“Monster fucker?” A laugh burst past my lips.
She shrugged while pink tinged her cheeks. “It’s a thing.”
Avery was probably right.
I’d asked about availability and experience and if they liked people, but I hadn’t thought to ask what kind ofbooksthe applicants actually enjoyed. In a bookstore, that seemed like a pretty big oversight. I always thought a romance book was just a romance book.
Who knew there were categories for them?
My head had been spinning since yesterday as I tried to figure Bookish out. I’d be completely lost without Avery here.
“How about we do the interviews together?” I rumbled. “I get a question. Then you get a question. We take turns.”
Avery looked at me as if I’d just offered her a winning lottery ticket. Her eyes went wide and her lips parted slightly, and then she seemed to catch herself.
She pressed her mouth into a firm line and gave a small nod, but I could see the happiness she was trying to hide. The corners of her lips kept wanting to curve upward, and she had to work to keep them still.
I grinned at her, unable to help myself, my eyes settling comfortably on hers.
Hunger licked at the distance between us, and I had to fight off the urge to make my interest known.
But she must have sensed it because her eyes went wide again, and she looked away quickly. Then a scarlet flush crept up her neck and spread across her cheeks.
She stood up and started stammering, but I couldn’t make sense of her words. She was coming undone right in front of me.
I suddenly had the distinct feeling that Avery might beintome. This wasn’t a one-sided lust affair.
Her careful mask had slipped, and she’d turned into a cute bundle of nerves.
I stood up to get back to work, as we gathered our trash and straightened the chairs.
As Avery moved toward the backstock door, I found myself asking, “How do you know Bailey doesn’t read?”
She paused, turning back to face me. “She’s got a bookcase in her bedroom. I saw it in some of her photos on Instagram, but it’s full of candles and makeup supplies. No actual books.”
I raised an eyebrow, impressed despite myself.
“And when I told her that we all read the top sellers every month so we can recommend them to customers, she said that sounded great.” Avery’s lips did that expressive twist again. “But her smile dimmed. Plus, I know that type of girl. She spends her days at the mall in Fernwood and her nights at the Bear Den chasing after men likeyou. There’s no time for reading in her life.”
Men like me?
“I don’t go to the Bear Den.Orthe mall.”
Avery blinked up at me, not sure if she believed me, but it was true. I preferredrealbears over the Bear Den bar.
Give me a stretch of woods and no sign of human life for miles around, and I was at home.
Being inside the city limits of Red Oak Mountain right now was tough, and we only had a few thousand people here.
The only reason I was putting myself through all thishumanitywas for my aunt. After this month was up, I planned to run back off to the woods and not come out again for a few years.
Avery knew how to judge the applicants better than I did. She’d been doing this for six years, watching customers come and go, learning to read people the way she read the novels she loved.
I’d been arrogant to think I could make this hiring decision without her input.
“Your opinion matters,” I grunted out. “We’ll decide together who to hire. But I still get the final call.”
She blinked at me, surprised again, and I wondered how often people actually listened to her. Avery would be easy to dismiss because she was quiet and shy and didn’t push back.
