Page 54 of Safe With You

“It’s the gallery from Tuesday. I want time to actually look through it.”

She glanced around the bookstore. “Looks like you’ve got time.”

I followed her gaze.

For the first time all afternoon, the shelves had gone quiet. A man sat near the front windows with a paperback open across one knee, and two teenagers whispered to each other near the young adult section, but neither looked like they needed me.

Naomi slid the finished latte toward the woman waiting at the café counter, then wiped her hands on the towel tucked into her apron.

I pulled my laptop onto the counter.

“Happy now?”

“Ecstatic.”

I opened my inbox, found Ellis’s email at the top of the screen, and clicked it.

Luna,

Thank you again for trusting me with the event. The full gallery is linked below. You should be able to download both high-resolution files and smaller versions for social media.

I included a separate folder with a few of my favorites, but everything is yours to use.

Let me know what you think. If it’s easier, feel free to text me with any questions about the gallery.

Ellis

236-874-8335

The message was simple. Professional. Exactly what I should have expected.

Still, I read it twice before tapping the link.

A black screen loaded first, followed by the Chapter & Charm logo and a photograph of the storefront beneath it. The gold lettering across the window glowed beneath the streetlights, and through the glass, rows of people faced the small stage we had pieced together near the back of the store.

I hadn’t seen the building from that angle that night.

I hadn’t had time.

While everyone else arrived, settled in, ordered drinks, and found their seats, I had been moving between the register, the café, and the stage, checking off tasks in my head faster than I could complete them.

But in Ellis’s photograph, none of that showed.

Chapter & Charm looked warm. Full. Alive.

“Oh,” I said quietly.

Naomi came around the café counter. “Move.”

“There’s an entire counter over there.”

“And the pictures are over here.”

She squeezed in beside me, smelling like vanilla syrup and coffee, and rested her elbow on the counter while I opened the first folder.

The opening shot was of the crowd before the event began. People stood between the shelves with drinks in their hands, leaning into conversations with strangers. The next showed Mr. and Mrs. Williams seated in the second row, her head tipped toward his while he whispered something that had her trying not to laugh.

There was Rachel near the side of the stage, gripping her pages with both hands.