Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,75
in movies.”
She hadn’t thought she and Selena could possibly have anything in common, but maybe there was something they could connect on. If she wanted to connect with the star...which she didn’t. She needed to keep her alive, that was all.
Leslie cleared her throat. “We should get back. I should check in with Eoghan.” Not hearing from him in over twenty-four hours was starting to concern her. What the hell was going on back there? There hadn’t been any new updates on the news channels she was monitoring.
And just like that, the tension and stress erased by her photography session were back. She wasn’t on holiday and the brief respite she’d taken from her assignment was long enough.
Selena’s smile faded, but Leslie refused to feel bad. She was her bodyguard, not her friend.
“Yeah...sure. Hey, that Eoghan guy, are you two...?”
She wanted to say it was none of Selena’s business, but if she was relying on Eoghan to help them, Selena had a right to know Leslie’s level of confidence in him. “No... I mean not really. Nothing serious.” Especially not now. Whatever casual relationship she’d had with her co-worker had ended after the day before. She might not be sure of her feelings for Levi, but she knew the reason she was conflicted over him was because she cared. She couldn’t claim to have that with Eoghan. She’d known before that the relationship wasn’t going any further, and the previous few days had only confirmed that fact.
“I’ll be honest—the few times I’ve met him, I got a weird vibe...” Selena said.
Probably because he was one of the only men in the office who didn’t fall at Selena’s feet or ogle her. No doubt the star found that odd. “He’s just quiet, serious, more reserved.”
“If you say so,” she said as they reached the cabin. “But while we’re on the subject of your love life...”
“We’re not on the subject of my love life,” Leslie said. Selena had meddled in that area quite enough with the igloo dinner idea; Leslie didn’t need any more help nudging her and Levi closer together. As it was, they’d gotten far too close already.
Selena grinned as she shrugged. “Okay. All I’m saying is that that igloo looked pretty steamed up last night.”
She disappeared inside and Leslie took a final calming breath of cool mountain air.
How on earth had she gotten herself into this complicated disaster?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
LEVI KNEW EXACTLY where to bring the damaged photo.
Pulling his truck up in front of Flippin’ Pages bookstore on Main Street hours later, he took the plastic bag containing the picture and headed inside.
The door chimed as he entered and he scanned the interior. He’d expected the store to be quiet on a Thursday afternoon. In truth, like most independent bookstores, his grandmother’s didn’t get a whole lot of traffic anymore. But the store hosted many reader events, bringing in the local book club of thirty women every month, and it looked like Levi had walked into the middle of one of these events. Only there were a lot more than thirty women inside the store.
He scanned over the heads to see a table set up in the back of the room with a woman signing books. His grandmother sat next to her and prepared the next book for her to sign, opening to the signature page and asking the next person in line their name.
Even in her seventies, Meredith Grayson liked to run these events herself. An avid reader, she’d taught Levi to appreciate literature from a young age. When his friends were reading comic books, he was reading the classics and enjoying them—for the most part.
“Hey, Levi,” Callum McKendrick said, coming up to him, carrying another box of the author’s books. The twentysomething store clerk was a doppelganger for Clark Kent, with dark gelled hair, a strong jawline, muscular build and dark-rimmed glasses that only made him more attractive to the patrons of the store. His look screamed hot nerd.
“Hey, man,” Levi said. “Wow, I can’t remember the store ever having so many people in it at once.”
Callum nodded. “It’s our best reader event yet. Huge turnout. The author is originally from Wild River and she draws a great crowd whenever she visits.”
Apparently.
“What brings you in?” he asked, leading the way through the crowd toward the signing desk.
“Just here to see my grandma... But she looks really busy.”
She hadn’t noticed him yet, engaged in a discussion with one of the readers waiting in line. Her enthusiasm for books was