Sawyer smiled as she set the glasses on a towel to dry, then turned off the lights and headed upstairs to bed.
She had a feeling Jenna Murphy wasn’t leaving her head any time soon.
She was right.
Chapter Eight
“See you tomorrow,” Shane said with a wave as he pushed through the door and left the shop to go pick up his kids.
Jenna watched him walk down the street, a shiver from the brief gust of wind he’d let in crawling up her spine.
October first came in kind of chilly, and Jenna gazed out the window of BookLove as a few newly fallen leaves blew around the sidewalk and down the street.
She loved the fall so much. The coziness, getting out and slipping into that first soft sweater of the season, curling up on the couch under a blanket. Definitely her favorite season of the year for so many reasons.
Speaking of gifts… She glanced across the shop to the shelf on the far wall. She tried to stock a few happy little things in addition to books—candles, bookmarks, mugs, pens—things people could give as gifts to their book-loving loved ones, and the new shipment of scented candles looked colorful and inviting sitting on the shelf. They were hand-poured by an artisan with a small shop in the Adirondacks, and they sold like crazy, so she jotted herself a note to remember to put in another order within the next week or two so she’d have a decent stock for the holidays.
She went back to what she’d been working on—fall and Halloween decorations for the shop. Each year, she forced herself to wait until October first before putting up anything Halloween related, but some of the stuff that was just fall-ish had been up since mid-September. Garlands made of orange and red plastic leaves were draped along shelves. Some corn husks were wrapped together in a bunch and stoodnext to the door. Today, she would add some colorful gourds, a few witchy things to would spruce up the romantasy section, and a couple of light-up plastic pumpkins that would go near the door.
The bell over the door yanked her back to her present reality, and she was happily surprised to see Ally Hall, Sawyer’s mother, coming into her shop.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, standing to give Ally a hug.
“I mean, duh. I came to buy books.” Ally squeezed her tightly, then let her go. “How are you?”
“Great,” Jenna said. “Really good. I was just watching out the window and thinking how much I love the fall.”
“Oh God, me too. It’s the best. All the colors and getting cozy and making apple pie.”
“Apple pie,” Jenna said, pointing a finger at her. “One thing I forgot when listing my favorite things about fall.”
“We’re going apple picking this weekend,” Ally said, her face lighting up as she gave a small gasp of delight. “You should come.”
“Really?”
“Yes! It’ll be me, my mother, Sawyer, and my other daughter, Courtney. You met her the day Sawyer moved in.” She held her hands out in front of her stomach.
“Ah, the pregnant one.”
“That’s her. My youngest and about to give birth to my very first grandchild.” Ally pulled her shoulders up to her ears and grinned widely, doing a little happy dance.
“Not at all excited about that, are you?” Jenna said with a soft laugh.
“Not even a little bit. Babies are so boring.” Ally grinned, then glanced around. “Oh, this place is just so cute!” She waved a hand at Jenna. “You think about it while I wander.” And then she headed down the first row, dragging her fingertips across the spines of the books.
Jenna used to go apple picking often with her aunts when she was younger, but her mom and sisters had all become too elderly to be able to navigate the bumpy terrain between rows of apple trees. Then she’d opened the shop and all her time got sucked away anyhow. Now the shop had grown and become successful enough for her to hire help,and that enabled her to take some time away if she needed or wanted to. She could definitely go apple picking this weekend.
The question was, did she want to spend a day with Sawyer Hall? And more importantly, how would Sawyer feel about her mom inviting Jenna without asking? Would she feel stuck? Set up? Happy about it? These questions danced around in her head for the next twenty minutes, until Ally arrived at the counter with a stack of four books and a candle in her arms.
“Wow. Found some stuff to read, did you?” Jenna asked as she went around the counter.
“There’s so much here,” Ally replied, clearly delighted. “I had to stop myself.”
“Listen, you don’t have to limit yourself on my account. I won’t tell.”
They laughed together as Jenna began ringing things up. “So?” Ally asked. “What do you think about apple picking? Will you come?”
“Are you sure Sawyer will be okay with it?” She wrinkled her nose as she asked, slipping a bookmark into each book Ally was buying. “I don’t want to step on her toes or anything.”
