Page 360 of Safe With You

He reached for my hand, his thumb moving across the back of it.

“You should be proud of yourself too.”

“I am.”

The answer came easily.

His eyes stayed on mine for a second before he nodded.

“Good.”

I looked down at our hands.

“They want to ask me about why I opened the store.”

“What are you gonna tell them?”

“The truth.”

“That you like telling people what to read?”

I laughed. “No.”

“Seems accurate.”

“I wanted somewhere that felt like mine.”

He got quiet.

I glanced at him.

“What?”

“I was listening.”

I settled farther into the couch.

“I don’t know what I thought it would turn into when I opened it. I just knew I wanted it.”

“And now?”

“Now Naomi thinks we’re famous.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

“I know.”

He waited.

I thought about the email sitting in my inbox.

About the store I’d unlocked that morning the same way I did every morning. The same shelves. The same counter. The same place I’d spent years building one day at a time.

“Now it feels bigger than what I imagined.”

“Good bigger?”

“Yeah.”