"You confessed?"
"Yeah. I dinged his car. Not bad, but... I had to tell him, right? You'd have done the same."
"Mm." I wasn’t sure what to say because I hadn’t expected this. "Then what happened?" I asked.
"We came to an arrangement. I was cleaning out the cabin in the woods. And I had to take on a few bird-watching shifts, you know, guarding the nests there. He looked after the ones in his yard." His voice faltered. "I can't believe he's gone. I can't believe they're both gone."
"Why would he send you to clean out the cabin?”
“Have you been in there? I'm not saying that people are trashing it, but somebody has been using it and not for birdwatching. I took a few things out that didn’t belong there, if you get my meaning."
I nodded. I was young enough to remember where teenagers around here went on cold and rainy nights for making-out sessions.
"I could tell that Jake was pretty peeved when he saw the trash that I took out. There were one or two things that surprised him though. He said he would stow them away safely, in his box.”
Kyle sank deeper in the chair. His eyes glazed over for a moment and then became bright again. The spell was wearing off.
"Hey, these are great books!" He pounced on the reading material I'd put on the table. "You've got great taste, just like your aunt."
"She left a few notes," I said. "Don't tell anyone else, Ok? I'm just learning the ropes and don’t want to get anyone’s expectations up yet."
He gave me a thumbs-up.
I shut the door behind him with a sense of relief.
I trusted the magic of the cookies. My gut also told me that Kyle was innocent.
Cosmo shared my opinion. That was all we had time to talk about before more customers came. They weren't exactly streaming in, but we kept quite busy until closing time.
I sold two new releases, both children's books. And eight other children's books, plus two romance novels, had been borrowed.
I only knew the last client, because the ones with the kids were not my generation.
Linda, though, was. I was wondering what had brought her here because I had never seen her borrow a book instead of purchasing the latest bestseller, in hardcover. I wondered if she read them at all or just displayed them.
Maybe she was trying to support the little guy.
She gushed at her choice. "I had seen that book pop up on social media a couple of times. Have you read it?" she asked. "This author is so popular, it’s like insane!"
"I haven't," I said.
"Oh, you have to! It’s a second-chance romance!"
I had enough of her digs. "Why?" I asked. "Are you thinking of moving on from your husband? Greener pastures and so on?"
She tittered. "I wouldn't dream of it. And he wouldn't dream of looking at anyone else but me, like I told you. Also, it's in the prenup. He strays, he pays." Her face changed color.
I pretended I hadn't heard anything. If she intended to get back at me with my ex-husband's indiscretions, I didn't care. To be honest, I hadn't cared for quite a while. Receiving his texts had helped a little with smoothing things over between me and Rick.
I stamped the book and passed it to her.
"Will I see you tonight?" she asked.
I was going to say no until I realized it might be a good idea to mingle a little more. "Where?" I asked. "What's going on?"
"The Badger Belles are taking on the big league. We are trying to rustle up as much support as we can to cheer the girls on at the bowling alley,” she continued.
"I'll see if I can make it."
