle said, stepping around Liberty toward Sera. “I was opening the stock boxes in my free time...and looking for the new D&D book I asked you to order.”

Despite her initial hesitation about the game, she was excited to see it.

Liberty moved between the two of them as they walked to the stockroom. They kept boxes just off the loading dock and then sorted the stock for their different lines of business and moved it into their own stockrooms.

Merle was a godsend who helped when Poppy was out of town, and he was more organized than the three of them, so he had already sorted and labeled all the boxes.

Liberty lifted one of the Charm, Curse, Confluence boxes and read from the back of it.

“‘The game is simple. You are given three choices and each player has a limited number of charm, curse or confluence cards to be played during each session. The cards are made up of modern and historical authors, magicians and witches, bakers and tea makers. It also doubles as an oracle deck. Let the cards guide you to your destiny.’

“So, Merle,” Liberty said, “Charm, curse, confluence with Poppy, Sera and me?”

“Liberty, for fuck’s sake,” Merle said, reaching around her toward the stack of boxes. “I hope your game sells, but I just want the book I ordered.”

He looked over at Sera and she smiled at him.

“Your book should have been in the box from the distributor.”

“I didn’t see it. Maybe it’ll show up on Friday. The game books are here,” he said, pointing to the boxes.

The room smelled of new books, paper and binding. Sera closed her eyes, inhaling deeply.

Sera would never have dreamed that she’d be a part of something like this, and some of the ickiness left by the Sitwells and that letter fled. With Liberty and Poppy, she’d created this—the store, the cards. Liberty’s drawings were really good, and the printer had gotten the gold foil she’d added right too.

“I like it. I think my drawings are okay, but maybe next time we should hire someone else?”

“Your drawings make the deck, Liberty,” Merle said, coming to stand behind her and look over her shoulder. “Everything you make is charming. I’ll watch the shop while you two take care of your stock.”

He turned and walked away, and Liberty shook her head, watching him until he disappeared. “He vexes me.”

“So you’re going to hex him later?” Sera said with a laugh.

“You know me so well.”

Wes sat at the large kitchen table that had seen better days. The book from the attic was in the center, and he started carefully disassembling it. His mind felt freer than it had since he’d woken to the news Grandpa had died. While he took the old cover off, he reached into his bag of tools to find the solution used to separate the leather from the board.

Sera was on his mind as he put the solution on and peeled the leather away. Life would have been easier if she’d been someone else. But then, Wes knew life wasn’t about being easy.

His never had been.

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