Starfire (Peaches Monroe #3)(73)
Author: Mimi Strong

“Hi, boss! I’m Laura,” she said. “I would have waited for you, but I still had my key, so I hope you don’t mind. I called Adrian and got the alarm code. He said to say hello if you showed up.” She swept a little more, stirring the dust mostly into the air. “Adrian said to go get you a mocha if you didn’t already have one in your hand, so I’ll just go do that.”

“Interesting.”

She handed me the broom, then disappeared up the street.

I walked into the store, surprised to find three—no, four—customers browsing the books. They seemed to be shopping independently, which meant either our new location was going to be much better for business, or I was about to get flash-mobbed.

I darted back out the door and looked around for people acting suspiciously. Was there a flash mob waiting in the wings? The mailman waved, but that was it. Everything seemed normal enough.

I went back in and stood in the middle of the new store for a minute, feeling awkward. Everything looked perfect and organized, the way it had been on Friday.

Except for a few balloons tied to the tops of bookshelves, nobody would ever guess the store had only been open since Saturday.

Good job, Adrian.

The customers were browsing fine on their own, so I made my way to my spot behind the counter and dumped out the pens from the tin, to give them a good sorting.

Ten minutes later, Laura returned with two takeout cups, including a mocha for me. And a gingersnap cookie.

“Laura, I love you already,” I said.

Yes, things were going well.

Adrian thought he’d pull one over on me by hiring some woman without my permission, but I wasn’t going to freak out.

Laura and I talked some more throughout the day, and I learned she’d been an employee of Black Sheep Books until about a year ago, when she couldn’t stand the owners anymore. She did, however, love the books and the customers, and had brought her resume in on Saturday to give to Adrian. He hired her on the spot. On Sunday, she came in and trained to learn the point-of-sale software, and now she was mine. All mine.

Having a full-time weekday employee made me giddy… until the end of the day, when I closed up the cash register.

The sales for the day were up twenty-two percent from a typical Monday that time of year. That was good, but not amazing. We seemed to be busier at the new location, but not enough to justify two weekday employees. Sure, the sample size was small, but the writing was on the wall.

I didn’t say anything about my worries to our new employee, who looked so happy, and had been friendly and helpful with customers all day.

Either Laura or I would have to go.

I was getting married to a wealthy actor, whereas Laura was a single mom with two teenage boys.

She needed the job more than I did. She wanted the job, whereas I simply had the job and kept showing up.

Thinking about my future, I felt like I was up in a plane again, and everything below me seemed small in the distance.

We locked up for the day, and I told Laura I’d see her Tuesday.

Then I started the long walk home. I could have taken the bus and saved myself a couple of miles, but I had a lot of thinking to do, and I always think better when I’m walking.

I was a third of the way home when my senses tingled that I was being followed by a car. I whipped around to see a German Shepherd, wearing a cone around his neck, hanging out of a car window. He had the dog equivalent of a giant grin on his face.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Adrian called out from the driver’s seat.

I kept walking, because I still had a lot of thinking to do.

“You hate me that much?” he called out. “I hoped you’d be happy that I hired Laura to help out for a few weeks, so you could do all the wedding stuff.”

“You told her it was only a few weeks? By the way she was talking, she must think the job’s hers permanently.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.” He waved for the car behind him to go around, and continued to roll along slowly next to the sidewalk while I kept walking. “Is this it? You hate me now? Because if you hated me, things could get less complicated.”

“Maybe I should hate you. You’re a billion times better than me at running the bookstore. It took you less than a month to improve the business more than I did over the years I’ve been there.”

“I’ve got a brain for spreadsheets and a body for sin. Hop in. I’ll take you home, or anywhere you want to go.”

I looked back at Cujo, hanging out of the back seat’s window, his tongue lolling out happily.

“Hey, hero dog,” I cooed at him. “I’m sorry you have to wear that plastic thing, buddy. Think of it more as a Cone of Pride.”

“If you want to thank Cujo, get in and we can take him to the park with the pond, where he can terrorize the ducks.”

I stopped walking, and the car stopped. Adrian leaned over and nudged open the passenger door.

The truth is, I didn’t want to talk to Adrian.

I wanted to get a big eraser and scrub away everything that had happened in the last few weeks between us, so we could go back to just being friends. My adolescent crush on him was cute, in retrospect. Messing up each other’s lives and feelings wasn’t cute. Having innocent people (and dogs) get hurt in the process that wasn’t so cute, either. I wished I could take everything back.

CHAPTER 34

Instead of saying those things I felt and being honest, I climbed into the car and said, “Laura’s a great hire. You did the right thing.” I fidgeted with the seat belt. The damn thing was made for the skinny Storm family and cut into my belly and my feelings. “Fucking seatbelt,” I muttered. “Fucking world. Fucking small chairs and small clothes and f**king inadequate seat belts.”

I tossed it aside, the buckle banging the leather interior and leaving a scar before the belt retracted.

Rubbing the scratch with my fingertip, I apologized to Adrian, the car, and Adrian’s mother.

Cujo began to howl miserably in the back seat.

I turned to Adrian. “What’s wrong with your dog?”

“He howls when people are in distress. He’s very sensitive to emotions.”

“Awesome,” I said flatly. “Now I’m causing emotional distress to your dog, on top of nearly getting him killed.”

“Are you having a bad day?”

“I don’t know. I’m all mixed up.”

“Mondays.”

I took a breath and looked around. We were heading away from the town center, in a direction I didn’t usually travel.