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As if they could sleep tonight. Her brain wasn’t going to settle easily.
“Why don’t we go for a walk?” she suggested. “We both need to get some fresh air.”
“Lucy, you are a genius.”
They both put their shoes back on, and Lucy grabbed her keys from the foyer table as they went out. It was a cool evening, the breeze soft on their skin. They walked for a long while, simply holding hands and not speaking. The quiet was a balm to her soul, and she let it wash over her, reveling in the deep peace.
There were few lights on as most of the town was asleep. Even the downtown area was quiet with only Tate’s open at this hour. Jane had shuttered the bookstore earlier and all the lights were off.
That was Lucy’s favorite time, right after she closed and locked the doors. She’d curl up in her office in the backroom with a box of newly released books and peruse them, looking for her next read. There was a sense of continuity that she hadn’t examined all that closely, only knowing that it made her happy and content. New books arrived every week, and it always made the world seem fresh, as if anything could happen.
Maybe that’s the optimist in me.
They paused at the door of Tate’s. She could hear the music from inside, the evening still young in the establishment. They’d be open until two in the morning.
“We can go in if you want,” she said, still holding his hand.
He was quiet for a moment but shook his head.
“No, I don’t want a bunch of people around when I talk to Tate.” He pulled his phone from his pocket. “And I haven’t heard from Cooper and Frankie. I think you’re right. They need some time. I’ll speak to them tomorrow. We can plan what we’re going to do.”
They walked a few doors down to her bookstore, and Zack stopped in front of the big window display of books.
“You must be proud of what you’ve built here.”
“I am,” she said, a smile blooming on her face. “You should have seen the store when I first bought it. Dusty, moldy, and rundown. I can’t even express how much elbow grease was involved in getting it ready to open. I can’t take all of the credit, though. My dad helped with some of the carpentry, but I had to learn quickly how to stain wood, paint walls, and caulk trim. The day we opened, I sat in the back room and cried for about ten minutes from sheer joy that it had happened. It’s a feeling that I’d never had before working in a big corporate environment. To them, I was just a cog in a wheel. Here I’m the whole wheel.”
“And you love books.”
“I do. I was just thinking about how I love going through the boxes of new books when they arrive. There’s nothing like that new book smell.”
“What about a new car smell?” he joked.
“Books are better. You can hold them in your hand. I have several boxes waiting for me tomorrow. I can’t wait to go through them.”
“We’re here,” he replied. “We can go through them right now.”
He wanted to look through boxes of books? Now?
“Are you sure?”
“Frankly, anything that can get my mind on something else is welcome as hell.”
“I can’t argue with the logic,” she said, fishing in her pocket for the keys. “Let’s go inside. But I’m going to leave the lights off until we get into the storeroom.”
Lucy didn’t want people to think that the store was being robbed, although she wasn’t sure what kind of robbers would turn on a light or two. Still, she didn’t want anyone to worry, including any deputies who might be driving by during their rounds.
Using the light from her phone, they were able to easily navigate their way to the storeroom in the back of the store. She closed the door behind her and flipped on a few desk lamps. There weren’t any overhead lights back there, but that was on her list of improvements for the future.
“It can be dusty,” she warned, keeping her voice low. There wasn’t a need to whisper, but for some reason it felt like the thing to do. She owned the store, for heaven’s sake; they weren’t sneaking in behind someone’s back and would get in trouble for it. “I try and keep it clean, but boxes seem to bring dust. I’m not sure how that works.”
She was a bit uneasy for him to be in the storeroom to begin with. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t normally have people back here except for employees. She had a cold cup of coffee on her desk that she’d abandoned earlier in the day, along with papers and pens scattered around. To her, it looked lived-in and cozy, but Zack might have a far different opinion.
“How do you keep track of all the inventory?” he finally asked. “I just assumed that most of it was on the sales floor.”
“I wish my shelves were larger, but they are what they are. We keep everything in alphabetical order by author’s last name. The shelves are marked, and we organize the books as we unpack them.”
It was kind of a silly conversation to be having, but he seemed genuinely interested, walking around the shelves stacked with books.
