really what had kept the store open so long. Engage her in a conversation about one of her favorites or a hyped upcoming release and she could talk for hours.
Callum set the box down under the signing table and checked his watch. “We’re about to break anyway. The author needs a cigarette—it was one of the conditions of her signing,” he said with a laugh. “Can you stick around for a bit? I’ll tell Meredith you’re here.”
He should get back to the cabin and he definitely was not avoiding it, but this was important. “Great. Thanks. I’ll just wait in her office,” he said. He weaved his way through the crowd and into the back hall, leading to her office.
Ellie Mitchell collided with him as he opened the door. “Whoa... Sorry, Ellie,” he said, catching her before she could come up short on his chest. At five-foot-nothing, with her girl next door looks, it was impossible to tell she was almost thirty.
“Levi—hi!” she said, her smile bright as she hugged him quickly. “Nice to see you.”
“You too,” he said. Ellie had been the manager of his grandmother’s store for the last ten years, after her mother retired from the job. A total bookworm with a passion for old books that rivaled his grandmother’s, Ellie was the perfect person to run the store day-to-day. The weekly book club and frequent author events had been her idea and it had definitely saved the store from having to close years earlier.
“You here for the signing?” she asked, blowing her wispy light brown bangs off her forehead. She showed him the cover of a fantasy novel featuring a dragon and a woman in metal armor wielding a sword. “It’s already a New York Times bestseller.”
“Actually I’m just here to see Grandma. Callum said she was due for a break in a few minutes,” he said, taking a copy of the book anyway. He liked to support the store and its authors whenever possible...and he was there to ask his grandmother for a favor, so the least he could do was buy a copy.
“Yeah, feel free to wait in here. I’ll tell her you’re back here as soon as she’s available.”
“Thanks, Ellie,” he said as she closed the door behind her.
Levi breathed in the familiar scent of the office. So many afternoons had been spent there, doing his homework and reading while his grandmother worked in the store. As a teen, he’d stocked the shelves and cleaned the store... It had been a second home.
He scanned the cluttered bookshelf of his grandmother’s own collection, running a finger along the spines. All the classics she’d made him read and literature featuring Alaska or its authors held those coveted places on her personal shelf.
His gaze fell to a picture of him and his father hanging on the wall above the bookshelf. His father was in his military uniform. It was the day before he’d officially left Levi in his grandmother’s care. Of course, Levi hadn’t known. He’d thought the situation was temporary...but he’d long forgiven his dad. There was no point holding grudges and he was happy that they hadn’t had any conflict or bad blood between them before his father died six years ago from a heart attack.
He stared at his own young, smiling face. To anyone else, it was just a nice father/son photo but Levi recognized the internal conflict in the boy he was then. Moving around a lot had a way of making him feel unsettled all the time. No real roots had ever been set down until he’d come to live in Wild River.
And even then, he wasn’t sure if the town would have felt like home without Leslie and Dawson. And now neither of them were there.
He didn’t need to dig too deep to know that moving again would be something he’d consider for the right reason...or right person.
The office door opened and his grandmother entered. Wearing her usual smock that read “I put the ‘lit’ in literature,” one pair of reading glasses hanging around her neck, another pair of bifocals holding back her long gray hair, she was the picture of a bookseller. “Hi, darling...” She gave him a quick hug and immediately went to her Keurig machine to slip an Earl Grey pod in to brew. “You picked a crazy day to visit. I only have a few moments,” she said.
He didn’t take it personally. His grandmother’s life revolved around the store and while they loved one another, they