Page 57 of With Stars in Her Eyes
“No…” Marshall seemed to shrink. “She didn’t.”
“Why do you look like a small, cornered prey animal right now? What did she want to talk to you about?”
“I look like awhat?And how should I know what she wanted to talk to me about?”
“Anyway I told her you’ll be at the book club, so she can talk to you then.”
“Wait…Ms. Jeannie’sin this book club too?”
“Yes… and you look like you know exactly why she was looking for you and don’t want to talk about it?”
“I’m just…” He shrugged. “Just having a difference of opinion with my father about something. And Ms. Jeannie always likes to put her two cents into everything.” He knocked once on the counter. “It’ll be okay. Just not holding with the old man’s unfounded accusations and everyone around here is decidingI’mthe bad guy.Jesus.” The last sentences were said in a mutter as he walked back out. “I’m gonna go find her. I’ll be back later.”
When I finished my last appointment, I walked outside and took a deep breath. The June sun felt buttery warm, and the skies overhead were a perfectly crisp azure. Not a wisp of clouds or hint of haze.
It was the kind of day that had always sent me racing out of town with my camera or my grandfather’s telescope when I lived back home. With my work fixing up the studio, I hadn’t been checking the weather as often. If I left now, I could pack up everything and be out in dark skies territory in time to try out that new technique I had been researching weeks ago.
After checking three weather apps, I abandoned my plans towork on the studio setup tonight and shot a text to Marshall about the change in my plans. When all my equipment was loaded into my car, my phone vibrated. It wasn’t Marshall though.
It was my mom. She had access to my online calendar and my location, so she probably knew I was off work by now.
I’d be driving out to areas with spotty service soon, and if I answered I’d get stuck on the phone for hours as usual. If I was going to get the angle I wanted on the planets that would appear at dusk, I should get driving.
If I could maintain my boundaries about dating and texting, I should probably start practicing the same kind of boundaries with my mom. I had already talked with her today, and if it was an emergency, she wouldn’t have been waiting until my workday ended to call.
With a tiny, defiant nod, I plugged in my phone and cranked up the same Irish folk band we had listened to in Nic’s truck on the studio clean-out day. My cheeks heated at the memory of Courtney holding my hands to warm them in the back seat. I rolled down my windows and powered out onto the road, singing along with the music at the top of my lungs.
Maybe I was making progress here.
CHAPTER 19Courtney
Thea appeared in the bookshop doorway earlier than usual, leaving her dripping umbrella by the door. Since I was checking out a customer, she mouthed the wordsdollar binand headed to the back of the store. She returned with a mass-market paperback and flipped through the pages before gently smacking it down on the counter. It was a choreography we both knew well now.
Unfortunately, the book-smacking sound had started provoking a visceral reaction in me. One involving fantasies of books smacking other things… things very different from a counter. And hands spanking other things. Which led me down a very inconvenient flavor of fantasy for a bookseller who had customers thunking books down on the counter all day.
Thea frowned. “I can’t stay to eat with you today because I had an add-on appointment.”
“I’m even more glad you stopped by then.” I pulled a thermos of soup from my lunchbox beneath the counter. “Eat it when you have a minute. I’ll come by for the rest of it later. I had a late breakfast.”
“No, I can’t take your…” Thea’s lips pressed together. “But what kind?”
“Nic made it when he was in town this weekend. Potato and—”
“Fine. Sold.” Thea grinned.
God, this woman is perfect.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Thea said teasingly.
“I just really love potatoes too.” I grinned.
“They are mostexemplary-estof vegetables.”
“So I guess you watched the movie?” I burst out laughing.Laughing was a lot more chill than staring blankly at Thea like the dorkily smitten golden retriever lesbian I knew I was turning into. When had I ever gotten so much pure delight out of feeding someone? I had even started a Pinterest board calledTheathat was full of shareable recipes that would transport easily in a thermos since I had discovered in the last few weeks that, on rainy days, she preferred soup to sandwiches.
“I stopped in last Friday on my way out of town because I forgot… well, anyway… Samantha saidPride and Prejudicewould help me understand some of the stuff being described in the books for book club, and she also said it was required watching to be her friend. My sister had the Keira Knightley DVD, so I borrowed it.”
“She told me that on the first day I met her in college.”
