Page 25 of His for the Holiday

12

SUTTON

Ashbury Books had been in my family for over a hundred years. In the back of my mind, even while I’d been making all those other plans for my professional life, I’d always worried about what would happen to this place when my parents retired.

While I hadn’t planned to be back here, working with them in the store, I couldn’t deny that I was happy to do it. Not only had I always adored this place and had grown up here, but it felt somehow right, like I was finally accepting a legacy of some sort.

As I arranged a display in the window, my dad came back in after having been out for a quick errand. He smiled at me. “You didn’t burn it down while I was gone?”

I chuckled. “You came back too soon. I was looking for a match.”

To my surprise, I saw Hawk walking past the store as the door swung shut behind my dad, and I wondered if it was a coincidence. After what he had said to me about Hawk the other day, I knew he wasn’t the greatest fan of my rekindling my friendship with the guy, and Hawk had a very intense expression on his face as he strode past.

Curious and maybe even a little bit worried, I started moving toward the door to see if I could catch him, but my dad stepped into my path. “I need your help with something.”

I glanced at Hawk’s rapidly retreating back. He disappeared from sight and I nodded at my dad. Guess I’ll just have to find out later what happened to put that furious look on his face.

“Sure,” I said. “What do you need help with?”

“We need to, uh…” Dad glanced around before finally jerking his chin toward a poster on the wall for a reading that we’d had last week. “Those need to be taken down.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Right now?”

“Yep,” he said happily before hurrying into the back room.

I frowned after him, seriously suspecting it hadn’t been a coincidence that Hawk had walked past just after Dad had come back in—or that he’d looked so angry about something. Shaking my head, I went to take down the offending posters, all the while wondering what Dad might’ve said to Hawk. If they’d even spoken.

On the one hand, I knew Dad thought he’d grown up to be selfish, but on the other, I also knew that my dad loved him.

Hawk had been like a son to him at one point, and despite the time between then and now, those kinds of feelings didn’t just go away. I suspected it was more a matter of Dad being disappointed in Hawk rather than actually believing he only cared about himself.

From the sound of things, the Brunsons had been having a rough time of it lately and Hawk simply hadn’t been around. I understood why that would’ve disappointed my dad, but at the same time, he hadn’t visited me in Scotland—purely because he hadn’t liked my husband.

They’ll figure it out, I thought as I went back to my display after getting rid of the posters.

My day went by in a bit of a blur, but I enjoyed the work, interacting with the customers and the books, and even sipping coffee with Mom’s book club just before I went to collect Winnie.

When I got to the packed front lawn outside of Bayshore Elementary, I smiled when I saw Emery in the crowd. I wound my way through the other parents waiting for dismissal, smiling when I reached her.

“Hey,” I said as I took a spot beside her. “How are you?”

Before the question was even out of my mouth though, I realized she looked more frazzled than usual. Her hair was windblown, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes just a little bit too wide. She’d been typing furiously on her phone, but when she heard my voice, she looked up.

“Hey,” she said, her tone not unfriendly but definitely not as warm as usual. “We’re okay. How are you?”

“Fine,” I said cautiously, looking her over and wondering if this was about her father. “Are you sure you’re alright? No offense, but you look like you’ve had a bit of a day.”

She chuckled humorlessly. “All of my days these days are days.” She cringed. “Gosh, how many times can one person say the word ‘day’ in one sentence, huh?”

I smiled understandingly. “I get it. You’ve got a pretty full plate at the moment.”

“True,” she muttered, finally finishing on her phone and then drawing in a deep, calming breath before she focused on me. “There. That’s better. I’m going to throw that thing into the water one of these days. Or smash it on the deck of a tug.”

I grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

She sighed, her head shaking slightly. “I feel like people always think something is ‘that bad’ in my life. It’s not. It’s, uh, just a little bit chaotic. I’ve been trying to plan something for Thanksgiving dinner, but with everything going on with my dad, I’m honestly ready to throw in the towel and just order pizza.”

“Why don’t you come have dinner with us?” I suggested. “We’ll get our families together like we used to. The kids would love it and you know how much my mom loves to cook.”