Page 49 of Unlikely You

“Yay,I’m so glad you’re doing book club,” Delaney said when I picked up my book the next day after browsing the store and grabbing two new releases and one older book I loved that had recently come out with a special edition with sprayed edges that I had to have.

“I’ve been trying to do more social things lately,” I said, remembering what Aunt Eileen had told me. She’d still been checking in on me and making sure I was going out and having fun. Book club was only a few hours and nothing at the farm was going to fall apart if I went. I’d probably have a better time than when I’d gone to Sapph. That hadn’t been a terrible time, but at least with book club there was a much smaller chance that I’d cause Bren Hendrix to spill a drink. She was definitely not a book club kind of person. All those people? No way.

Too bad, because it might actually be a good way to pitch her products. They were on prominent display and it made me proud seeing them. I almost wanted to go up to anyone else in the shop and steer them over to the Wild Prose shelves and say how good the book sleeves were and shove bookmarks and stickers into their hands. I’d managed to stop myself, which was good.

Ember had come with me and she’d stepped away from me when I’d come into the bookshop and had gone immediately to the young adult section to browse. That was fine with me. I’d told her I’d buy her three books of her choice in addition to lunch. I was really laying the bribery on thick today. I felt guilty for being so close to Ellie and for not doing as much for my other two siblings. They knew I loved them, but I needed to make sure I held onto them as they went through their tumultuous teen years. I wouldn’t let them suffer in silence if there was something I could do.

Ember was my first project. She seemed to have made up with her friends, but there was absolutely something else bothering her and I was going to get to the bottom of it, even if that took bribery.

Delaney was one of the loveliest people I’d ever met, and I said that as someone who tried to lead every interaction with kindness myself. She absolutely had me beat. There was a purity of her spirit, as if even if something bad happened to her, it would just slide right off and she’d continue to glow.

We were deep in conversation about a book we were anticipating the release of when her phone went off in quick succession.

“I’m so sorry about that,” she said, checking it.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

Delaney gave me a tight smile and typed out a quick response before putting her phone away.

“My boyfriend. He’s just checking up on me. He’s a total sweetheart.” I wouldn’t say I was an expert at reading people, but I knew enough to know that Delaney was lying through her teeth. Everyone knew about her boyfriend because she was always talking about him. You had to find the truth in the things she didn’t say and in the way she told the stories about him.

Delaney was clearly a woman who believed in the fairytale. Hell, she worked in a romance bookstore because of how much she adored books about love and romance. She also ran a small screen-printing business when she wasn’t working at the bookstore and they also sold her shirts and tote bags.

But Delaney couldn’t paint a rosy picture about her relationship, no matter how hard she tried. It made me sad for her, to be honest. She tried so hard to make everyone believe she was living in a romantic novel, but he was no prince. From what I’d gleaned, he was stringing her along and would probably say things like “why do we need labels?” if she asked him if she was his girlfriend. Funny, because they literally lived together, but I guess that didn’t matter to him.

He worked sporadically and seemed to have a lot of issues finding a steady job. Delaney defended him, of course, but a few times I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to.

It wasn’t my place to tell her that her boyfriend wasn’t worthy of her, though. And even if I did? She wasn’t going to believe me and then I’d have hurt her for nothing.

So I just nodded and waited for a moment to change the subject.

Ember interrupted us, which was a welcome distraction.

“Find some books?” I asked as she held out a stack of at least five books, four of them hardbacks.

This was going to be an expensive day.

“I can’t decide,” Ember said, biting her lip.

“Oh, I can absolutely help,” Delaney said, ushering Ember over to one of the seating areas and motioning for her to set the books down. I stood back as Delaney talked with Ember and I watched my sister talk back, her face and hands animated. It was good to see. When Ember came back to me, she had three books this time.

“Okay. I think these ones. Delaney said she’d put the others aside for me if I decide I want them. One is the second in the series and I need to read the first one.”

“Sounds good.” We both went to pay, and I tried not to wince at the total.We were supporting a small business. Books brought us joy. I was bonding with my sister.

“See you on Wednesday!” Delaney called as we were leaving.

“Can’t wait!” I called back.

Chapter Seventeen

Bren

Book club was creepingup on me and I was almost done with the book, but the ticking clock was stressing me out. I’d built my reading time into my daily schedule, but I was still cutting it close. I had a new product drop coming in two weeks that was also sucking up a lot of my time. I had to make sure that my website was ready to take the orders, I had enough ready to ship, and that the photography and product listings were perfect. I’d done this routine before, but I never wanted to get lazy or complacent because that was when things went wrong.

I had two different themed lines dropping: dark romance and what I was calling “summertime small town.” They were each so different that I hoped there was enough of a range for every one of my customers to find something they wanted. While the summertime small town was fun, I really loved the fabrics I’d found for the dark romance line.

I sent Honey a few pictures of the new products.

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