Page 55 of Shortcake
“I think it’s in one of the boxes in the basement.”
“Maybe we can dig through and find it? It might be nice for you to readhercopy.”
Harper gave that a moment’s thought before she nodded. “I think Grandma would love it if the book kept getting read. And you can read it, too! Then I have someone to discuss it with.”
I grinned. “You’ve got a deal. Were you close with your grandmother?”
“Yeah,” Harper said. “Dad worked a lot as a Brooklyn beat cop. But Grandma was always home and took care of me. She loved watching Murder She Wrote.”
“Um, rightfully so. Murder She Wrote is a bitchin show.”
Harper laughed. “Itis, right? Why is that?”
Elijah, the owner of the shop, popped his head out from behind a display case. “Because Angela Lansbury can do no wrong!”
I screamed. Literally screamed. How long had he been standing there? What all had he heard? Would he tattle to Conrad that I was pushing his daughter to flee the country after high school?
“Sorry!” Elijah said over the sounds of Harper laughing hysterically.
“You scared the crap out of me!” I playfully smacked Elijah on the shoulder as a smile broke out on his face.
“Your face,” Harper hugged her stomach as her whole body convulsed with laughter. Then, she twisted her own face into some sort of surprised mimic of what I looked like.
We all broke out laughing at that point. There was no sense in pretending the situation wasn’t ridiculous.
“I thought youlikedbeing scared,” Harper teased me.
I faux pinched her cheeks. “Don’t get sassy with me!”
But she wasn’t wrong. Even now, heart pounding with a sheen of sweat breaking out at my pulse points, I was smiling and laughing because I found the moments after so funny; so joyful.
Elijah held up his hands like he was surrendering to us. “I was actually just popping over to see if you needed help over here.”
“Ahhh, yes. Please,” I said. “Do you know which books are required for 10th grade summer reading?”
“You’ve got two of them in hand already,” Elijah offered. “The Great Gatsby, andPride and Prejudice. And for the third book, you get to pickanybook off this table that sounds good to you. The teachers around here like to make reading fun and they want you to be excited by your choice.”
I picked up a book I’d never heard of called The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. “This looks good.”
“Great choice,” Elijah said. “There’s actually a group of kids going to Maple Grove High who are reading it for their summer book club.”
Harper snorted. “Students here do a summer book club?Lame.”
“Be nice,” I hissed, shooting her a look. It was maybe the first and only time I’d emulated my mother. Holy shit, that was unnerving.
Elijah smiled despite her rudeness and gestured to the sitting area and coffee shop in the corner of his store. “They’re right over there.”
Harper’s jaw dropped and I couldn’t blame her. It was the hottest group of nerds I’d ever seen in my life. Actually, they weren’t nerds at all. “Trust me,” Elijah laughed. “They all had the same reaction when I organized the book club for my son. It started because he was having trouble with AP English and I thought talking through the reading with his peers might help.”
Elijah held out his hands. “And I was right. They plan to meet every Monday night to talk about the summer reading, but they came here for the first meeting during the day to pick the third book all together. The tall guy with the glasses? That’s my son, Adam. He’ll be a senior this year.”
Harper followed the line of where he was pointing and her eyes went immediately wide.
Yep, Adam was a straight up little hottie for a high school boy.
And based on the way Harper’s cheeks went bright pink, I was pretty sure she thought so, too.
I curved my arm around her shoulders and nudged her toward the group of kids. “Go say hi.”
