approached, carrying an ice tea. Fred and Zeke thanked me for the cookies and went to find seats.
North was out of costume in the fancy jeans again—the kind that had gone through a bunch of processes to look soft and worn. This time he’d paired them with a pale blue dress shirt, worn out, and soft leather loafers with no socks.
It was hard not to be struck by his dark hair and rugged features. Several women recognized him and seemed to get all flirty. He knew how to play the game and flirted right back. It was fun watching their expressions as they walked away. They were giggling and talking and seemed awestruck. Had he come to see Stone? North didn’t look like a surfer, but then who knew.
Stone had come in and joined me at the edge of the crowd. He looked every bit the surfer with the khaki shorts, blue and white silk Hawaiian shirt and sandals. I had the feeling that was the way he dressed for every occasion. He had a backpack slung on his shoulder and took out a stack of brochures touting the coconut energy drink.
“Okay if I put these out,” he said, holding onto a handful. I said I’d put them out on the front table. We decided it would be more dramatic if he made an entrance after I did a few minutes on who he was. I noticed that North was staring at me. He waved me over.
“Now that you know, I need your help again.”
“Know what?” I said. Instead of an answer he pushed his cell phone in my hand and gestured for me to listen.
“Hello?” I said tentatively. As soon as I heard the “Mo—” of “Mother” I knew it was my son Peter. Not that I got a chance to greet him because he launched into a bunch of commands.
“You need to do the same thing with North. Take him home with you. Remember take Wells Drive. And don’t ask him any questions.”
Peter finally stopped to breathe and I said I couldn’t leave the bookstore. “I’m in the middle of an event.”
My son made a bunch of unhappy sounds and then asked to talk to the actor again. North listened and didn’t look pleased with what he was hearing. “You should really take better care of things,” North said. “This is the second time. There better not be a third.”
I didn’t want to be in the middle of any disagreement between my son and his client.
Peter and I had our differences, but I would still always take his side no matter what. North handed the phone back to me. Peter sounded tense and tired. “Mother, just do the best you can to keep him happy until I can get there. Please.”
North looked around at the decorations and chairs and asked what was going on. I told him about the book signing and surreptitiously waved Dinah over. Another fan approached North and I took the opportunity to tell Dinah the situation. She got Commander to join her and then they took over the care of North Adams. Commander was so good at handling people, I don’t think North realized I’d passed him off.
I was surprised to see Kelly’s husband Dan join the crowd. He stopped by to say hello to me, gesturing with his free arm toward the table setup. “I came to support Stone,” he said before taking a chair on the end of one of the rows. Did Dan have any idea a lot of people there were convinced he’d murdered his wife and was getting away with it? Or did he think this was a way to convince them that he didn’t kill her? Personally, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
The seats were really filling up. Mr. Royal watched with a pleased expression and nodded to Mrs. Shedd.
Sheila, our nervous Hooker, came up to me and greeted me with a hug. She glanced shyly to the side at the man with her.
“Nicholas,” I said in surprise. He owned Luxe where Sheila worked, but due to his successful writing career, was away a lot. He said something about being glad to support a fellow store before he and Sheila found seats. The way he touched Sheila’s back to guide her into the chair made me think there was more to this than just employee-boss. I hoped so because we all knew Sheila got gooey-eyed whenever she talked about him.
Our resident actress, CeeCee, had told me she couldn’t make