Page 27 of Then Came You

“Don’t care. Even if I wasn’t a cop, I’d still love pumpkin spice donuts.”

“I guess we’ll have to serve them at the shop, then.”

“If you do, I’ll be forever indebted to you.”

“What about the cider mill? Do you like to go there too?”

“Of course. It’s a Michigan tradition. You can’t live here and not go to the cider mill.”

“I agree.”

“Luckily, there’s one nearby.”

“Do you mean Diehl’s Orchard?”

“Um-hmm. Maybe we could go there together sometime. You know, to uphold the tradition and all.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Another outing?”

He shrugged. “I’m willing if you are.”

“It could happen.”

He smiled, satisfied that she hadn’t said no.

“There’s also a fall festival coming up downtown. Doesn’t the police department usually have a booth at that?”

He didn’t ask how she knew—it was because of Owen. There’d been an opportunity for her to bring him up, but she hadn’t. Of course, neither had he. He felt lucky she’d sort of said yes to another outing, and he hadn’t wanted to risk her backing out.

“Yes, and I’ll be working at it. Will you have a booth too?”

She nodded. “We won’t be selling books there, but people can enter drawings to win some, and we’ll be handing out free bookmarks and stickers to the kids.”

He noticed how excited she got whenever she talked about the store, and he was glad she had something she was passionate about.

“Have you always loved books?”

“Um-hmm. Even before I was old enough to read. I used to love listening to my parents or grandparents read me a story. Once I learned to read, I was unstoppable. I used to check out ten books from the library at once, even if I didn’t have time to read them all. I just liked knowing they were there.”

“Kind of like a security blanket.”

“Yes, and they still are. No matter how bad things get, I can always escape into a good book.”

There was another opportunity to mention Owen, but Sam didn’t seize it. He liked listening to her talk about her love of books and watching her eyes light up as she did. It might have been selfish, but he didn’t want to be the one to extinguish that glow.

“You probably feel similar about fishing.”

“True. When I’m out on the water, casting my line, I don’t think about anything else except catching a fish. All my troubles disappear out there.”

“I have a confession to make.”

He glanced at her and waited for some big revelation.

“I’ve never been fishing.”

He laughed. “You mean to tell me that with all the lakes around here, you’ve never been fishing?”

“That’s correct.”