Page 78 of Safe With You

“We’re updating the pictures,” I said. “Storefront, café, shelves, staff. Luna.”

Naomi looked at her. “Obviously Luna.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Luna said.

“You own the bookstore. Why wouldn’t you be in the pictures?”

“That’s what I said.”

Luna looked between us. “You two have known each other for five minutes.”

“Some things don’t require time,” Naomi said.

I laughed.

The front of the store suddenly felt a lot less quiet than it had twenty minutes ago.

And somehow, I didn’t mind.

Naomi stayed long enough to give her opinion on a few of the ideas before finally carrying her bag behind the café counter to start opening for the day.

Luna shook her head as she watched her go.

“She’s been like this since college.”

“How have you survived?”

“Barely.”

“I heard that,” Naomi called.

“You were supposed to.”

The lights over the café came on one section at a time. Luna checked the time and pushed her chair back.

“We open in about ten minutes.”

I glanced at the corner of my screen.

9:50.

We’d been talking longer than I’d realized.

“I can get out of your way.”

“You don’t have to.”

The answer came quickly enough that I looked at her.

She seemed to realize it too.

“I mean, we haven’t finished,” she added, gesturing toward the laptop. “Unless you need to get to the studio.”

“I’ve got time.”

“Okay.”