I snort. “So you’d rather risk your favorite daughter?”
She grins, her eyes bright and teasing. “You’ll get right on up. I, on the other hand, will have to skip Tuesday night with your dad.”
I promptly gag, which she cackles at. I am all for a healthy sex life for later-in-life adults, but I just don’t want to hear about my parents’ sex life. “Mom, we all know it’s more than just Tuesday.”
She flashes me a grin. “All days that end in Y,” she admits with a wink, and once more, I gag, much to her pleasure.
Her laughter follows me out of the little nook and into the wide-open floor of Promise Pond Books. The shop has a very girlie aesthetic, with bright-white built-in bookcases lining every exposed wall. On each shelf are not only books but also different knickknacks that make us happy. Silly signs that say stuff about needing a Diet Coke. How book boyfriends are better than real boyfriends. Naked molds of men and women, and anything else that makes us happy when we see it. It’s easy to say that when we go to Plattsburgh, we are hitting T.J.Maxx and Marshalls like wild women. Which is probably why Dad only takes us once a year…
My dad bought the bookshop for my mom when they moved back after years away in Nashville, and he jokes she loves books more than him. I don’t remember a moment in my life when my mom didn’t have some kind of paperback close at hand, so it only makes sense that she’d have a store.
Since she gave me my love of books and writing, when I came back from college, it was obvious that we’d become partners in the shop. I know my sisters get jealous of how close Mom and Iare, but I don’t care. I’m the middle child; I was ignored most of my life because I had my nose stuck in a book, living in a fantasy world rather than the real world like my sisters. They took up all my parents’ time growing up, so it’s my turn.
I move past one of the many circular white tables that are covered in the books we’re featuring, along with more bookish knickknacks, and I smile at the customer waiting.
“Hey, Jamie. Finally getting it!” I exclaim, excited for her. Jamie has been working at Harrison’s Skate & Paddle to earn money for this special edition set ofTwilight. She’s been saving all summer and winter to get it. She squeals with excitement, and I do the same.
“I am so ready!”
“I bet.”
I wiggle the ladder that is the reason my mom came to get me, and I notice it’s stuck on the rug. Freeing it, I move the ladder into position before climbing up to the top, where we keep our special edition sets. This one is a first edition from when the fullTwilightseries initially came out. It’s still in the original packaging, a lucky find when we went estate sale shopping. It was just for decoration, but when Jamie came in and oohed and aahed over it, we gave her a price, and she was set on buying it.
She doesn’t know it, but we planned on just giving it to her.
We wanted to teach her how to save, and this was the perfect opportunity. A book set like this is meant to be treasured by another book lover. Jamie is that book lover. While I can feel her excitement now, I know it’s going to be even better when she learns the book set is hers free of charge.
This is my favorite part of being an author and store owner. I can bring happiness to so many.
I wish I could bring happiness to myself—not that I’m not happy. I love my life, my family, and my little apartment upstairs, but I want someone to share it with.
I want the love of my life.
I don’t know why I’m being so hard on myself. I haven’t had a boyfriend in years. Yeah, I’ve hooked up with tourists, but nothing has stuck. That’s fine, I guess. I don’t know. I think because Valentine’s Day is coming up, I’m being whiny. I shouldn’t be. It isn’t like I’m the only single person in the family. Opal is still broken up over the boyfriend who dumped her on Lock Night five years ago. Sadie is too busy for a man, and so is Blake. Either would have to be chased and for someone to make it worth their while for them to settle down. Bless Willa’s heart, but her husband passed over five years ago, so she’s alone again.
I should throw a Galentine’s Day party for us, so we don’t have to see our parents gush over each other.
That’s not a bad idea.
I’m just about to reach for the set, and maybe I’m shaking with excitement, because suddenly, the ladder jerks to the left. I squeal and I hear my mom call out to be careful, but I have no chance. It’s as if it happens in slow motion. I circle my arms as I try to right myself. It doesn’t help, so I try to grab the shelf for purchase.
Instead, I accidentally grab the girth of a stone sculpture of a cock.
Which is attached to nothing but a pair of stone balls.
Next thing I know, I’m falling to my death.
And as the world goes black, I can’t help but think that, once more, a dick has let me down.
two
. . .
Dermot
“I don’t want your money, Dermot. I want my big brother.”
My stomach drops as the guilt slams into me. At my feet, Kip makes a whining noise, totally attuned to my stress. My Australian shepherd, with one blue eye and one brown, looks up at me as if to ask if I want him to bite my sister, causing my lips to quirk. I pat him to reassure him I’m okay for right now before I lean against the glass doors of Tessa’s Cozy Cup, my sister’s drive-thru coffee spot in Lake Placid. Her shop stays busy, which is why she’s able to close at one every day. It leaves her the time and the ability to be creative at home with whatever ADHD-induced hobbies she’s doing at the time.
