10
Seb stayed up all night the following night working on a new project. TheAlice in WonderlandMartin found was the perfect final piece—especially the illustrations—for his Schiller submission. He pulled each out carefully and set them aside.
When he was small, his grandmother had taken him to see a stage production ofAlice. He’d been so enthralled that, afterwards, he’d demanded she read it to him. He’d never been much of a reader, but each of Alice’s encounters conjured up images of the play, and so he’d endured the words. The illustrations were a magical reprieve. He’d made his grandmother pause while he’d inspected each one carefully.
The painstaking work of building his new piece provided a distraction from the mortifying memory of stumbling through an attempt to ask Martin on a date, and then getting obliviously shot down because he’d been too scared to actually say what he’d meant. He didn’t know how to be around Martin. He didn’t want to frighten him when, if he were anyone else, Seb would have pushed him up against a wall and kissed him. So he’d tried a softer approach, which backfired spectacularly. And Martin had shot him down to help Cassidy with the essay she didn’t need to write, and then so he could plan do-good community events.
Seb fell into an exhausted sleep a little after the sun came up.
He woke up again after noon, stomach growling. Since Martin hadn’t picked up on what he was asking, Seb had forgone dinner in favor of sulking in his apartment, so he hadn’t eaten in more than twenty-four hours. He slunk out of bed and took a quick shower before making his way downstairs to forage.
Unfamiliar voices echoed in the bookstore.
“So we’re going to put a bar here.”
“Won’t that create a bottleneck with people coming in?”
Seb came around the corner of the last shelf to find Martin holding crystal. Seb also recognized Penny from the diner next door, and he’d seen the older woman around town. She had an arm over Martin’s shoulders. The familiar gesture made unexpected jealousy tighten in Seb’s gut.
“So we’ll put it over there.” Penny’s eyes widened as she spotted Seb. “Where did you come from?”
“He does that.” Martin gave him a soft smile that made little pins and needles prick along his scalp, and his earlier jealousy blew away like smoke on a breeze. “Seb, this is Penny and her mother, Carol Anne.”
“Well, since you’re here.” Carol Anne came across the room to slip a hand under Seb’s elbow and tow him back toward Martin. Not that Seb needed much encouragement on that front. “Help move this table so we can see if putting the bar over there is going to be a problem. Martin, take the other end.”
Martin put the vase down on the counter by the door and hurried to obey. It was all a bit silly. There was no reason Seb couldn’t lift the table by himself, except that with help, he was able to move it without disturbing the pyramid of books stacked on it. As they set the table down, Martin’s gray eyes locked with Seb’s.
“Penny, honey. Go pretend you’re standing in line.”
Penny cleared her throat as she came to stand in front of them. The sound made Martin blink, and Seb shivered as their connection dissolved. Apparently, his awkward prom date routine from the night before was not enough to deter his interest.
“Yes, hello.” Did Penny curtsy? Her curly hair bobbed as she did it. “I’m parched. Do either of you know how to make a gin fizz? Or what about a Tom Collins? How about a Moscow Mule?”
The shop’s front door swung open, and the doorknob caught Seb at the bottom of his spine. He grunted as he was pushed forward. The table rattled, and the books collapsed in a heap.
“Hello? What’s going on?”
Mrs. Green stood in the doorway with her arms crossed. Her pink lips were pressed into an angry line as she eyed Carol Anne.
“Hello, Diana!” Carol Anne didn’t look the least bit ruffled by Mrs. Green’s death glare. “We’re just making the final plans for the blues night.”
“Blues night?” Mrs. Green’s thinly plucked eyebrows arched, and the sparkling periwinkle butterfly clipped to her hair fluttered ominously. “What blues night?”
“We discussed this. The school’s jazz trio is going to play.”
“In the bookstore?”
Carol Anne’s confident smile faltered. “Yes. It’s a ticketed event. We’ve almost sold out.”
“I don’t remember anything about it.” Mrs. Green waved a hand in dismissal. “All community events in the shop need to be approved by me, and I do not remember approving anything like this.”
“Maybe if you ever bothered to read any of the emails I sent—”
“I never saw any emails.”
Carol Anne’s face flushed. Seb glanced at Martin, who returned his gaze nervously.
“It’s been planned for months,” Penny said, coming to stand by her mother. “We’ve been by a few times. Martin has been a huge help.”
