Page 92 of Piece By Piece

She put it on the counter and said with a quiet satisfaction, “We did it.”

“Is SuAnn already planning the next fundraiser?” Liza asked.

Janine closed her eyes. “She wants a chili cook-off. I told her we’re not doing pie this time.”

“She agreed? And you don’t believe her?”

“Oh, not for one second.”

The following Wednesday morning, Liza arrived at the bookstore to find Dixie already inside, flexing the fingers of her wrist, newly out of the brace.

“You’re out of the brace.”

“I’m back in business, sugar,” Dixie said, holding up her hand and wiggling her fingers.

Then she looked at the romance section, the one that Liza had reorganized twice.

“Now the first order of business is putting these books back where they belong.”

Liza watched as Dixie undid half of her careful arrangement and put the shelves back to their original, deeply personal order.

Liza didn’t argue.

She just moved the beanbag chairs to the other side of the children’s section and pretended it had been her idea.

The scholarship fund continued to grow.

A travel blog that Liza found while checking the bookstore’s online mentions had written about Seagrove’s “charming bookstore and puzzle shop duo.”

The fairy lights between the buildings had become a landmark.

Customers showed Liza photos they’d posted online.

More than one had commented, This is the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.

And they weren’t wrong.

Meg started bringing Vivi by the bookstore every Saturday morning.

Vivi had named herself the Children’s Section Quality Control Officer and took the role with the gravity of a Supreme Court justice.

She rearranged the books herself by her own system, which seemed to be based on how good the covers looked, and then delivered her findings to Liza in weekly memos written on notebook paper in crayon.

And the tangram boy, Eli. Liza had learned his name the week after the festival when his mother brought him back.

Well, he came to the puzzle shop every Thursday after school.

Liza could hear him through the wall, peppering Grant with questions.

Grant had started teaching him crossword construction.

And the first crossword that Eli completed on his own had a theme answer of Seagrove and a clue that read:

Place where puzzles are not just for smart people.

Grant had framed it and hung it next to the W. Elliott crossword behind the register.

On a Friday evening in late summer, Liza and Grant sat on the porch step between their shops.