Page 15 of The Chances We Take

“Hello?” She picked up on the first ring.

“Hey, Mills!”

“What’s up, sissy?” she asked.

“Running some errands for Ellison. We’re finishing up as many wedding planning things as we can before she leaves, so I dropped off some invitations at the post office for her. I’m also going to the bookstore,” I explained.

Ellison grew up on the outskirts of Houston and had todrive forty minutes to an hour to get into town, whereas I only lived about twenty minutes from the inner city and ten minutes from Novel Imaginations, the main bookstore I’d been working with the past few months. I still worked contractually with a couple other bookstores doing social media, but since I mostly worked in-house at Novel Imaginations, I had gotten to know the staff really well.

“Ooh, you’ll have to let me know what you find! I’ve been needing some good recommendations,” she chirped.

“I’ll try to find something for you.” I giggled. Most of the books I read wouldn’t be appropriate for her, but there were a few I had in mind that weren’t too bad.

The familiar white brick of the bookstore came into view, the bubblegum paint on the door and window trim immediately catching my attention. “All right, Mills, I’m about to pull into the parking lot. I’ll talk to you later, yeah?”

“Okay! Love you, later, sissy.” She ended with the phrase we’d always said. It was never a goodbye for us.

“Love you, later.” I made a kissy noise right before the phone call ended and I pulled into the parking lot.

Bells chimed as I stepped through the front doors of Novel Imaginations. It was a small independent bookstore with a bright, welcoming interior. The shelves lining the walls were white, and a pastel rug covered the light hardwood floors.

My favorite part of the whole store was the romance section. A big, pink, velvet couch sat in the corner, and greenery dotted with orchids cascaded down from the top of the bookshelves. On my days off, I loved to come to the store to hang out on the couch and read.

“Isa! What are you doing here?” Fallon, one of thebooksellers, jumped up from behind the counter after she saw me come in. “Isn’t it your day off?”

“I’m always here on my days off,” I replied.

She lifted a shoulder, tilting her head toward it in agreement. “That’s true. But I thought you had plans today?”

“I’m helping Ellison with wedding planning things, but I figured I’d stop in since I was already going out of the house. I also wanted to see if you guys needed anything from me.”

“I don’t think so, but let me check!” She headed toward the back, where her boss likely was.

While I waited for Fallon to come back, I roamed the bookstore, running my hand along the spines of the romance section, looking for my favorites.

Something I’d always loved about romance was no matter how difficult the characters’ lives, no matter how rough and bumpy the road was to get there, the main characters always got their happy endings. Some would consider it predictable, that every ending was always the same, but I found comfort in it.

As I walked, my hand gliding along the smooth paperbacks, a book pulled slightly out of the shelf caught my attention. I stopped, but instead of pushing it back in line, I grabbed the book and examined it. I’d never heard of it or seen it before in the store—and I browsed the books a lot. The cover was a swirl of pastel colors, all blending together like an oil painting.

I flipped the book over to read the blurb but stopped halfway through. The storyline—about two friends who ended up falling in love—seemed oddly familiar.Too familiar.

Before I could continue reading, Fallon came around the corner and interrupted me.

“Georgia said we don’t need anything!”

“Hmm?” I snapped my head up from the book.

“We’re all good here. We don’t need anything,” she repeated.

I looked back down at the book, still distracted. I didn’t know why it bothered me so much, but a specific line caught my eye.

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take.

She gave me a curious look. “Is everything okay, Isa?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. I’ll see you later, okay?” I put the book away, shaking my head as I exited the store, hopped in my car, and made the drive back to Ellison’s house.

CHAPTER SEVEN

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