“Hi there,” Brittany greeted me with a warm smile. “Find everything you were looking for today?”
“I did, thank you,” I said and placed my books on the counter. Little racks of bookmarks and pens and book-y trinkets lined the wooden slab. “I’m new in town and just started a nannying position. I figured I’d bring bribes.”
Brittany’s lips pulled up into a tight smile, which looked forced. “That’s a good idea, though a gift for the parents will probably serve you better in this town.”
“Good tip. Got any recs?”
She pointed her scanner at the barcode on the back of the unicorn book. She shrugged. “Oh, you know, just the standard: booze, your undying allegiance. Maybe a blood sacrifice.”
A genuine laugh bubbled from my lips. I did not expect to find Brittany Condor entertaining. “Do you speak from experience?”
She sighed a long breath as she scanned the dragon book with a beep. “Unfortunately.” She slipped a Sweet Briar Books bookmark into each book and neatly stacked them. I sensed she was closing off and not going to say more, so I pushed an obvious button.
I leaned in and lowered my voice like we were sisters-in-arms. “Listen, I’m totally new here, but I get the sense this is a tight community. I just started with the Browning family, and I—”
Brittany’s eyes shot up at the name in a way too obvious to cover up.
“Do you know them?” I asked.
She swallowed. The bell jingled and her eyes darted to thefront door before she looked back at me. Realization settled into her gaze as she put the pieces together to understand I had taken over her old job. “They moved quickly, didn’t they.”
Of course I had to play ignorant. “Sorry?”
Brittany sighed again. “Your total is $36.30. Would you like a bag?”
She closed off. The conversation was falling off track and I needed to get it back. I spotted a solution on the shelf behind her. “Actually, I was hoping you would gift wrap these? Separately?”
Brittany looked down at the books and forced another smile. “Sure.” She turned and tore off two sheets of wrapping paper from the roll behind her and got to work.
I tapped my nails on the countertop while I waited. “So, do you know the Browning family?”
Brittany neatly placed the unicorn book in the center of the sheet of shiny red paper. “Everyone knows the Browning family.”
I tapped my nails again and tried to ignore the ominous note in her voice. I laughed with a not-so-forced dash of nerves in it. “So, should I like, be afraid of them or something?”
She folded the paper and carefully taped it down against the book. “Just don’t piss off Melanie and you’ll be fine.”
I laughed again, desperately wanting to know what more there was to the story and finding it hard to pretend I knew nothing to begin with. “What does that mean?”
She finished with the first book and tied a white ribbon around it. She reached for the dragon book and started the process over. She glanced side to side. “Look, I’m not really comfortable talking about this, but I used to work for the Browning family. We didn’t part on good terms, so just … be careful, I guess.”
I gripped the countertop so I didn’t lunge across the counter and grip Brittany and demand more information. “Can you be more specific?”
A flush curled up her neck. She looked up with only her eyes. “Not really, no.”
I feigned another nervous laugh and leaned into the counter. “Come on, help a girl out. I’m new here, and I want to know what I’m getting into. I mean, do I need to quit before I even start?”
Brittany shook her head and finished the dragon book. She tied it with a gold ribbon, and I was certain I would forget which was which the second I left the store. “No, the kids are actually great. I mean, Kaden has tons of energy, but what five-year-old boy doesn’t?”
I shriveled at the comment.
“But Melanie,” Brittany went on, lowering her voice so much I had to nearly climb on the counter to hear her, “Melanie is pretty intense. She likes things certain ways, and she has a lot of boundaries.”
“Boundaries like what?”
She snorted. “Well, don’t overhear her phone calls, either on purposeoraccident.”
I cringed, thinking of how I already had, and wondering if Brittany heard something even more incriminating than I had. “Why, is she like, a secret criminal or something?” I went for broke and made another joke.
