“Oh, I didn’t…” I start, but Iwasthinking it.
Aaron rubs the back of his neck.
I clear my throat. “So, how can I help you today?”
“I know it’s a stretch given the sign out front,” Aaron says with a knowing grimace. “But, any baby books?”
“Books on parenting, or booksforbabies?” I ask, heading toward the children’s section.
“For babies,” Brittany says in a voice just as timid as her shy smile.
“Britt’s a big reader and wants our boy to be just like her,” he says, gripping her shoulder in a loving squeeze.
“That’s sweet,” I say as I reach the section thatshouldbe children’s books…
The colorful stack of blocks is right there as the divider, but these are the mystery books instead. Am I going crazy?
I blink and look around, trying to see if I can identify where they’ve gone off to. They’re all bright spines, most of them short and extra wide so they almost stick off the shelves.
“Problem?” Aaron asks.
“Uh, no, sorry,” I say, spotting one of the neon yellow spines of the dinosaur book. “First day jitters, you know? I got turned around is all.”
I lead them to the ramp up to the second floor where the clean romance is supposed to be. Right over the smut, like…heaven and hell? Itwasa good joke, but now it’s just weird.
I pull out a selection of books for children under one and hold them out to Brittany. “Anything catching your eye?”
Her shyness grows into a bright beam as she touches the covers. “These are absolutely lovely.”
Then, her face falls suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
She looks up at me with a wince. “You know how children can be. He’s going to destroy this beautiful book.”
I give her my kindest reassuring grin. “It’s tougher than it looks, I promise.”
It was made with Bastian’s magic, so I know for a fact it’ll be resistant to little grubby baby hands.
“But something this nice,” she says, her scowl deepening as she looks up at Aaron. “They’re probably…expensive?”
“Nope! Not anymore than your typical outlet,” I say cheerily. “Because we’ve sourced damaged books for free, or very cheap, and fixed them ourselves, we can keep the prices reasonable.”
I flip the book over to show the low-tack sticker printed with $11.99.
“Oh my, that’s so much lower than I thought it would be,” she says with a relieved laugh. “You could be charging more!”
I shrug. “I know, but I don’t want or need to.”
If I didn’t have Bastian, Iwouldneed to charge more. But I do have him.
I have him.
She grabs the books from my hands. “Then we’ll just have to get them all.”
“Honey,” Aaron sighs.
She tsks. “What did you expect? You brought me into a bookstore with cheap books! Plus, fifteen percent off for opening weekend!”
