Page 65 of A Novel Love Story

I couldn’t wait for my clothes to finish drying, so I set off in Anders’s clothes to scope out the café. I was running low on cash, so I staked out behind an old brownish Buick across the street—the kind that should’ve been left in an eighties movie, though with the chrome detail and charms hanging from the rearview mirror, it looked well-kept. To be honest, it’d been sitting there since I pulled into town, and it never once moved, and now that I thought about it, that seemed a bit odd.

I stood there, leaning against the car, for at least half an hour until I saw movement through the café window. Jake took an elderly couple’s orders, looking worse for wear. Ruby, on the other hand, was still nowhere to be seen. Was she already gone? I guessed I could ask Jake, but then I’d need a reason to look for Ruby, and I couldn’t exactly tell him that it was my fault they broke up.

“How long have you been hiding there, Eileen?”

I gave a shriek, and spun around, met with the looming presence of Anders,his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulders square, enhancing the outline of his biceps under the three-quarter-length sleeve of his Henley. He arched a single blond eyebrow, and I sank back against the shit-brown car in defeat.

“Oh,” I sighed. “It’s you.”

He tilted his head. “Don’t get too excited.”

“I—I haven’t been here long,” I lied, because it’d most certainly been longer than I wanted to admit. “I was just … looking at this car? Yeah. This car. I saw it through the window and had an epiphany. It’s been here ever since I got here, you know?” I patted the trunk of it. “I could steal the carburetor. I doubt the owner would notice. You know, Idomiss the real world,” I added, trying to make it sound like the truth. “All that … heartbreak and loneliness. My job.” I gave a wistful sigh. “Who wouldn’t miss it?”

“Your mouth is better at kissing than lying, Elsy,” he replied, and as I gave a squawk of protest, he reached into his pocket for—keys. Car keys. Then he went to the trunk, unlocked it, and popped it open. “I would just appreciate it if my car wasn’t caught in the middle of whatever you’re scheming.”

I winced. “It’s a very … nice … car?”

He grabbed a tool bag and closed the trunk. Then, with one last quirk of his eyebrow—as ifdaringme to shenanigans—he went into his bookstore again, and I sank against the back fender.

Then the car honked as the locks slammed shut, startling me off.

“Fine,fine,” I muttered, and glanced back into the café, but Jake had gone from the window.

Okay. Plan B, I guessed.

NEXT STOP WAS RUBY AND JAKE’S APARTMENT ABOVE THEmovie theater. It was the art of elimination at this point.

I’d just march up to the door, knock on it, and tell her never to listen to anything I say ever again.

But Anders, oblivious, had other plans.

“Since you are here for a bit, would you mind watching the shop while I run to the hardware store? Youdidbreak my window,” he added as I came back into the store to fetch my purse. He held up the broken window latch in his hand. “I won’t be long.”

I hesitated. “Well …”

“If you have plans, never mind.”

That wasn’t the issue. If he left the bookstore, he might hear about Jake and Ruby. Thiswasa small town, and if my slap got around that fast? I’m sure Gail was consulting the phone tree as we spoke. “I can go for you?” I suggested. “I mean, I did break it.”

“That’s kind, but do you know what you’re looking for?”

I inclined my head. “Are you saying that because I’m a woman?”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re so kind to offer since you did, in fact, break my window. Along with the latch, I believe a pane of my window is also cracked. I’m sure it won’t be too expensive to replace.” He offered the latch to me.

Tricky, tricky. I returned his glare. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll hold down the fort.”

He smirked and pocketed it. “Thank you. I’ll only be gone about thirty minutes, and then you can …” He trailed off as a thought occurred to him. “I could take you around Eloraton, since you’ll be here for a few more days. Give you a proper tour, in exchange for your time. Grab some tacos, tour the clock tower.”

“Will you glare at me grumpily the entire time?”

“I am not grumpy.”

I stared at him.

“No,” he caved. “I’ll be good.”

He sounded earnest, and I’d be lying if I said that the idea of him showing me around to all his favorite places didn’t sound fun. It did. But if I said yes, it would make my problem with Ruby and Jake a hundred times harder. Then again, if I said yes, maybe I could figure out why he felt so familiar. He had to have been in one of the books somewhere. I just had to figure out his connection to Eloraton.

---