Page 27 of The Hundred Loves of Juliet
If I can’t get rid of Helene, I have to take myself out of the equation. I have to leave Alaska.
HELENE
“He dove into the ocean?”Katy says through the phone. “In Alaska? In the middle of winter?” She’s as much a California girl as I am, and it’s a completely alien idea that anyone would even step foot near the ocean if it’s less than eighty degrees outside.
“It’s the only thing people here have been able to talk about for the last three days,” I say as I flip the sign on the door of Shipyard Books to Closed. “The mayor of Ryba Harbor came into the store today and was telling her friends about the parade she’d wanted to throw in Sebastien’s honor, but I guess he turned it down.”
Katy snorted. “I’d thought an arrogant asshole like that wouldwanteveryone fawning all over him.”
“I don’t know that heisan arrogant asshole.” As I slip behind the counter to close out the register for the evening, I remember how the whole harbor sang that sea shanty with him. “Everyone here loves Sebastien. And they say he wouldn’t leave his crew member’s side at the hospital until he knew the kid would be okay. Maybe Sebastien just doesn’t get along with me, specifically.”
“Youdidcome on kinda strong,” Katy says. “You tried to jump him your first night there.”
“That isn’t how it happened.”
“Maybe it should’ve, though.” Katy’s phone chirps. “Oh hey, Mom just texted. Wanna hop on a video chat with her?”
I smile. I’m lucky that my mom and sister are my best friends. The three of us talk almost every day. “Yeah, sure,” I say. “Just give me a few minutes to close up here.”
“Okay, call us when you’re done.” Katy hangs up.
I tidy up the children’s play table, lingering for a minute overNaming Ceremony,the picture book I read to a group of adorable little girls earlier. They were just beginning to toddle and were still young enough to smell of milk and baby lotion, and their delight in every single thing in the book just lit me up inside.
Being with them made my heart twinge a little, knowing that I might never have a baby of my own. But mostly, their bubbling laughter, the soft clapping of their hands, and the pureness of their curiosity filled me with a peaceful kind of joy. Maybe even after this job is over, I can volunteer to come in and read stories to them.
Once the kids’ area is cleaned up, I head into the back room and haul a box of new shipments onto the worktable so I can log the books into the system. Angela comes back from Arizona tomorrow, and I want to make sure everything is organized and in tip-top shape for her return.
I dial Mom and Katy.
“Hi, sweethearts!” My mom, Beth, grins into the camera. In fact, all I can see is her grin.
“Back the iPad up a bit,” Katy says. “I’m getting an extreme close-up of your chin hairs.”
“I thought you liked my chin hairs,” Mom says, adjusting the camera so we can see her face. (Well, two-thirds of it. “I’m chrono-tech challenged,” Mom likes to say, which really means “I’m too old to care about getting the perfect framing and lighting, and you are my daughters, so you’ll love whatever part of my face you get.”)
“You don’t even have chin hairs, Mom,” I say.
“Yes, but if I did, you’d tell me they looked good, wouldn’t you?” She winked. “So, Katy was just catching me up via text on the latest antics of Storybook Hero.”
“He’s not my storybook hero.” I really regret telling them that Sebastien looks like the guy I’d cast in my head for all the vignettes I’d written.
“That’s right, he’s not Storybook Hero anymore,” Katy says to Mom. “Remember? We changed his name to Sebastien McSwoon.”
“We did not!” I say.
“Mom and I did.”
“Mom!”
She shrugs. “Sebastien McSwoon was better than Prince Bodacious.”
I groan. “Why do I even talk to you two?” I grab the pocket knife off the table and slash open the box of new shipments.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Mom says. “Let’s talk about something else. How’s the novel coming along?”
“Mrph.”
“What does ‘mrph’ mean?”
