most important, do not let your attraction to him show. Men used that against you. But when she was with him in the office, his woodsy, outdoor scent filled the small space and he was hard to ignore.
Trying to let go of the issue until she calmed down, she went back to her favorite thing, the store’s rare book section, on the website. This was her creation when Finn decided she was old enough to take on a serious role here.
She’d been eighteen when she started working at Fitzgerald’s. She’d been a cleaner, a stocker, anything so she could be around books and make some money. In college, she majored in literature, then took two years to get a business degree. All the while she worked here. Eventually, she hoped to open her own store, but now, she was still saving money for a down payment on it. And she was still learning the rare book trade.
Two years ago, she’d applied for and gotten a grant given to women under forty to build up rare book collection. She’d poured cash and most of her time into Finn’s store.
At her bookstore flyers would be allowed in the windows.
Her phone buzzed. Glancing at where it lay on the desk, she didn’t recognize the number. “Millie Morrison.”
“Hi, Millie. This is Emerson Clark.” The manager of the soup kitchen she’d defended so vehemently to Finn. “I hope it’s okay to call you at work. I got your contact information from the volunteer sheet.”
“Sure. Is something wrong?”
“No, not at all. I was wondering if you could meet me for lunch somewhere between your work and the soup kitchen. I want to run some things by you. And, um, I’d like to get to know you better.”
Hmm, was he asking for a date?
“Sure. Where and when?”
This was fortuitous. Maybe Emerson could help her come up with some options for getting more funding.
Back at the computer, she clicked into a website of an elderly man in Utah who had collected books all of his long life and was selling some titles now. She discovered he put up two anthologies of Victorian poets, in perfect condition and signed, books she knew a patron of Fitzgerald’s would be interested in.
She phoned him and he gave her a definite yes. But since the books were over $5,000, she grabbed an authorization form from the drawer, scribbled down titles and added the seller’s information.
She went to the entry to the bookstore proper, and from the back, she surveyed the store. The interior of Fitzgerald’s was perfect. Since she’d worked here so long, she’d had a hand in its evolving décor.
In the remodel, he’d wanted the traditional books on each of the side walls. Between them she’d wanted S-curved shelving which she’d seen online. He balked at the shape, but liked her idea of moveable interior. When she drew out the floor plan, he saw that the curved front windows and the rounded endcaps, which he’d also picked out, would echo the S shape. So, he relented.
She remembered the two of them being here when they were installed and the fun they’d had over placement. Fun and some fights. Shaking off the reminiscence, she strode to the front and found Finn at a table in front of the right side of the store.
With one of his women. One of his older women. She recognized Sabrina Knight as the author of a very popular mystery series. She was a looker, too, with long blond hair, blue eyes and a Texas drawl. Fitzgerald’s was sponsoring a book signing for her over the weekend.
Millie crossed to them. Finn frowned. His eyes were so green sometimes they startled her. “Millie, is something wrong?”
“No. I’m sorry to disturb you two, but I want to buy some books that are over my limit. I need your approval. This is time sensitive.”
“Let me see.” He read the form. “Do you think you can sell these?”
“I called a customer. He said he would, but he’d have to see them first.”
“Then, go ahead.”
She was about to apologize for interrupting them, but didn’t. If she said she was sorry every time she did something to displease him, she’d be hoarse by the end of the day. Instead, she strode back to the office, bid on the books and received an acceptance in a half-hour. Then she phoned the customer for an appointment to come to the store later in the week.
At 11:30, she stood and went into the bathroom off the office. She carried a case. Once she closed the door, she untucked the red blouse so it fell over her black skirt and appraised herself in the mirror. She opened one button on top. Then she unbraided her hair and shook it out. She fluffed the locks out with her hands and it rippled down her back. She thought a lot about cutting it now that she was older, but she never quite got there. She smoothed on lipstick, then a bit of blush and was ready to go.
She called the front desk. “Hey, Judy, I’m taking lunch a bit early. I have a…meeting.”
“With who?”
“The guy from the soup kitchen I told you about. I’ll fill you in when I get back.”
“I’ll mark it down. See you soon.”
Millie exited through the back door of the store. And inhaled the early October air. She could breathe better outside, because in the store, Finn Casella seemed to suck up all the oxygen.
About the Author
* * *
A NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY bestselling author, Kathryn Shay has been a lifelong writer and teacher. She has written dozens of self-published original romance titles, print books with the Berkley Publishing Group and Harlequin Enterprises and mainstream women’s fiction with Bold Strokes Books. She has won many awards for her work: five RT Book Reviews awards, the Bookseller’s Best Award, Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year and several “Starred Reviews.” One of her firefighter books hit #20 on the NEW YORK TIMES list. Her novels have been serialized in COSMOPOLITAN magazine and featured in USA TODAY, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL and PEOPLE magazine. There are over ten million copies of her books in print and downloaded online. Reviewers have called her work “emotional and heart-wrenching.”
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