The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,41

so that he’d move on and she would no longer be tempted.

I didn’t mean to be rude. Surely you know how good-looking you are. A guy like you could have almost anyone. It doesn’t have to be me.

You said it’s been nineteen months since your husband went missing.

And...?

A year and a half is a long time, Autumn.

He could still come back, she insisted once again, even though she’d pretty much decided that wasn’t going to happen.

In the meantime, there’s nothing wrong with us being friends, is there? Why don’t we go to dinner, just to have a night out and forget about our problems? Nothing more serious has to come of it.

I can’t. I don’t think I’m ready—even for that.

I see. No problem. Have a good night.

A lump rose in her throat when the green dot signifying that he was online disappeared. She told herself that she’d done the right thing and should feel satisfied, even proud. She’d resisted the boy she’d once made a fool of herself for—the boy who’d been irresistible to her.

But she didn’t feel good in any way. She had to get off her computer before she wrote him back to demand that they meet this very minute so they could fall into bed and get so caught up in each other that nothing else could register. She was so tired of the heartache and the loneliness she’d carried around like a ball and chain for the past year and a half that she was looking for any kind of release.

“Don’t even think about it,” she mumbled and put her computer away before climbing into bed, pulling the covers high and praying for sleep to overtake her.

* * *

Taylor couldn’t sleep for most of the night. She tossed and turned and dreamed about the fight she’d witnessed between Sierra and her father. So she was relieved when she finally saw the first rays of sunlight glowing around the blinds in her room. Thank God it was morning.

She made herself stay in bed until she heard Mimi putting on a pot of coffee in the kitchen. Then she went into the bathroom to shower. Because Mimi would soon need to get ready for work, she’d have to be quick, but the alternative was waiting until her grandmother was finished, and she knew she’d never have the patience for that.

“You’re up early,” Mimi said, understandably surprised when they passed in the hallway as Taylor, wrapped in a towel, relinquished the bathroom.

“I promised my friend I’d come over as soon as her father left for work.”

Steam from Taylor’s shower curled around Mimi as she paused outside the door. “Which friend?”

“Sierra Lambert.”

“You should bring her by the bookstore sometime. I’d love to meet her.”

“I will,” she said, but she didn’t have any real intention of doing that. She was afraid for her mother and grandmother to see Sierra’s piercings and tattoos. She wasn’t sure how they’d react. Her mother was cooler than most parents, but Autumn was still a stickler on making good decisions and hanging out with the right people, and Taylor didn’t want Autumn or Mimi to jump to conclusions based on Sierra’s appearance.

Although she could’ve poured some coffee into a thermos and taken it over to Sierra’s from the pot Mimi had put on, she stopped by The Coffee Bean on her way over and purchased two soymilk lattes instead. She’d earned a little money helping at the store last Saturday and wanted to get something she knew Sierra would really like.

She’d texted Sierra several times and received no response, so she had no idea what she might find when she approached the house.

Fortunately, Sierra’s father seemed to be gone—she didn’t see his car in the drive. Although they had a garage, it was filled with a motorcycle, various car pieces and parts, tools and boxes of storage—so much stuff that no one could park in it.

She rang the doorbell, but no one answered.

Her stomach in knots, she was just backing up to take a look at the house to determine which window might be Sierra’s when the door finally cracked open and a sleepy-eyed Sierra squinted out at her. “Hey, what’s up?”

She seemed to be wearing a spaghetti strap top and a pair of panties, but she was mostly hidden by the door so Taylor couldn’t tell if she’d been hurt. “Are you okay? I’ve been so worried about you.”

She shrugged as though what Taylor had seen was nothing, which came as a relief, except that