“Sold what?” Keena tilted her head to the side. She handed Brice another book.
“A Blind Date with a Book.” She quickly described what it meant. She described how she came up with the fun tags to put on the books. “On one of them, I wrote something like hot vampires, bad decisions, sexy tension. Readers grabbed all of those.”
“Vampires? Readers wanted to read about blood suckers?” Keena scowled. She looked so damnadorable. Brice coughed into her fist to hide her laugh.
“I mean, they’re just books.” She shrugged and came down the step stool. Keena picked up the empty box and began breaking it down. Brice couldn’t stop watching her.
God, the woman was downright sexy.
The way she moved through the store with her confidence. The sleeves of her shirt were pushed up to reveal her strong forearms.
Everything about Keena had Brice up in her feelings.
She was a goner.
She snatched up a stack of paperbacks that were left on the shelf. Someone must have changed their mind yesterday. She hadn’t seen them before they headed over to the market.
The bell above the front door jingled.
Alanis stepped inside carrying a large canvas tote over her shoulder. She stomped her feet to get the snow off her boots. She raised her travel mug in her hand.
“Morning.” Her cheerful greeting echoed through the shop.
“You’re early.” Brice walked over toward her with the stack of books stillin her arms.
“I know.” Alanis shrugged out of her coat with a sheepish expression. “I wanted to get the cinnamon rolls started before we opened.”
She paused. Her gaze whipped over to where Keena was, then back to Brice. She inhaled slowly. Her gaze widened slightly before glancing back at Keena. She recovered quickly, but Brice didn’t know what that was about.
“Morning, Keena. Didn’t think you’d be here,” Alanis said. She motioned to the door. “I didn’t see your SUV.”
“I helped Brice get her wagon back to the shop last night. I just didn’t go back and get it,” Keena said. She picked up the boxes she’d broken down. She was oblivious to what she’d just shared. Brice’s cheeks warmed. Alanis now knew that Keena had spent the night. “Where do you want these?”
“Um, if you go through the back door in the kitchen, there’s a recycle bin out there,” Brice said. Keena nodded then headed through the kitchen doors with the boxes. The warmth that had been in her expression this morning was now gone.
Was it because Alanis was here?
Brice watched her disappear into the kitchen and took notice of the tension in her body.
“I’m going to put my stuff away and get started.”Alanis smiled and headed toward the little employee room.
Brice nodded and quickly put all of the books where they belonged. When Keena returned from the kitchen, Brice definitely saw she’d put back up her guard and had her coat on. Brice made her way to her.
“Keena?” She searched Keena’s face, but her expression was closed off.
“Yeah?” Keena wasn’t meeting her eyes. She glanced around the shop and had the look she’d had the other day when she had bolted. Alarms were now blaring inside of Brice’s head.
“Are you okay?” Brice asked.
“I’m fine.”
It was a lie. Brice didn’t need to be a shifter to pick up on it. That small lie hurt because it was obvious that something was wrong.
Had they moved too fast? Maybe inviting Keena upstairs had been a mistake. Maybe last night had only happened because emotions had been running high after the market…the fire…the music…maybe it was all too much for Keena.
She paused her train of thought.
The woman who had kissed her in the kitchen that morning had wanted to kiss her. Brice had seenthe heat in her eyes.
