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Harlow gives a little cackle. "I knew it! And I can advertise this thing while I'm still laying in bed, so sure. I can do that. Let me get a cup of coffee and I'll organize it all. Text me the details. I'm on it." This time she really does hang up.
As Athena walks up to the front door of Fed Men Tell No Tales, she pauses to tap out a quick message to her sister:
Tomorrow. 10 am to 1 pm. Cookie decorating. Easy crafts. Holiday stories (Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever else I can think of...) Kids of all ages welcome. At the bookstore, obviously. Thanks!
She drops her phone into her purse and walks into the store, which is staffed by a single cashier up front and the owner of the store, Phyllis, who wanders the aisles constantly checking her stock, straightening cans and boxes, and occasionally belting out the words to the Christmas music that's playing over the store's speakers.
"Morning, Athena," Joe Youngblood says.
Joe has been the cashier since Fed Men opened up in the seventies, and pretty much everyone on the island thinks that he and Phyllis have something going, though Joe is nearly eighty and Phyllis would have been a pre-teen when her parents opened the store fifty years earlier. Athena had wrinkled her nose at this bit of gossip, but one time when she was looking for a box of cereal she'd spied Joe leaning over to kiss Phyllis in the cracker aisle, his stooped shoulders and shock of white hair making him look like somebody's great-grandpa. Still, they were cute, and Athena had kept the secret kiss to herself.
"Good morning, Joe," she says with a bright smile. "I'm looking for a bunch of crafting supplies."
"Aisle 6," Joe says without hesitation. That's one thing that can be said for Joe Youngblood: he has a memory like an elephant, and he never forgets a name, a face, an aisle where something is located, or what's currently in stock. "We have construction paper, scissors, glue, glitter, paints--pretty much everything."
"Thanks," Athena says, grabbing a blue plastic basket and putting it over one arm.
On Aisle 6 she loads up on as much of the art stuff as she thinks she'll need, then walks back to the baked goods, checking out the plain sugar cookies. On her way to the register, she grabs tubes of icing, jars of sprinkles, and bags of small candies.
"Find it all?" Joe takes the basket and starts ringing up the items.
"I'm going to need like a hundred sugar cookies for tomorrow--do you think I can order them or do you have any stock in the back?"
"We get the cookies weekly and they were just delivered yesterday, so these are pretty fresh. I think there are more in the back. Should I get a hundred ready and call over to the bookstore to let you know when they're ready?"
"Perfect." Athena swipes her credit card and lifts the handles of the paper bags that Joe has filled for her. "Thanks, Joe!"
This is a little crazy, Athena thinks as she walks back down Seadog Lane towards the bookstore.All of this to attract the attention of some guy I haven't even met yet?She almost wants to stop herself from throwing a giant event based on the half-cocked premise of impressing Elijah Hartley, but deep down Athena knows that this is the kind of event that will be good for her mother's business too. So even if her motives aren't entirely altruistic, there will still be an outcome that could potentially benefit people besides herself, which makes it okay.
The bookshop is quiet when Athena gets back and her arms are laden with paper bags. She sets everything on the front counter.
"Mom?" she calls out. Silence. "Are you here?"
Athena starts to unpack the items she's purchased, making stacks of things and picturing how she'll arrange the craft stations. She also needs to pull any children's books she can find that have to do with holidays, and consider how she'll fit in story time between cookie decorating and mess making.
"Hey, Mom?" she tries again, bending over to put her piles of supplies on the floor behind the front counter.
Athena stands upright, turns to the counter, and comes face to face with Elijah Hartley.
"Hello," he says in a deep voice with a British accent. He pulls his hands out of the pockets of his jeans and holds them up to show her that he's unarmed, presumably. "Sorry to frighten you. When you called out for your mum I didn't want to shout back in my deep man's voice and freak you out."
Athena smiles at him. Her heart is racing, but not because she's scared. "Oh," she says dumbly. "Hi. I'm Athena."
"Yes." Elijah glances around the store, nodding as he takes it all in. "I knew that." The morning light is spilling through the high windows on the sides of the store, which runs front to back like an old-fashioned shotgun-style house. There are three rooms in a row that house floor-to-ceiling books, items that Ruby Hudson has brought in and displayed from her life as First Lady, and lots of cozy shabby-chic furnishings.
Athena stares at him. "You knew who I was?"
"Sure," Elijah laughs. "Your dad was the president."
"And yours was a rockstar. Is a rockstar," she corrects herself, shaking her head.
Elijah laughs again. "Well, yes." He's looking at her like she's the most amusing person he's ever met. "Currently he's just a guy recovering from heart surgery, but I suppose most people know him for his music rather than for his bum ticker."
"I'm sorry," Athena says, looking at the counter. "I had no idea your dad had been ill."
Elijah is still looking at her when she lifts her gaze to meet his. "He's good now," he assures her. "And he and I are spending the holidays with my mum--she lives here on the island."
"Marigold," Athena says, nodding. "She's part of our book club. I love your mom."
