Page 5 of Christmas By The Book

She set about getting the other window set up, and I pulled up some Christmas carols on my phone, something to get us in the mood and fill the place with a little more life. And prove that this was far from an old-fashioned bookstore, like that Seth guy had said. I was sure he hadn’t meant anything by it, but the thought of a guy like that looking at me and my life as something that had come from another era? It didn’t sit right with me.

With Haley back in the store, I decided to get the star up on the tree, this time not trying to shuffle the ladder around while I was still on it. I wasn’t going to make that mistake again, not when I knew there was nobody here to catch me.

I could still feel his arms around me, how safe I had felt in his grip. Like I could have dropped from the sky, and he would still have been there to catch me, no matter what. Which was ridiculous, of course, because I didn’t know this man at all. He had just moved to town, and if he was new here, I would bet that he wouldn’t last long. Most of the people who came through Mastin Falls passed by for the festive season, when all the snow fell on to cap the mountains surrounding us and created a little picture-perfect Christmas wonderland. I was sure he would be gone by the New Year, so I wasn’t going to rely on him to keep me from any more mishaps.

I checked the shelves, making sure we weren’t short on anything, trying to keep myself busy as Haley filled out the other window with fake snow and fairy lights and a tiny little tree draped in baubles and sparkly knick-knacks. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her work. No matter what else was going on at this time in my life, I was always glad for the Christmas season. Even though it had just been my grandma and me when I was growing up, she made it so special for me, and I had tried to do the same thing as I had become an adult, too.

As I checked under the counter for some extra stock, I heard someone arrive. My head snapped up, but, when I saw who was making their way through the door, my heart sank. I recognized him at once, a stern-looking man in an expensive suit, his thinning hair brushed to one side to try and hide his incoming baldness.

Mr. Wharton.

Chapter Four

Jorja

THE MAN STRODE TOWARD the counter and nodded at me in greeting. I managed to put a smile on my face, even though I always felt utterly intimidated around him.

“Hello, Mr. Wharton,” I greeted him stiltedly.

He shook his head at me. “How long have we known each other, Jorja?” he remarked. “You don’t need to be so formal with me.”

“Sorry,” I muttered. It didn’t matter how long I knew him, I still felt as though he was looking down his nose at me. Wharton was the richest man in town by quite a stretch, and he walked into every situation acting like he owned the place. Which, to be fair, was true of a lot of places in Mastin Falls, but not of this bookstore, and I wasn’t going to start acting like it.

“I thought you would have known me better by now, Jorja,” he continued, leaning across the counter toward me and flashing me what he no doubt thought was a charming smile. I managed a grimace in return. He wasn’t a horrible-looking guy by any stretch of the imagination, but I had never been attracted to him. There was something about the way he carried himself that I found off-putting, like he thought the world owed him something and he would be pissed if he didn’t get it.

“I guess we just haven’t spent that much time together,” I replied swiftly, trying to cover up my disinterest. It was especially pronounced right now, given that Seth had just been here. Not that there was any comparison between the two of them, no, not in a million years.

I felt my cheeks start to heat again at the thought of the man who had been in there earlier. Oh, no .Wharton would probably think I was getting all flushed at his attempts at flirtation. Ugh! I didn’t want to get on his bad side, but at the same time, I had no intention of letting him think that I was in any way interested in him. Just because he had power and money, didn’t mean he could get anything he wanted from me.

“Was there something you were looking for?” I asked, gesturing around to the stacks of books surrounding us.

He followed my gaze, then snorted slightly. “I don’t have a lot of time for reading,” he told me, a condescending tone to his voice, like it should have been obvious. “But there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

He reached into the briefcase he had brought with him, and pulled out a manila envelope, pushing it across the counter toward me.

I picked it up, frowning. “What’s this?” I asked, flipping it over in my hands. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something told me that, whatever this was, I wasn’t going to like it.

“Just open it up,” he told me, jutting his chin toward the envelope and leaning on the counter. I wanted to brush him off my fresh-cleaned counter, but I knew he wouldn’t take that well.

As I opened it, he seemed unable to hold back, telling me what it was before I had so much as peered inside.

“I’m putting in an offer on the store,” he continued. The sinking in my stomach turned to outright sickness. This was what I had been worried about. He had been skulking around for a long time now, clearly looking for a chance to make his move and claim this place, one way or another. He wanted a monopoly on every place in town, probably in the run-up to Christmas so he could pull in some of that good seasonal money.

But there was no way I would ever part with this shop. It was the only legacy I had, a connection to my grandmother, and the thing that kept me tied to this town. If I lost it, what was the point of me staying here? What would have been the point of dedicating so much of myself to Mastin Falls?

I was about to hand the envelope back to him, when he cut in with another statement—a statement that made a cold shiver run down my spine.

“It’ll be a help for you in the long run,” he explained, grinning at me. “You’ll be able to pay all your taxes on that old house of your grandmother’s. And you won’t have to worry about keeping this place open any more, will you?”

My lips parted in shock. How did he know about that? I guessed he had fingers in so many pies in this town, it was natural that he would know what was going on with my bank account, that I had used so much of my savings to keep this place afloat.

This was a not-so-subtle hint that he was blackmailing me. Well, maybe that was too big a word for it, but that he was making sure I knew that he wasn’t just going to step back and let me turn down his offer with no follow-up. I didn’t know how he knew about my taxes, but no doubt he would up bring the fact that I hadn’t exactly paid them yet to the attention of the local council if I didn’t agree to go along with this horrible little plan of his.

“I’ll give you some time to look through the files,” he told me, waving his hand at the envelope in my hand. “Any questions, you can come to me, okay?”

“Okay,” I muttered. I was too much in shock to argue much with him, even though there was a voice in my head screaming at me to take him up on this. If I let him walk out of here thinking he had won, what then? Damnit, I didn’t even want to think—

“Good,” he replied. Then, with one last grin , he headed out of the store, striding with the confidence of a man who clearly thought he’d gotten what he wanted.