“Customer satisfaction is important to me.”
The door opened again before he could think of a flirtatious response—he never would have guessed they’d be this busy between tourist seasons—so he told her he’d let her know and nodded at the man who’d just entered as they passed.
When Preston paused in front of the window, though, and looked in, Zoe was looking out at him and he smiled as he walked to his car.
Chapter Four
“This is perfect,” Zoe said, holding her margarita glass up in front of her so the wooden railing of the Dock’s waterfront dock and the lake beyond served as a backdrop. It would make a great Instagram photo if she felt like digging in her purse for her phone.
“Considering we had to brush snow off the chairs, I’d go withalmostperfect,” Noah argued from the other side of the table. Carly was next to him, and the fourth chair sat empty.
It was just the three of them tonight, since their other friends had plans, but Zoe was used to being their third wheel. Noah and Carly had been best friends since infancy, more or less, and Zoe had tagged along with them when she came to stay every summer.
“It’s just a dusting,” Carly said. “And the important thing to remember is that, when there’s snow, there arenobugs.”
“Cheers to that,” Noah said, and then he downed the last of his beer. “Time for another round?”
“I’m good,” Zoe said, as did Carly.
As Noah went back inside to get another beer, Zoe watched her cousin watching her husband and felt a mild ache in her chest. They were so obviously in love with each other, and Zoe wanted that for herself someday. She’d thought she found it once, but she had to admit she didn’t think she’d ever watched her ex-husband the way Carly watched Noah.
When they were alone, except for a few other hardy people on the far end of the deck, Carly turned her attention back to Zoe. “Before I forget, you’re coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”
“Was that supposed to be an invitation, because those usually end in question marks.”
“When Grandad gave me the message to pass along, there were definitely no question marks involved.” Carly grinned. “Youarecoming to Thanksgiving dinner.”
While she didn’t say so aloud, Zoe had assumed she’d be joining them for Thanksgiving dinner, as she had last year. She still had a relationship with her parents, but they weren’t as close as they once were and it was going to be a while before Zoe stopped keeping them at a distance. They’d absolutely loved Ben, her ex-husband, which had seemed like a happy miracle once upon a time. But when the happily ever after came crashing down and she hadn’t been able to comfortably articulate her reasons for leaving him to her parents, they’d sided with Ben in the divorce. She’d watched them nod along to his claims she was just having some kind of a breakdown and she needed to get over it.
Thank goodness she’d trusted her gut and not caved to their pressure to start a family right away. Not having children with Ben enabled her to pack up and drive away from that life—and her parents—without looking back.
There were occasional phone calls and sometimes, especially around the holidays, she missed her mom and dad so much it hurt. But for the most part, being Facebook friends with them was enough interaction for her.
“And even though I’mreallytempted to keep this to myself and let it be a very amusing surprise,” Carly said, “I’m going to be a good cousin and tell you in advance that Grandad also invited his new tenant.”
“Preston?” Of course it was him. He was the only new tenant. “Why would Grandad invitehim?”
“Because he has no family in the area and you know how Grandad is. His door’s always open.”
“It’s a family holiday.”
Carly laughed. “Don’t even try to tell me you hold Thanksgiving up as some sacred tradition after you grumbled about having to make a book display for it because it’s just a turkey dinner.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
She hadn’t seen Preston, except from a distance, since he’d been in the store a few days back, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that. They’d made eye contact through the bookshop window a couple of times and he’d smiled, but she wasn’t sure if he hadn’t stopped in because he was busy or because she’d gone too far when she slipped the copy of one of her favorite very sexy romance novels into his bag.
“Why are you blushing right now?” Carly’s voice startled her, and she took a sip of her drink to buy herself a few seconds to come up with a decent fib. But her cousin leaned forward. “Why does talking about Preston Wheeler make you blush, Zoe?”
“Who says it has anything to do with him?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact it’s freaking cold as hell out here, but you’re definitely warm all of a sudden? And don’t even give me any crap about maybe coming down with something.”
Dammit, Zoe thought. Those were pretty much the exact words that were about to come out of her mouth.
“It looks like you have a thing for uptight nerds, after all,” Carly continued.
“He might not be as uptight as I first thought,” Zoe admitted. “And he apologized for his reaction to the window. And I apologized for taking the whole thing up a notch.”
