Epilogue
Zoe closed her eyes and rested her hands on her stomach, feeling her breaths as she inhaled and exhaled. It was happening. Again. Hopefully it would stick this time.
No more fires. No more crazy landlords—although she didn’t actually know who her landlord was, so there was always the possibility that he or she could be crazy. She took it as a good sign that a company was handling everything, though.
“Zoe. You okay?”
She opened her eyes and smiled. Tim stood in front of her with an arm resting on one of the bookshelves while he looked at her with concern.
“Yes. Just trying to keep from having an anxiety attack.”
He pulled her into his arms, wrapping them around her. “You want me to cause a commotion while run you out the back?”
She pressed her temple into the pocket of his shoulder and chuckled. “No. I only needed a few minutes to take a deep breath. I feel like I’ve been going non-stop for the past six months.”
“That’s because you have been.” He rested his head on top of hers. “It’s going to be great. You’ve got this.”
She did have this, but it still felt good to hear it from someone else—especially from Tim. He’d been there every step of the way, letting her vent about timelines and contractors, and offering her advice and encouragement. He’d propped her up when she needed it and made her take a break when she didn’t think she needed to. He’d been everything she hadn’t known she needed and more.
“Thank you.” She lifted her head from his chest and craned her neck back to look at him. “I don’t think I would have gotten through this without you.”
“I’ve seen your checklists, remember? You’d have been fine.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think I would have been as sane.”
“Who said you were sane now?”
She poked him in the ribs. “Jerk.”
Tim smirked and flinched to the side. “You ready to stop procrastinating? Elba’s looking for you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that to begin with?” She pushed against his hips so he’d let her go.
“You looked like you needed a hug,” he said.
“You just wanted to feel me up.” Zoe turned and walked between the bookcases toward the side of the store.
“Maybe…”
His voice was filled with amusement and she glared at him over her shoulder. She found Elba opening the large, folding doors that separated the bookstore from the Cafe
“Hey. You ready?” She slid the last of the panels into the wall recess.
“As ready as I can be,” Zoe said. “You?”
Elba rested her hands on her hips. “Absolutely. Let’s do this.”
Zoe wished they had a complicated hand-shake high-five they could do, but neither of them knew one and she wasn’t coordinated enough to come up with it on the spot.
“See you on the other side,” she said.
“I’ll have the wine ready,” Elba replied.
The crowd was considerably larger than the first time she’d opened the doors to the bookstore, but she and Elba had heavily advertised the grand re-openings of both the Cafe and the bookstore. She was glad she had scheduled all the clerks she had hired, including the part-timers.
She’d seen Bree and Denise in the restaurant while helping a customer find a book so it was no surprise when they entered the bookstore from that direction.
“Zoe, it’s gorgeous!” Bree hugged her. “I love what you and Elba did with the space. It feels very old-world Europe.”
