AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When the bell over the door rings at the end of the day on Tuesday, I groan. The last thing I want is a slow-moving customer right before I’m scheduled to close up the bookstore, especially on the first rainy day we’ve had all summer. For whatever reason, the people who come in five minutes before closealwaysmove as slow as molasses, and all I want to dois head home and revel in the fact the recent heat wave finally seems to be on the verge of breaking.
“Is anyone here?”
“I’ll be there in just a second,” I call out, climbing up my step stool to add a few more books to the top.
Happily Ever After has a mixture of used and new titles, but the ones absolutely flying off the shelves are the romantasy titles. It isn’t surprising, but it has been wild. Sometimes we get in a new shipment and customers will have cleared them all out within a few days. A great problem to have, especially as a new business.
Once I’m done, I hop down and return the stool to the closet in the back before walking up to the front.
“How can I help you?” I ask the blonde looking at biographies against the far wall.
When she spins around and I realize it’s Reid’s mom, the previous disappointment at a last-minute customer fades away, and I smile.
“Oh, hi Mrs. Cohen!”
She returns the book in her hand to the shelf, her eyes wandering around the store, taking everything in as she heads my way.
“This bookstore really is something special. I wish this was here during any of the forty years I lived in this town,” she says, coming to a stop in front of me. “And it’sTabitha.”
“Sorry about that,” I reply. “It’s good to see you again. I didn’t realize you were still in town. I assumed you were only visiting for Lois and Paul’s anniversary.”
She lets out a sigh. “Well, that’s why Iwasin town. But I had a conversation with Reid the other day and I felt it was really important for me to come back.”
My eyebrows rise. For a split second, I think maybe she’s talking about what’s going on withmeand Reid, but just asquickly as that thought comes, it goes. Because that would be ridiculous right?
“Really? I hope everything’s okay.”
“It’s not. And I think, primarily, it’s because of you.”
I bring a hand to my chest, my brows coming together. Even though I just contemplated the idea that it would be about me and Reid, nothing could have prepared me for the fact that that’s actually why she’s here.
“Excuse me?”
Tabitha steps forward and takes my hands in hers, her aging hands strong and her grip firm. “I’m just going to rip the Band-Aid off because there’s no use tiptoeing around everything. Reid is in love with you.”
My shoulders fall, relief coursing through me. I thought something wasseriouslywrong, but this is something else entirely.
“I told you, Mrs. Cohen—”
“Tabitha.”
“—we’re just friends.”
She rolls her eyes. “Busy, please don’t insult my intelligence. I know my son, and I know he is head over heels in love with you, even though he puts on a brave face and tries to pretend he’s not. The reason I know is because my boy wears his heart on his sleeve for everyone to see.”
I want to tell her that’s not the truth, but at this point, who the hell knowswhatthe truth is. The way Reid talks to me, looks at me, touches me would lead me to believe what Tabitha is saying, but all I can go on are the things heactuallysays.
“I can’t force him to do something he doesn’t want to do,” I finally say, being maybe a little bit too honest. “Regardless of how either of us feel.”
Tabitha takes my hands in hers again. “But you have to.”
I chuckle uncomfortably. “I can promise you no woman wants to have to convince a man to love her.” I shake my head, my mind briefly flitting to Jay, even though I know these situations aren’t similar in any way. “It is…probably the last thing I would ever consider doing.”
“You don’t have to convince him to love you, Busy.” She pauses, her face tight as she appears to deliberate on what she’s going to say next. “You have to convince him thatyoulovehim—enough to weather any storm.”
Something prickles at the back of my neck, then. A warning, maybe.
“What do you mean?”
