Page 24 of More Than Words
The words hit me square in the chest.I swallowed and forced a smile.“I mean…yeah.Makes sense, I guess,” I said, aiming for casual but missing it by a mile.
She turned to help the next person, and I focused on refilling the beer samples.I managed not to spill again, but my mind was still stuck on what she’d said.Of course she deserved to be asked out on a date.Smart, sharp, funny, and gorgeous, she also managed to make running a bookstore look like the coolest job in town.
If things were different…if I wasn’t already in over my head with the brewery and raising Quinn…maybe I would have said something or asked her to dinner.On a real date.
But that’s not where we were.We’d come too far in our effort to make peace with each other.Even if I did have a spare minute to consider a date, I couldn’t afford screwing things up with Delaney.
Instead, I focused on the next pour and pretended I didn’t care who might ask her out next.
Even if I really, really did.
Delaney
By the time the sun dipped behind the mountains and the air grew chilly, my feet ached and my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing all day.It had been a very successful event.
I stacked up the leftover books and placed them in a crate.The goal hadn’t been to sell books, but to drive interest in the store.In the end, we’d done both.Plus quite a bit of enthusiasm for Ethan’s brewery, set for a grand opening soon.
Ethan crouched to unlatch the legs of the spinning wheel he’d constructed, now slightly wobbly after hours of use.“I think it’s safe to say this was a huge hit.”
I glanced at the empty sample cups piled up in the trash bin and the handful of flyers we had left and nodded.“Okay, I have to admit.You were right about the wheel.”
His grin lit up his face.“I knew you liked it.”
“I told you earlier I liked it.”I tilted my head and gave him a look.
“Maybe,” he admitted.“But I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of hearing it.”
Before I could fire back, a familiar voice called out.“Dad!Can I borrow twenty bucks?”
Quinn jogged toward us, her hair in her signature messy braid and a smile on her face.She slid to a stop beside the table with another girl the same age right behind her.“Hi, bookstore lady.”Quinn flashed me a grin before turning back to her dad.
“Hi to you, too, kiddo.”Ethan grinned.“Where’ve you been all day?”
“Everywhere.Did you know that over at the flower shop, you could make your own arrangement?”
“I didn’t know that.”Ethan stopped what he was doing to give his daughter his full attention.
“And the Sugar Shack had fudge samples.”
“And I suppose you tried them all.”
Quinn laughed.“But not the rum raisin, whatever that is.It sounds gross.”
I did my best to swallow my giggle.
“So, can I?”
“Can you what?”Ethan asked.
“Can I borrow twenty bucks?”
“Byborrow,” he smiled, “how exactly do you plan to pay me back?”
Quinn cocked her hip and tilted her head with the attitude of a girl much older than she was.Again, I swallowed a laugh.Quinn was a great kid, but I could easily see what a handful she was going to be in a few years.
“Yes,” Ethan said before she could ask again.“You canhavetwenty dollars.”He reached into his back pocket and pulled his wallet out.“I assume it’s not to buy fudge?”
“Nope.”Quinn snatched the bill from her dad.“We want some of those giant cinnamon buns they have at the end of the plaza.They’re like the size of my head.”
