Page 5 of Dying to Read

“It’s complicated,” Shirley said as she closed her eyes. Then she stood and collected her tote. “You’re right, but I still care for Terrance. And George, of course. Life is strange right now. Did Heidi dropoff the eggs?”

Rarity was a little thrown at the quick change of subject, but she nodded. “Before we closed yesterday.”

Shirley laughed. “Of course. I’ll be in the back working on them unless you need me somewhere else. Katie has the high school group this Saturday, so we’ll be babysitting hormonal teenagers for most of the day. We probably need to work on the egg project as much as possible before that. Let me know if you need help out here. And remember, you’re helping at the home with Friday Night Date with a Dog.”

“I didn’t put it in my planner. I’ll do it right now.” Rarity wondered if using a planner was even helping. She remembered now that she’d agreed to be part of the local humane society’s event at the nursing home. Bringing pets into the home to spend time with the patients was a trial study to see if it helped with memory retention. Rarity watched as Shirley went to the back room to start setting up the egg stuffing project. She didn’t know how the woman kept up with all of her volunteer events.

Rarity felt like she’d betrayed Shirley by not telling her about Terrance and his new job. But if she had, she would have betrayed Terrance’s trust in him telling her. It was a lose-lose situation.

Rarity went back to ordering and groaned when she heard the bell over the door go off again. She called out without looking up, “Welcome to the Next Chapter. Let me know if I can help you find anything.”

“I think I know where my table is. And the coffeepot,” Jonathon said as he walked intothe bookstore.

Now Rarity did look up. “I didn’t realize you were still in town. Did Edithkick you out?”

He shrugged. “Let’s say she thinks I should smooth some things over while I’m here. After this week’s book club run-in, I realized that Sam’s still mad at us no matter what Drew said. I’m going to ask her to dinner to talk about the Heather thing.”

“Or you could volunteer with her and me at the nursing home with the pet visit.” Rarity told him about the event onFriday night.

“You’re sure Sam will be there?” Jonathon sat down at his favorite table.

Rarity didn’t know why Sam was so mad. Drew hadn’t taken the blind date anywhere after dinner and he’d explained to Heather during dinner that he was currently in a relationship. Drew had thought he was meeting his folks for dinner at the steakhouse, but Edith had invited Heather along. “I think she was surprised that you weren’t letting their relationship heal.”

“From the argument we had the last time I was here, I was pretty sure that she was blowing me off when I told her that couples fight. Like I said Tuesday, Edith wants more grandbabies.” He set up his laptop. “Anyway, I’ve got edits to do. I read pages last night at the Flagstaff group. They fit me in since I was in town. I love those guys.”

“You and Edith should move back here. You’d be closer to your writing group.” I went back tothe ordering.

“If Drew would give her a grandbaby, Edith might agree to buy a second home here and go back and forth.” He openedhis notebook.

“I don’t think I’d open my conversation with Sam with that suggestion.” Rarity checked the time. It was nine thirty. “I need to finish this order or I won’t have books forthe festival.”

“I’ll shut up and work, then.”

Rarity loved having Jonathon in the store. If she was bored, he’d chat. If she was busy, he’d work. And he liked to talk to the customers as they came in to look for books. As long as they weren’t kids. He wasn’t much of a kid person. But Rarity assumed that there was a difference between grandkids and other people’s kids. Except for Shirley. She loved them all. Probably even that hellcat who’d bit Rarity at the Mommy and Me event.

Rarity got a confirmation email at five to ten. She blew out a breath. She’d almost messed this festival up. She needed to figure out a way to add upcoming events to her monthly checklist. Shirley was still in the back and there hadn’t been any customers yet, so Rarity opened the Word document that held her checklists. She had one for the beginning and end of the month as well as weekly and daily sheets. And she’d started one for book clubs and another for special events. She printed out the special event one. Then went to the monthly to-do lists, which she edited to add,Check for special events this monthto the beginning of the month sheet, andCheck for special events next monthto the end of the month list. It might be overkill, but she didn’t want to be in this spot again.

Rarity was about to see what Shirley and Jonathon wanted for lunch when Shirley ran out ofthe back room.

“I got another call from the nursing home. This morning, George attacked one of the administrators, William Jully. George has been talking about the guy and how he’s always around Lizzy.” Shirley saw Jonathon sitting at the table. “I hoped I could settle him down yesterday when we talked. But no. Anyway, I’ve got to go convince them to not kick George out.”

After Shirley left, Jonathon looked at Rarity. He was obviously confused.

Sighing, Rarity went over and sat next to him. “Here’s the skinny. Lizzy Hamilton is George’s girlfriend at the nursing home. At least she is when they both remember. He doesn’t remember Shirley or their life together anymore at all.”

“Man, that must be hard on Shirley.” Jonathon leaned back from his laptop. “Stories like this are why I took early retirementfrom the force and moved back to Arizona. I wanted time to be with Edith and figure out who I am outside of work.”

“I get that. That’s why I moved here. I needed to own who I was at the core, not all the corporate goals I’d set during college. It was like a huge weight fell off my shoulders when I put in my resignation letter. Everyone at work tried to talk me out of it. They thought I was reacting to the cancer scare. Which I was. But not in a bad way.” Rarity shut her laptop. “I’m going to go grab some of the eggs from the back. If we don’t get these finished, there are going to be a lot of sad kids next Saturday.”

As Rarity gathered the supplies, she rubbed her injury. Maybe the Easter Bunny should have a naughty list like Santa. Angel would definitely beon that list.

When she came back out to the front, Jonathon wasn’t at his table. He came back from the bulletin board with her flyer. “Someone lost a book here? Howcan you tell?”

“You’re funny. It’s a book I don’t sell. Hold on a second,” Rarity said as she opened her office safe. “Maybe you can tell me what you think this is.”

Rarity grabbed the book out of the safe. She’d put it into a plastic bag to keep it safe, but she wasn’t sure if that was the best storage system or not. She didn’t know a lot about old books and how to keep them protected. She took the book out of the bag and set it on the counter.

“This looks old.” Jonathon took the top of a pen and turned the cover over. “Have you had anyonelook at this?”

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