“Woodworking accident.”
“Ouch.” She started laughing. “Pauric must have done this. You have enough padding to cover ten cuts. And on your bird finger too!”
I waved it around, and she started laughing even harder. Then she knocked on my helmet and told me to take it off so we could get to work.
Work? What I did never felt like work. A prison sometimes, but never work. I took in a lungful of air that was perfumed by the scent of crisp pages, new ink, and Delaney’s rich perfume…heaven.
Maybe because of the book-club meeting, it seemed like we were extra busy, and before I realized it, Robert and Kyle had arrived with the food and drinks from across the street. Kyle was Robert’s nephew. He was around my age, and super flirty. He was always trying to get me to go out with him. He was nice, but not my type. He liked to hit the party scene. A lot. I thought forty bodies was a crowd.
“Hey, Maeve!” Kyle set a platter of finger foods down on a table Delaney had bought specifically for it. “You up for that party next weekend or not?” He nudged me with his elbow and gave me his best smile.
“Sorry.” I fixed the flowers on the table. “I have to work.”
“The shop closes early, right?”
“Not that early.”
He laughed. “I think you’re the only person I know who likes to be in bed by nine.”
Yeah, so I could get in an hour of woodworking, take a nice bath, and then…read.
Those inked winged butterflies fluttered in my stomach at the thought of it. If a book was new, I looked forward to seeing where it would take me. Each chapter usually felt like I’d paused a good movie I couldn’t wait to get back to.
“Come on.” He nudged me again. “That’s what bookmarks are for, right?”
“Do I look like a quitter to you?” I fixed my glasses and met his eyes.
His face scrunched.
“That’s what bookmarks signify,” I clarified. “A quitter.”
A second later, his face relaxed and he laughed at the joke. “You’re seriously a wicked-smart hot chick, Maeve.Smokinghot.”
I sighed. Maybe it was historical novels that did it, but I almost winced at the termhot chick. If he was going to win me over, he had to do a lot better than that. I wanted romance—in all its forms. Including language.Hot chickandsmoking hotseemed like lazy terms, and if he wasn’t going to put in some effort this early on…he probably wasn’t going to get any better.
That was probably why Delaney always told me I was born in the wrong time. My soul was old. Hers was alien-romance young, she always joked. She was born nineteen years or so before me, but her soul was light-years ahead.
Robert called Kyle over to help with whatever was left to bring. Before he left, he fixed my glasses. I fixed them after him, not even sure why. Maybe they didn’t feel straight enough.
With the help of Robert and Kyle, Delaney and I set everything up before the book-club guests started to arrive. No one was late, and I had to admit it was a lot of fun. We had a set of questions to answer, and almost everyone spoke up. Even if a few guests didn’t, the crowd understood what it meant to feel shy in a group.
Robert and Kyle hung around while a few of the book-club members chatted with Delaney. They were already planning for the next one.
I grabbed some books that were left out and started putting them back where they belonged. Less to do before we closed. The door chimed—someone had either walked in or left. I turned with the remainder of displaced books in my arms, about to head to a different section, when I ran into a man’s stomach.
My feet took an involuntary step back, and if I could have, I would have held the books even closer.
Dermot Craig leaned against a shelf, grinning at me.
“Hey, Baby,” he said, like I was his.
Only inside his twisted head.
“We’re about to close,” I whispered, hoping he’d go away before Delaney found us. I didn’t like the way he looked at her. She could get mouthy. And I knew she probably hadn’t noticed him because she hadn’t followed him like she usually did.
He shrugged. “This place will stay open all night if I want it to.” He looked around. “So many books.”
That’s why it’s called a bookstorewas on the tip of my tongue, but instead I just nodded.
