Something new —and welcome — occurred: His facial muscles, acting in coordination, arranged his mouth into a real, actual, honest-to-goodnesssmile. “Is your mom a Shakespeare fan?”
“More generally a literature fan. She and my dad have always loved books. It’s why they started the bookstore.”
From inside, Eva called out, “You guys can come in now!”
Daniel pushed open the door, flipped on the lights, and again ushered Penny inside.
“Remember, don’t look at me,” Eva said as she aimed the phone at them. “Pretend I’m not here.”
Daniel stood still for a second, unsure what to do. “So,” he said awkwardly. “I suppose we should find that carton of apple butter and get back to the house.”
“Oh, no,” Eva said. “No, no, no. You need to walk around the store first and talk about the store. To each other. And don’t look at me!”
Penny hid another smile and decided to play along. “I haven’t been in here in a while,” she said to Daniel. “Would you mind if I look around?”
“Sure, no problem.”
She paused to take in the apple butter promotion on the main display table near the door. Jars of the orchard’s four apple butter varieties —cinnamon, creamy, sweet, and classic —were arranged into four pyramids on the table, next to brief notes describing each butter. The note for the cinnamon variety read, “Northland Orchard Cinnamon Apple Butter offers the spicy sweet-tart taste of Baldwin apples with a dash of cinnamon. Perfect with your morning toast and oatmeal, and a wonderful dinner complement for pork chops and roasted vegetables. Pro tip: Try it with your favorite brie.”
Penny gestured to the apple butters. “Before Gabe bought the orchard,” she said, “the general store felt kind of random. You’d walk in and not really know what you were looking at. Even if you knew exactly what you wanted, you had to work to find it.”
Daniel glanced at the display table. “But now…?”
“When Gabe took over, he focused the store on four things: orchard products, handcrafted furniture, local art, and vintage accessories. That side of the store” —she pointed to her left — “is for art and furniture, all of which is regionally sourced. The other side is for the orchard’s products — ciders, apple sauces, and apple butters.” She gestured to a collection of old-fashioned hand lanterns on a sideboard near the door. “When he sells vintage items like these lanterns, he groups them together.”
Daniel was listening intently. “And he does that because…?”
“Because when items are grouped together, they become a collection.”
“And collections are more appealing to customers?”
“That’s right.”
“There’s a method to this.”
“Very much so.” She made her way to the art section of the store, Daniel and Eva following, and stopped in front of a wall of landscape paintings. Clearly by a single hand, the paintings depicted various orchard scenes — rows of apple trees, the orchard’s big red barn, and more. “As you can see, Gabe arranges art the same way.”
Daniel stepped closer to examine a painting of the white clapboard farmhouse. “The artist is good.”
“The artist is Ed, one of Gabe’s employees.”
“Ed?” Daniel said, glancing at her. “I met him this afternoon. Are all of these landscapes of the orchard?”
“It’s his favorite subject.” She pointed to a handcrafted wooden stool. “Another of Gabe’s employees, Mabel, makes furniture.”
“This stool is a beauty,” Daniel said, examining it closely.
“The orchard’s apple productsare the focus on the other side of the store, and the display table in the center is for whatever he’s promoting at the moment.”
“You seem to know a lot about what he’s up to here.”
“We’re both in retail, so we’re always swapping notes.”
He turned his full attention back to her. “I wanted to ask you about that. About your bookstore.”
“Oh?”
“I’m curious about bookstores.”
