Page 36 of The Library of Second Chances
“Little harder to find cow sitters than someone to watch a dog or cat.” Her laughter was like hearing someone hit all the right notes on a piano, light and melodic.
He smiled at her. “Yes, exactly.”
“What about your niece and nephew? How old are they?”
“My niece, Alexandria, is seven now and my nephew, Aidan, is nine. They’re good kids.”
“Do you see them often?”
He thought back. When had he seen them last? Christmas? The previous summer? No, he and Catherine had been so busy with fundraisers and galas and dinner parties that they’d never found a date when his sister and her family could come out to San Diego. It must have been the previous Christmas. He’d flown them to New York to experience a real New York Christmas. He’d offered to fly his parents out, too, but they’d turned him down. He’d been too busy with work to travel back to Wisconsin much the past few years.
Even after his dad had been forced to sell the dairy farm, he still wouldn’t take a vacation. He was content to stay where he was, keeping things the way they were, which wasn’t so unlike Lucy.
He kept his response vague. “It’s been a while. Too long probably.”
Her eyes lit up. “You should invite them down,” she gushed. “That’s the best thing about living in a vacation destination. People want to come to you. I bet the kids would love the beach.”
He didn’t know Alexandria and Aidan that well, just what he got out of conversations with his sister and the rare video chat every few months. All kids probably loved the beach, though. For a moment, he thought about how nice it would be to see his big sister, Nick, and the kids, but he didn’t really have time for a family visit. He had to get things wrapped up here as quickly as possible so he could throw his hat in the ring for the Boston job.
“Yeah, maybe.” He looked away from her prying brown eyes and shuffled the stack of papers on the counter.
“I don’t mean to get on my soap box, but as someone who doesn’t have any family to speak of, I think you should make the most of the time you do have with the people you love.”
He looked up to meet her eyes, expecting to find a look that would incite guilt. Catherine had been a master guilttripper, although she certainly wouldn’t have tried to guilt him into spending time with his family. She’d never even met his family. Anytime he mentioned life on the dairy farm growing up, Catherine would scrunch up her nose in disgust. She was always reminding him how far he’d come, but also how far he still had to go. She’d pushed him to achieve more in his career, which had fed his already ambitious goals for the two years they were together.
Unfortunately, when she fell for the son of her father’s arch nemesis, she’d made sure Logan found out so he would be the one to break up with her. Then she could play the victim. He just hadn’t counted on her father blaming him too, saying he drove her to Joe because he hadn’t fit into their society life better. When the dust had settled, he realized he was more upset about losing the project than losing Catherine. His work had fulfilled him in ways Catherine never had, and he suspected no woman ever would.
But just because the work he did was an important part of his life didn’t mean his family wasn’t still important too, and Lucy was reminding him of that. She wasn’t trying to guilt him into anything—her expression was sweet and sincere, her eyes a little glassy. She simply wanted to keep him from making a mistake, from always believing he’d have another chance and could put off his family until next month or next year. Maybe he’d call Carly to see if they had summer plans. He could probably fit in a long-weekend visit.
“Okay, enough about me. Let’s focus on you and this store.” He pretended to scan one of the pages as he tried to get his brain back on the issue of Lucy buying the building. “So an online store feels impersonal. I get it. But have you ever considered there are ways to make it personal? Maybe you could have a Facebook group where people post about what books they like or whatthey’re looking for, and then you could make suggestions and provide links to the books you recommend from your store.”
Her mouth pulled to one side, and a line appeared between her eyebrows. “I don’t really do Facebook anymore. It’s just a bunch of people trying to show off their highlights to people they wouldn’t even keep in touch with otherwise.”
“Fair enough.” He wasn’t really into Facebook either, but more for privacy reasons.
“But it’s a really good idea,” she said. “I’ll look into it. How much do you think it would cost to set up an online store?”
“They make software specifically for doing that.” He caught himself before he volunteered to do it for her. “It’s all very plug-and-play. You could earmark a good portion of the other tenants’ rents to build up your reserves for the building, but it wouldn’t hurt to have another revenue stream that’s basically passive income.”
“That actually makes sense. I know a couple of other bookstore owners, and I can ask what they use.”
She bit her lip as she scribbled a note on the pad next to the computer, and he couldn’t stop looking at her mouth and thinking about how his would feel against it. He forced himself to look away and focus on her financials again. Physical attraction was a chemical reaction, and it was one he could control.
“The bank asked you to add some stuff to your business plan too, right?”
“Yes. They wanted more about my plans for the building’s upkeep and how I intend to pay for it. They’d like to see a timeline, but I’m not really sure how to figure out what will need to be replaced when.” She pressed her lips together and he could see the overwhelm in her eyes again. She looked like a deer who knew it was caught in the crosshairs.
“No biggie. I can help you do all that.”
She tucked a strand of hair that had escaped from behind her ear back in place, then started to speak but stopped.
“What is it? What were you going to say?”
Her eyes scanned his face as if sizing up how he might react. “Do you think you’ll be here long enough to help me? I don’t really know how it works with what you do. Will you leave once the community forums are over and the town decides on a plan?”
“Yeah, that’s usually how it works. Sometimes it’s a couple months, sometimes it’s a couple years. This project is pretty small compared to some of the other work I’ve done. I should be gone by the end of the summer, but we’ll get all this done before then.” He motioned to the financial documents in front of him.
She was still studying his face, as if there was something about him she couldn’t quite figure out. “So you move around a lot in your line of work?”
