Page 132 of The Overtime Persuasive

“I’m meeting Tripp.”

I glance toward the ceiling. “The man who lives upstairs?”

“Yeah.”

“And you decided the best way to meet him upstairs was to stand downstairs?”

Owen looks around the store. “He said to meet him here.”

“Did he mean here, specifically, or is this one of those situations where no one plans beyond the arrival, just a generic ‘meet here, we go there’ vibe?”

Owen chuckles. “Here specifically.”

“They’re here to meet me,” Liam says from the ladder. “We’re going to lunch.”

I look up. “Well, you’ve completed the one task I lured you here to do, so yes. You’re free to rejoin society.”

Liam cocks his head to one side and stares at me with so much love I almost combust with giddiness. “I thought you lured me here because you missed me.”

That man. I love him. “That too.”

Liam smiles as he presses the frame into place, but Owen has already wandered away from the counter.

I watch as he slows beside the romance display. As much as I want to, I say nothing. This is how booksellers handle hesitant customers. We remain calm. We give them space. We absolutely do not pounce the instant they touch a book…and ask what emotional wound they’re hoping to heal today.

Owen picks up a brightly colored edition of Pride and Prejudice, studies the cover, then turns it over to read the back.

Footsteps sound on the staircase leading down from the apartments. A moment later, the front door swings open, and Tripp steps into the store, slipping his phone into the pocket of his coat.

He takes one look at the book in Owen’s hand and nods. “Darcy and Elizabeth get together in the end.”

Owen slams it shut and puts it back on the display. “You spoiled it.”

“It’s a romance novel. The relationship is not the part in question.”

Owen stares at him. “You’ve read it?”

Tripp walks over, takes the book from the display, and flips through the first few pages. “Yes.”

Owen’s face is blank. “The whole thing?”

“No, I stopped eleven pages before the end and chose to live with uncertainty.”

I don’t even try to stop the laughter from bursting out of me.

“Okay, I read books, but,” Liam turns on the ladder, “that’s not one I’d normally pick up. Why did you read it?”

“Because it’s good.” Tripp holds up the book. “It’s a sharp examination of class, marriage, and the many ways pride disguises itself as good judgment. Darcy completely botches the first proposal, but secretly cleaning up the Wickham disaster is a first-rate grand gesture.”

For several seconds, no one speaks.

Owen looks at me. “Did you know this about him?”

“No, I did not.” I look around the room, making eye contact with Liam, then back to Owen. “Is anyone else having trouble reconciling this with everything we know about him?”

“I’m more than a man who knows how to play games on ice. I do have hobbies outside of the arena,” Tripp says, laughing.

“Hobbies are one thing. You sound like a college professor.” Liam climbs down from the ladder. “How did this happen?”