Avery’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry I kept you out so late. I know you probably have things to do tomorrow, and I should have warned you it would take this long, but I needed you to understand how bad it really is, and now you’re probably mad at me for—”
“Avery,” I cut her off gently. “I’m not mad.”
She blinked. “You’re not?”
“No,” I sat down right there on the floor of the romance section, and leaned back against a bookshelf. Then I pulled my backpack over and unzipped it, dragging out two beers packed in a bag of melting ice. “I’m appreciative.”
I twisted both caps off and held one out to her.
She stared at it for a moment, then slowly lowered herself to the floor nearby. She took the beer from my hand with a shy smile.
“You brought beer to inventory?”
“I bring beer everywhere.” I took a long pull from mine. “Never know when you’re gonna need one.”
She laughed softly, and the sound did something to my chest. Made it feel lighter despite the weight of those numbers.
“So,” I stretched my legs out and crossed my ankles. “What are your ideas?”
“My ideas?” she squeaked.
“For the bookstore,” I gestured around with my beer. “You’ve been here six years. You know this place better than anyone. What would you do to fix it?”
She looked at me like I’d just asked her to solve world hunger. “Marlene’s never asked me that.”
“I’masking.”
For a moment she just sat there, her fingers wrapped around the bottle. Then she started talking.
“The local author events could be bigger. And we should have a kids’ reading hour on Saturday mornings because that’s when all the families are out running errands. The mystery section needs to be closer to the front because those readers are loyal andtheybuy in bulk, but they’re hidden in the back corner where no one can find them.”
She paused to take a breath, and I nodded for her to keep going.
Avery squinted at me, like she was trying to decide if I really wanted to hear her ideas. Then she continued, “We could do book subscription boxes for locals. Curated picks based on their taste, delivered monthly. It would give us steady income and build loyalty. And the romance section needs its own display near the register because impulse buys arehugein romance, but Marlene always hides them in the back because she thinks they’re embarrassing. Especially the man chest covers. But sexsells. Weallknow that.”
Her cheeks flushed at that last part, and I remembered the book club ladies teasing her about mountain men.
“These are good ideas,” I said, and I meant it.
“Really?” She looked up at me, hope flickering in her eyes.
“Really. Maybe we’ll even rent a mountain man to strut around out front without a shirt on during town festivals. The bookstore has a perfect location right here next to the town center.”
She giggled at that and patted my knee, her eyes drifting down to my chest. “We don’t need torenta mountain man. We just need you to do it for free.”
The best part about that? She kept her hand on my knee, sending rocket flares straight up my leg to my cock.
We kept talking as we finished our beers, our conversation drifting from the bookstore to our personal lives. I found out she lived at the Treetop Apartments by herself, her lease was coming due, and she hadn’t found a roommate. Gwen was supposed to move in with her, but then she went and got married instead.
I told her all about my life, a quiet existence in my own world surrounded by woods and forest critters. Told her that town life was hard for me after some gossip went around a few years back.
Avery’s voice got softer, more relaxed, and she leaned back against the shelf beside me until our shoulders were almost touching. She told me town gossip had hurt her, too, but didn’t get into details.
Which was fair. Neither had I.
I don’t know when I decided to move closer.
One moment there was space between us, and the next I was closing the gap until my thigh pressed against hers.
