Page 2 of Christmas By The Book

“You’re young, too, Jorja!” she reminded me, raising her eyebrows. “Look, I know you inherited this place from your grandma, but that doesn’t mean you’re as old as her yet!”

“I know, I know,” I replied, shaking my head. She was right. My grandmother, Maria, had run this shop for years, all the way through my childhood, and she was the person I looked up to most in the world. After my parents had passed away, she had been the one to raise me, and it had been a no-brainer for me to take over the shop when I was old enough. She had practically raised me between these shelves, and I wanted to keep her legacy going, no matter what.

“She’s the one you got your name from, right?” she remarked.

I shook my head. “No, it was my great-aunt,” I corrected her. “She was half-German. That’s why the spelling is so funky.”

“Yeah, when I first saw it written down, I had no freaking idea how to pronounce it.” She laughed. “I was so worried, coming in to interview with you, I thought I was going to screw it up.”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t be the first one,” I assured her. “I try to tell people it’s just pronounced like Georgia, but people still get it wrong all the time.”

“It’s a unique name, at least,” she replied. “Not like Haley. I feel like I’ve met fifty Haleys at college already, it’s ridiculous.”

The two of us chatted a little about what was going on with her college courses. I tried my best to keep up with what was going on in her life, enjoying the stories she shared with me of her college experience. I hadn’t gone to college myself, getting all the training I’d needed from my grandmother when I was growing up, and sometimes I wondered if I had missed out. I had lived in Mastin Falls for my entire life, and I felt like getting out into the world a little might have changed my opinion on some things.

But hey, I was happy enough here. Why try to fix what clearly wasn’t broken? I didn’t intend to let myself get distracted by everything else going on in the world. Not when this store needed all the help it could get.

As Haley chatted about her college courses, I hoped she hadn’t clocked on to the fact that things hadn’t... exactly been going well here lately. People purchased books online now, and it was harder to shift them in person than it ever had been before. We’d only had a couple of customers in today, and I hated the thought of what that might have meant for our bottom line this month. She had to pay her college expenses, and the last thing I wanted was to have to let her down. Even if paying her wages this month was going to be tough.

Haley checked her watch and pulled a face. “I need to get going if I’m going to make it to my class on time,” she told me apologetically.

I smiled at her. “Yeah, you said you needed to clock out a little early today,” I reminded her. “It’s fine. I can handle everything else.”

“You sure?” she asked. “I can always stop by after my classes if you need any more help.”

“I’ll be fine, Haley, really,” I assured her.

“Okay, but as long as you don’t do all the Christmas decorating without me,” she warned, flashing me a grin as she went into the tiny breakroom to grab her coat. “That’s the best part of this time of year.”

I planted a hand on my chest like I was pledging allegiance.

“You have my word,” I promised her. “No decorations until you’re back.”

“Thanks!” she called, as she headed to the door. I heard the bell chime as she headed outside, the sudden quiet of the bookstore filling my ear—what I wouldn’t have given for just a few more customers right now.

I sighed as I leaned my head into my hands. Soon. People would start coming more often soon. I had to believe that.

And I had to believe that I was going to be able to pay Haley’s wages when the month ended. Because I couldn’t expect her to work here on good faith only, even if the money was starting to dwindle dangerously low.

Chapter Two

Jorja

“HEY, HEY, HONEY,” I cooed to Mia as I stepped through the front door, pulling off my jacket and leaning down to pet my Maine Coon, Mia. She was a rescue, the runt of her litter who had been dumped in a shelter. When I had seen her, her sweet little tufted ears and her white ruff, I had known at once that she needed a home with me.

But, tonight, as I stooped down to give her a cuddle, she just squeaked at me and then led me toward her bowl next to the door. I sighed. There I was, thinking I was getting a nice welcome from my little girl, and all she cared about was getting fed. I should have known better.

I went to grab her a packet of wet food and emptied it into her bowl, rubbing my hand over her little head as she scarfed it down happily. She’d had to take a downgrade in her food recently, due to the financial troubles at the store, but she would have eaten pretty much anything I had put in there. She would be fine.

But I was more worried about the store, and how I was going to keep it afloat. It had been a rough year, and I knew I couldn’t let the store slip through my fingers. It was the one connection I still had to her, the one place I still really felt connected to her.

Which was a little strange, and I knew it, given that I was living in her house. I had grown up here, and, after she had passed a few years ago, it had been a no-brainer to stay here. It was a little too big for Mia and me, if I was being honest, but I didn’t give a damn. I wasn’t leaving this place. It was my home.

Though it had been hers, too, I always pictured her in the bookstore. The Mastin Bookshelf, that was what she’d called it, when she had opened it all those years ago – she had been a much younger woman then, and she had constantly found herself running short of stuff to read. Once, when she was complaining about it to her husband, my grandfather, he had suggested that she open a place to keep herself and other people stocked, though he had mostly been joking, she had taken the suggestion, and bought an old store to fill up with books and magazines and everything readable.

I felt a pang in my chest as I sank into the seat closest to the window in the living room, the one that looked out over the street beyond. The nights were really starting to draw in now, and it was already getting dark. I knew I should have been getting something to eat, but honestly, I didn’t really feel like having anything.

It was hard to muster up much of an appetite, with everything that had been going on lately. I knew my grandmother would have been gutted if she had known what was going on with her store, and there was a part of me glad that she hadn’t lived to see it go downhill. But I was sure she would have come up with some way to make money, some way to rescue it. She had always been smart like that.