Raina looked unconvinced, and Amie regretted even putting the thought into her head. Thankfully, Ziya took over the reins of the conversation.
“Do you know what’s going to happen to Shelf Starter now?” she asked as the bartender delivered their drinks. “We heard you don’t have a lot of staff left.”
“Andrew went in today to give me some time off,” Raina said. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen.” She picked up her glass and took a long drink.
“We were at the bookshop the other day during the memorial,” Amie said, giving Ziya a look of appreciation for setting her up toaddress another one of her bullet points. “I heard you talking to Madeline about her possibly buying the store. Is that something you’d want?”
“You heard that?” Raina asked, lowering her glass.
Amie smiled apologetically. “Sorry. I was on the other side of the shelf, and I just—”
“No, it’s okay.” Raina shook her head, scoffing with self-deprecation at the memory. “I wish I hadn’t told her to talk to Andrew that soon. He lost it as soon as he saw her.”
“He sounded upset,” Amie said.
“He was. Madeline’s been wanting to buy Shelf Starter for a while. Andrew wanted Savannah to sell. I thought he’d be happy to talk to her about it.”
Raina sighed. “But it was too soon. I should’ve known it was too soon. Now he won’t even let her in the store. He won’t talk to her at all.”
“I assume you want her to buy the store,” Ziya commented.
Raina grimaced. “I was really against it before Savannah died. I don’t know why—maybe it was Savannah’s stubbornness rubbing off on me. I wanted the store to survive on its own. But I know Andrew doesn’t want to run a bookstore. Yesterday was the first time he worked at the store in years. I figured Madeline was his best bet for selling it.”
“No one ever tried to buy the store other than Madeline?” Amie asked. “What are the chances he’d find someone else?”
Raina hesitated, thinking. “There was another person,” she said. “Jonathan Oakland.”
Amie perked up. “He wanted to buy the store?”
“Yeah. It’s funny, I’d actually forgotten about him until yesterday. I found his business card while collecting some of Savannah’s stuff in the back room of the shop for Andrew.”
“Who is he?” Ziya asked.
“Some old rich guy who likes buying small businesses, I think. He stopped by a couple months ago and left his card. I didn’t thinkSavannah gave his offer a second thought, but she did keep his business card, so …” Raina shrugged.
The mention of a business card brought up a fuzzy memory. There had been a business card among the pile of things that had been dumped onto Andrew’s kitchen table. She couldn’t recall the name on it, but—
“Did you give the card to Andrew?” Amie asked.
“Yeah. Told him exactly what I told you about Oakland.” She fidgeted with a corner of the napkin that sat under her glass. “If Andrew won’t sell to Madeline, maybe he’ll sell to him. I think Savannah would’ve wanted that.”
“You do?” Amie asked, doubtful. From everything she had heard, it hadn’t sounded like Savannah wanted to sell the store at all. Though she probably hadn’t considered what she’d want to happen to the store in the event of her untimely death.
“Well, I know she didn’t want it to become an extension of Eons.” Raina rubbed her arm in a self-soothing motion. “I felt a little guilty encouraging Madeline, like I was dishonoring Savannah’s memory. But she kept Oakland’s business card. Maybe she would be okay with him buying it, wherever she is now.”
Ziya looked pointedly downward behind Raina’s back.
“Wouldyouwant to buy the store?” Amie asked before Raina could notice Ziya making her best guess as to where Savannah ended up.
Raina looked startled. “Oh, no. No, no, I couldn’t afford it.”
“I only ask because I was talking to Grayson,” Amie continued. “He seemed to think you might take over the store one day.”
Raina’s expression went dreamy, her eyes focused on nothing as she stared across the bar. “I might’ve liked to own the store one day. Save up. Have Savannah appoint me as her successor. She felt the same, I thought.”
“You thought?”
Raina turned to Amie, the unfocused look leaving her eyes. “Well, Savannah wasn’t really the affectionate type. But we workedtogether well, and my presence didn’t seem to grate on her as much as most other people’s did, so … I had high hopes for the future.”
