“Iliterallyran into her on the sidewalk. Almost knocked her over. Now I wish I had.” She made a sound of disappointment. “And you’re right, she was gorgeous. Well. She’s a lot less attractive now, isn’t she?”
“I don’t know, I’d have to see her again to be sure.” He smothered a grin.
She glared at him. “Funny. You’re a funny guy.”
“That’s what they tell me.”
She read the blog one more time, just to keep her anger brewing, then went to work shelving the new books that Shane had entered into inventory.
The day zipped on by, and Jenna’s anger at the blog stayed somewhere between a simmer and a slow boil all afternoon. Shane left to pick up his kids from school, and Jenna ran the afternoon alone.
At four forty-five, Delia DiMarco, Jenna’s other employee, who worked evenings and some weekends, breezed through the front door like a gust of wind.
“Oh my God, did you see theBetween the Linesblog this morning?” Dee was clearly angry, possibly just as angry as Jenna was, and Jenna loved her for it.
She wrinkled her nose. “I did.”
“Maybe we should relay to our customers that they’re just sad and lonely people looking for unattainable dreams. See how that goes over.” Dee walked toward the back of the store, pulling off her jacket. “I’ll give her sad and lonely,” she muttered as she returned. She sidled up to Jenna and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, gave her a squeeze. “Don’t you let people like that get to you.”
“I won’t,” Jenna said.
“You already have. I can tell by looking at your face.”
Damn it.Dee knew her too well. After all, she’d been Jenna’s English teacher in high school, and Northwood was a small city, so they’d known each other for nearly two decades. She sighed. “It’s justso infuriating. Why? Why does somebody like that have to crap on something that makes other people happy? What’s the point? I don’t get it.”
“Some people are just unhappy, and the only way they feel better is to make other people unhappy as well.”
“Well, that’s just stupid,” Jenna said with a pout.
“I agree.”
They worked together for about an hour before Jenna left BookLove in Delia’s capable hands and headed out to meet her friends for dinner. Because BookLove was right in Jefferson Square—a giant block of small businesses, bars, and restaurants—and Dakota was coming from her café only a couple doors down, they met at a new little bar and grill called Lizzie’s and made Veronica travel from her office on the west side to meet them.
Lizzie’s was comfortable. That’s what Jenna liked about it. It wasn’t pretentious. It wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t—not fancier than it was, not trendier than it was. It was simply a bar and grill with a good liquor selection and a small menu of decent bar food. Jenna arrived first and she knew Ronni liked the high-top bistro tables, so she snagged one across from the bar, draped her jacket over the back of her chair, and took a seat to see Dakota coming in.
“Hey, bitch.” Dakota pulled the hair tie out of her hair and ran her fingers through it. “Damn ponytail gave me a headache today.”
“If you worked in a bookshop instead of a café, you wouldn’t have to wear a ponytail and hat every day.”
“Yeah? You hiring?” Dakota asked as the waitress brought them menus.
“Nope. Sorry.”
“Tease.”
Jenna grinned and opened her menu, and a few minutes later, Veronica showed up.
“Hey, bitches.” She took off her jacket and hung it on a nearby hook, draped her purse over the back of her chair, and flopped down into her seat with what sounded like a relieved sigh. “What a day.”
“Tell me about it,” Jenna said.
The three of them had been inseparable in high school. They’d drifted a bit as they went off to different colleges and experienced new friends and new partners, and focused on what they each wanted todo with the rest of their lives. Surprisingly—or maybe not, given how much they all loved their home city—they all returned to Northwood to start their adult lives. Reconnection hadn’t taken long, and the trio was inseparable once again.
Once they had cocktails and had put in their food order, they began the game of Catch Up.
“How’s small business life, you two?” Ronni asked as she sipped her cosmo.
Jenna and Dakota glanced at each other and nodded in tandem. “Café’s doing well. Fall’s on the way, so coffee orders will pick up, so that’s good.”
