Page 15 of The Luck of Finding You
Oops. Not at all what I meant. I hold up both hands in surrender. “I wasn’t meaning to be sexist. Romance books sell. In case you’ve forgotten, I also read a lot of romance. They seem to sell the best, moving them to the front is just a suggestion.”
A suggestion that I definitely should have kept to myself until everything about this situation settled down. I happened to notice when Tally was shelving some of the books that the romance section was in the back and that the main display table was biographies. I may not have ever worked in a bookstore before, but in a world where people love to read things to escape, it makes sense to move a more popular genre to the front.
“You are not the boss of me.” Tally folds her arms across her chest, and I bite back a smile.
“Never said I was,” I say, and I catch Olivia whispering to Tally, “Stop acting like a four-year-old.”
“We’ll move them!” Olivia offers loudly. Tally’s frown gets deeper by the second. I would give anything to make her laugh or smile right now.
“At least think about it.” I’ll have to ask Olivia what I can do to knock Tally’s wall down since they seem to be friends. “I’ll see you later.”
“Bye!” Olivia waves again as I leave the store, but Tally is all statue.
“Noah!” Annie calls, and I turn to see her and Mo walking down the street. “I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer.”
“I was talking with Tally.” Annie knew immediately that the Tally sitting across from us in our meeting was the same Tally I’d brought up again and again over the years. She keeps telling me that I acted like a complete idiot (in the past and today) and that I should have said something.
“How’d that go?” Annie asks, passing Mo’s leash to me.
“About as well as I could have hoped after she ran out of the meeting without a word.”
“She didn’t want to see you?”
I give her a look that I hope says,Would you have wanted to see me?
“Right. Well. Now you get to work with her. Seems like that will be a super fun time.” Annie’s sarcastic tone does not go unmissed.
“I’ve got a lot of making up to do. The last time she saw me, I literally ran away from her without a goodbye. Not my proudest moment.” We’ve reached the rental car. “I’m hoping I can show her that I’m not that guy, not the one who walks away without a word. I just can’t believe it.”
“The part about you running away or that you ran into Tally?” Annie asks as she gets in the driver’s side of our rental car. The wordsrunning awaymake my stomach turn to lead. “Hey, I didn’t mean to imply you’re like Dad.”
“Am I really that easy to read?” Even the idea of being remotely like our dad makes me sick to my stomach. The fact that I ran away just like him makes me want to vomit.
“You’re nothing like him.” Annie’s words are gentle, but now I’m reminded of where I came from and how easily I could end up being just like him.
“I’m going to ask Nora to meet in person.”
Annie frowns at me as we pull onto the freeway. “But you just ran into the love of your life again. Why would you want to meet Nora?”
“Nora and I are friends.” I try to say it casually. The reality is, up until a few seconds ago, I was all for doing everything in my power to get Tally to like me again, even if it’s just as friends. Because I can’t believe that after all these years, she’s been right here—where I left her.
But thinking about how much I’m like Dad is making me realize that if I don’t want to fall harder for Tally than I already have, I need to have some sort of distraction. I’m not proud of this solution. But I did already buy Nora a ticket to the Simone Sorrows event, so why not meet?
“Plus, I’m pretty sure Tally isn’t the love of my life. She hates my guts.”
“I don’t think that’s what she was thinking about when she first saw you in the meeting.” Annie waggles her eyebrows. I hate when she does that.
“She was surprised to see me, that’s all.” That’s what I’m trying to convince myself of anyway. All we can be is friends. We’ve got to work together for a year, then I’ll leave and head out on my next adventure, whatever that may be. Tally loves the shop, and while I love reading and all things bookish, I don’t know if working in a bookstore was what I had planned for the rest of my life.
It'll be easier not to get involved.
Even though I want to.
I shake the thought from my head and pull out my phone.
MoReads:I have an idea, let me know what you think. How about we meet in person at the Simone Sorrows event in St. George? I already bought you a ticket, so we can meet in person and see what happens.
I log off after that because if she says no, I don’t really want to read it right now. I’ll wait till we’re back in New York or maybe even until tomorrow to see what she says.
