Page 44 of Living for Truth
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr…” Hannah trails off.
“Ah, where are my manners? I’m Jethro Lillywhite. I own this place.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Lillywhite. I’m Hannah.”
Jethro waves her off. “Call me Jethro. Mr. Lillywhite sounds so pretentious. Now,” he claps his hands together, “Morgan tells me you’ve got ten minutes. Let me show you where every genre is so you won’t be confused.”
Hannah looks at me for an explanation, but I don’t offer one. Mainly because Jethro is dragging her around the shop pointing out the neatly organized shelves.There are a few customers milling about, doing their own shopping, but for the most part, it’s pretty quiet.
Once Jethro has shown Hannah the layout of the store, he brings her back to the front and hands her a canvas tote bag with the store’s logo on it.
“Alright, Chickadee, you’ve got ten minutes. Morgan will start the timer, and I’ll be at the checkout when you’re ready.” He pats me on the back and heads over to the checkout.
“Morgan, please tell me what’s going on,” Hannah pleads, inspecting the tote bag.
“Well, like Jethro said, you have ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes forwhat?”
“Ten minutes to gather every book that caught your eye. You put them in that tote, and then I’m buying them for you.” She goes to protest, but I hold up my hand. “I know you’re going to say it’s too much. But I saw you stop and check out at least ten books, so if there aren’t ten books in that bag, I will pick them out myself.”
“But, why? Why would you do this for me?” Hannah nibbles anxiously on her bottom lip.
I shrug. “Because books make you happy, and I want to make you happy.” That barely scratches the surface of what I want. But it’s the best explanation I can give right now. I pull out my phone and open the timer app, showing it to her I say, “Your time starts… now.” And she’s off.
She heads straight for the romance section, unsurprisingly. She spent the most time there with Jethro.
I meander over to the counter to wait for her, not wanting her to think she’s being watched the wholetime. I meant what I said, I’ll add more books if she doesn't pick out at least ten.
“How did you think of this?” Jethro asks, clicking away on the computer behind the counter.
“My sister saw a viral video of a husband who did this for his wife. He did it in a Barnes and Noble, but I wanted to go local. Hannah loves books, but I would never want to just buy her some because I don’t know what she wants to read. This seemed like a good gift for her.”
Jethro hums. “She seems very special to you.”
I watch her move from romance over to the historical fiction section, and my heart swells.
“She’s the most special.”
Chapter 20
Hannah
I’ve died and gone to Heaven, but it doesn't look anything like the Celestial Kingdom.
This is a store I’ve been meaning to check out but never got around to. Liam never wanted me to buy books because they “took up too much space.” So I got most of my reading done on my Kindle. I’ve bought a few physical books since the divorce, but there aren’t a lot of places for me to put them at my mom’s house, so I’m like a kid in a candy store right now.
I’m trying not to be greedy, but I’m having a hard time putting books back. It seems like Jethro has a lot of independent authors in this store, which isamazing,but it also means there are a lot of options.
Morgan said at least ten books, and so far I have six.
“How much longer do I have?” I call out from behind the shelves.
“Four minutes,” Morgan’s deep voice replies.
Shit.
I move from historical fiction to the fantasy section. There are too many to choose from, and I can't read a proper blurb, so I am quite literally judging a book by its cover. I avoid books by authors I know I don't like, which helps cut down the choices some. I swear I only spend a few seconds there, but Morgan comes around the shelves just as his phone alarm goes off.
