The Bookstore on the Beach - Brenda Novak Page 0,46

on one of the empty shelves where they kept the special orders. “I’m glad she’s being cautious. I’m just shocked she didn’t tell me she had to go to Richmond. I would’ve come in earlier so that the two of you could go together.”

Laurie didn’t look up. If it made any sense at all, Autumn would’ve thought she was purposely avoiding eye contact. “I had too much to do here.”

So much that Laurie couldn’t have taken the morning off? “Then I could’ve driven her.”

After a slight pause, Laurie said, “She probably didn’t want to put you out.”

Autumn scratched her head. She wasn’t a friend or associate, she was Mary’s daughter. Could that polite turn of phrase—putting her out—even apply to her?

Or maybe she was the one who was out of sync. After all, she hadn’t slept well. She woke up every couple of hours, at which point she’d remember her exchange on Messenger with Quinn and wrestle with the old memories—the feel of the sagging couch they’d used in that tree house, the terrible heartbreak of seeing him with Sarah not long after, how he’d avert his gaze whenever he saw her from that point on.

He’d swum out into the ocean to save her a year later, when she’d faked drowning, but he’d treated her distantly, politely—as if they’d never had sex. Those humiliating memories meandered through her mind but also something else—fresh desire, which, when she did go to sleep, caused such odd dreams. In one, she was making love to Nick only to look again and find that it was actually Quinn.

Those dreams had been as disturbing and unsettling as they were disjointed. And then, when morning finally came and she’d gotten up, she’d had to worry about whether Taylor’s friend had been hurt by her own father.

Fortunately, that bit of drama resolved itself quickly. Although Taylor hadn’t immediately responded to her texts, she had indicated when she brought the car back that Sierra was all right.

Still, Autumn would’ve made arrangements to drive her mother, if only she’d been asked. It was unlike Mary not to mention that she planned to leave town, simply because doing so was such a big deal to her. “I wouldn’t have minded.”

The bell went off in the store. Since Laurie was busy, Autumn went to see who’d come in, but she returned after Devlin Riggs, the pharmacist in town, purchased the latest legal thriller and left.

“Laurie?” she said when Laurie didn’t look up as she leaned against the doorjamb.

“Yes?” Laurie replied, but not with any of her usual enthusiasm. For some reason, she seemed oddly subdued. Maybe she and Mary had had one of their rare arguments, and that was why Mary had left for Richmond alone, without saying anything about it.

“Is something wrong?”

Her aunt suddenly flashed her usual smile. “No, honey. Nothing’s wrong. Why?”

“You’re quiet today.”

“Just...busy. The website needs to be updated, so I’m trying to send the changes over to Caden.”

Caden had volunteered to update the website for them. He was so savvy on a computer, could do almost anything. But Autumn didn’t remember Laurie or her mother arranging a specific time with him. He’d already left for the day to be with his friends and probably wouldn’t get to the updates until later this evening, so Autumn didn’t see why Laurie would’ve stayed behind for that. “Did you tell him you needed him to do it right away?”

“No. I just thought I’d send them over while I had the chance,” she said as she continued to type.

Updating the website wasn’t an emergency, not if Caden wasn’t even going to get to it right away. But...whatever. “Aunt Laurie?” she said again.

“Yes?”

“Would you mind taking a minute to answer a few questions?”

She seemed almost...wary when she said, “About what?”

“About my father.”

Her fingers froze on the keys. “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about him. I don’t think I ever met him.”

Autumn had been tempted to ask Laurie about her father before, many times. But she knew Mary wouldn’t like her digging around in the past. Autumn didn’t want to dredge up anything her mother preferred to forget, but she had a right to know something about the other half of her DNA, didn’t she? Maybe her aunt could provide a detail or two. “But surely, as close as you and my mother have always been, she’s mentioned him.”

“Not very often,” she insisted. “I’m so much older than your mother that...that I was married and raising Jacob when she got pregnant. We