Her expression didn't shift. Didn't soften. But something flickered behind her eyes—recognition, maybe. Or suspicion sharpening into certainty.
She doesn't believe a word.
Good.
Skepticism suited her better than fear. Made this interesting instead of inevitable.
I set the book back. Aligned the spine with the others.
"You don't strike me as someone who avoids crowds," she said. Polite. Distant. The kind of observation designed to close a conversation, not open one.
I smiled again. "I avoid the wrong kind."
"And what's the right kind?"
"The kind that doesn't perform." I let that sit between us. Watched her absorb it. "You didn't come to the game last week."
Her shoulders tensed. Minute shift, barely visible.
But I saw it.
"I don't follow hockey."
"Most people in this town do."
"I'm not most people."
No.
She wasn't.
That was why I was here.
I stepped back toward the door. Gave her space she hadn't asked for but would register, anyway. Let her think she'd successfully managed the encounter. Controlled the exit.
I paused at a display table near the register. Travel memoirs stacked beside local histories. Arrangement deliberate—color-coordinated spines, heights varied to create visual rhythm.
Someone had spent time on this.
"You've built something here." I let my hand rest on the table edge. Didn't touch the books. "Most stores this size feel temporary. Like they're waiting to become something else."
She tracked my movement. Eyes sharp, calculating.
"This doesn't," I continued. Gestured at the shelves, the reading nook, the handwritten cards tucked between titles. "It feels intentional. Like someone who knows exactly what they're doing."
"Thank you." Flat. Automatic.
The kind of response designed to end compliments before they landed.
I smiled. "Your father must be proud."
There.
The stillness.
Not a freeze—too controlled for that. But something in her spine locked. Vertebrae compressing by millimeters. Her shoulders drew back, chest expanding on an inhale that didn't quite complete.
Her jaw shifted. Muscle jumping beneath skin.
