Page 35 of The Library of Second Chances
She pulled a file from a drawer under the desk and flipped through it, then pulled out a small stack of paper and slid it toward him.
He scanned them quickly. “Are you the only employee?”
“Mostly. There’s a high school student who helps me some on the weekends and in the summer, but she only works maybe ten hours a week.”
He looked up at her. “What if you want to go on vacation or aren’t feeling well?”
“I don’t really take vacations, and if I’m sick or there’s an emergency or something, I just put a sign on the door explaining why we’re closed.” She shrugged. “We all do that around here.”
“Well, as much as I don’t recommend trying to do it all yourself, it does keep your labor costs down. Your books look pretty good for a business this size, but I still think I could help you make it bigger. Better.”
She groaned. “Please tell me you’re not talking about an online store again.”
He put his elbows on the counter and leaned on them. “Why are you so opposed to selling online?”
“It’s so impersonal.” She paused, frowning as she searched for a word. “It’s just transactional. It takes away everything I love about owning this place.” She looked up at him. “Do you remember the first book you read that made you feel something?”
It was an intriguing question, but he didn’t have an answer off the top of his head. When he didn’t respond, she continued, her brown eyes glossing over as she looked into the distance.
“Mine wasAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When I was growing up, my parents were”—she looked at him as if gauging how much to tell him—“having problems. Let’s just say escaping down a rabbit hole sounded pretty good to me.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Careful not to reveal what the mayor had shared about her mother leaving, Logan steered the conversation in another direction.
“Did you ever seeThe Care Bears Adventures in Wonderland?”
He was pleased when her smile grew wider, her eyes showing surprise instead of pain.
“No. Is that a movie?” Her eyebrows furrowed as she searched his face, as if she was trying to figure him out.
“It was my sister’s favorite movie growing up. Very obscure Care Bears film. In fact, one of the only ones they never put on DVD or digitized. She made me hunt down a VHS copy on eBay a few years back and buy a VCR to go with it so we could introduce my niece and nephew to it.”
“Mr. Technology bought a VCR? You must really love your sister.” She raised an eyebrow. “Or the Care Bears.”
He stood taller and gave her his best serious face. “I’ll have you know it’s a very educational film. It teaches some very important life lessons.”
“Oh, please.” She leaned on the other side of the counter. “Do tell.”
“Well, white rabbits make terrible companions for little girls, first of all. Mischievous little things.”
Lucy giggled. “Yes, I always found cats made far more reliable companions.”
“Except maybe Cheshire Cat. Jury’s still out on him.” Logan laughed. “Then there’s Mad Hatter. He teaches us that we should always dress for the job we want.”
She pointed at him. “That’s actually a good one.”
“And then there’s Alice. In the Care Bears version, Alice is recruited to go to Wonderland to stand in for the princess, who has been kidnapped by the evil wizard.” He held up his hands like he was a scary monster. “Except she doesn’t think she can convince everyone she’s a princess. She doesn’t believe she’s special enough.”
Lucy’s expression changed, but he couldn’t quite read it. The pain he’d seen before had resurfaced, but it was more like a kind of knowing. As if she could identify with this version of Alice. He knew there was more to her story than what she or the mayor had told him, but he stopped himself from asking. He couldn’t develop any kind of emotional attachment to her. He just needed to develop the kind of relationship that made her easier to work with and led to reaching a faster consensus on the waterfront so he could get everyone to sign off on a plan.
She straightened her expression, and the moment passed.
“Is your sister younger or older?”
“Carly is older by three years, married to her high-school sweetheart, Nick, and they still live in our hometown.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow. “Meanwhile, you got out the first chance you got?”
“Couldn’t wait. I was counting down the days until I could move away to college. I knew there was this whole big world out there beyond Berlin, but we’d never seen any of it. You don’t really take vacations when your parents run a dairy farm.”
