Chapter Four
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Shane stood there, his eyes wide, as if Jenna had just told him their bookshelves were actually made of chocolate and he could take a bite out of one any time he wanted. “What did she say when you told her?”
“I haven’t told her.” Jenna grimaced as she shelved a new order. “It wasn’t really the right time to. Plus, I have to live next to the woman, so starting a fight with her on day one didn’t seem like a great idea.”
Shane tipped his head one way, then the other. “I mean, I get that. Don’t you think it’ll come up, though? Eventually? Even in just casual conversation?”
Jenna shrugged. “Not necessarily.”
“Really?” He changed his voice so it sounded softer and more feminine. “So, Jenna, what do you do? Oh, I own a bookstore. Really? That’s so cool. I write a book blog. I have thirty thousand followers, if you can believe that. What’s your bookstore like? Maybe I can give it a shout-out.”
Jenna frowned as she met his gaze across the shop. “Okay. Fine. I just…” She dropped her head backward and groaned. “Of all the houses in the entirety of Northwood, she has to move into mine? I mean, what are the freaking odds?”
“It’s a crazy coincidence, that’s for sure.”
She’d managed to mostly avoid Sawyer Hall for the past couple of days, largely by not being home, which she felt guilty about, given how Wallace and Gromit looked at her with their sad kitty eyes every time she grabbed a jacket.
When she was home, she’d stayed inside, watched as a new bed had been delivered, then a very nice rocker that found a cozy spot on Sawyer’s side of the porch.
It was going to be hard for Jenna to sit and read romance in her favorite spot in the world—her loveseat on the porch—if her romance-hating neighbor was going to be out on the porch as well.
As soon as she had that thought, she’d get mad at herself for thinking for even a second that she needed to tailor her activities to be approved by or to avoid completely her new neighbor.
But then she’d think about the kind of conversation they might have or the disapproval in Sawyer’s eyes, and the whole train of thought would circle around and begin all over again.
She was driving herself bonkers.
A trio of women came into the store in that moment and yanked her out of her internal merry-go-round of thoughts, thank God.
She couldn’t be wasting her time ruminating over Sawyer Hall.
There was work to be done, readers to guide, and books to sell.
And nobody was going to make her feel weird about her love of romance novels.
Two nights a week, she closed, and tonight was one of them, so she did her usual run home in the early afternoon to let Arnold out and give all the animals some treats to tide them over, since dinner was going to be late that night.
One of her brothers could usually help in a pinch, but tonight, the animals would be fine.
The day went well, business stayed steady, likely due to the lovely early-fall weather.
It was warm and breezy, and that seemed to be enough to coax people outside to wander around Jefferson Square.
The more foot traffic, the more customers moseyed into BookLove.
By the time Jenna turned over the Open sign, her feet were sore, her eyes were tired, and all she wanted to do was curl up on her porch with her dog, a glass of wine, and a good book.
When she turned into her driveway, however, the first thing she saw was Sawyer Hall sitting in her rocker, her feet up on the porch railing.
With a sigh, she exited the car and headed up the steps.
“Hi, neighbor,” Sawyer said, looking at Jenna through her black-rimmed glasses.
“Hey,” Jenna said, shuffling her keys in her hand, looking for the right one.
“Good day?”
“Not bad. You?”
“Same. Always happy to get out of my work clothes, though.”
She was being friendly, nice, and Jenna had not been raised to be a rude person.
At the same time, she wasn’t prepared to get into the “what do you do?” conversation.
Not yet. She was too tired. “I totally get that,” she said instead.
“About to do that myself. Have a good one.” With that, she headed inside and closed the door behind her.
With her back against it, she blew out a long, slow breath.
Arnold didn’t let her peace last long, putting his paws up on her legs, and she squatted down to greet him.
“Hi, handsome,” she said quietly, scratching behind his ears. “Ready to go out?”
As Arnold wandered the back yard, she got dinner ready for him and the cats, then poured herself a glass of Chardonnay. Once Arnold came in, all three animals got dinner, and she stood in the kitchen, sipping and watching them, her heart filled with so much love.
“Who needs a woman?” she said softly to the empty room. “I’ve got my boys. I’m good.”
Upstairs in her room, she changed out of her jeans and sweater and into joggers and an oversized hoodie—her favorite one, washed and worn soft.
She clipped her hair up into a pile, and when she came downstairs, she tried to be subtle about checking the front porch.
To her relief, Sawyer was gone, so she grabbed her wine, a book, and a fleecy blanket off a chair and put them all outside on the porch.
In the coat closet, she kept an adjustable baby gate, so she pulled that out and put it on the porch, across the opening to the steps.
This way, Arnold could come out with her and not wander off the porch into the yard or street.
She dragged his donut bed out as well, and soon, the two of them were settled in nicely, Jenna on the loveseat and Arnold giving the entire porch a good sniff-down.
The book she was reading was a new romantasy—which was a genre she wasn’t quite used to but found herself enjoying very much—and she was three chapters in when the door next door opened and Sawyer came out.
Jenna quickly turned the book so the cover couldn’t be easily seen and was immediately irritated at herself.
“Well, hi there, buddy.” Sawyer scratched the dog’s head as she glanced up at Jenna. “Arnold, right?”
Jenna nodded, feeling an unreasonable sense of betrayal from her own dog, who clearly wanted to be friends with the new neighbor.
Sawyer was dressed nicely in a black casual dress and a jean jacket over it. As if reading Jenna’s mind, she said, “Not gonna be able to get away with this jacket for much longer.”
“It’ll be cold before we know it,” Jenna agreed with a nod, tearing her gaze away from Sawyer’s bare—and very shapely—legs. Then she noticed the gate. “Oh. Let me get that.” Book set down, she opened the gate, keeping Arnold back with a foot, and let Sawyer off the porch.
Sawyer turned back and Jenna saw those blue eyes through the lenses of her glasses. “Thanks.”
“Sure.”
Halfway to her car, Sawyer stopped and turned back to her. “Oh. I wanted to apologize for my mom and sister taking up the whole driveway.” She grimaced. “I didn’t realize it until I saw you parked halfway down the street.”
Jenna waved a hand. “No worries.”
“Okay.” Their gazes held for a beat before Sawyer gave one nod. “See you.”
Jenna replaced the gate, sat back down, and watched as the Honda Accord backed out of the driveway and coasted away down the street. The whole time, only one thought rolled through her head on a loop: Why did Sawyer Hall have to be so fun to look at?
“Am I late?” Sawyer said as she reached the table where Courtney sat. She bent and kissed her sister’s cheek, then sat across the little round table from her. Courtney already had coffee and an empty plate, a crumpled napkin and a smattering of crumbs littered the space in front of her.
“No, no, I was early.” Courtney scowled. “And starving. So I didn’t wait. Sorry, Charlie.”
Sawyer laughed. “Don’t apologize. Pregnant women never need to apologize.” She indicated the empty plate with her eyes. “I’m gonna get something. Want more?”
“Yes, please.”
Sawyer laughed. “You got it. Be right back.”
A few minutes later, she returned to the table with her own latte, a bacon, lettuce, and tomato panini for herself, and a chocolate croissant and a cranberry scone.
“You decide if you want the croissant or the scone.”
“What if I want both?” Courtney asked with a grimace.
“Then you eat both. There are more. I’m not worried.”
They dug in.
“How’s the new place?” Courtney asked through a mouthful of scone. “All unpacked?”
Sawyer nodded. “I think so. I have a few boxes of miscellaneous stuff that I have to figure out what to do with, but for the most part, I’m settled. Did my first load of laundry yesterday, and that went well.”
“That was one of your big requests,” Courtney said with a chuckle.
“Listen, I am thirty-eight years old. I refuse to lug my dirty laundry to my mother’s house like I’m a freshman in college.”
“I know. You’ve said that exact line to me, like, fifty times.”
Sawyer grinned. “ ’Cause it’s the truth.”
Courtney studied her face, something she always did before she was about to broach a difficult subject, and Sawyer felt herself automatically bracing.
“And how are you?” It was a simple question, but Courtney put an emphasis on it that meant it was serious.
She tapped a finger against her temple. “How are you here?” Then she tapped her chest, over her heart. “And here?”
Sawyer chewed a bite of her sandwich as she thought about her answer. Courtney was the one person in her life that she’d never, ever lied to. Not since they were kids. “I’m doing okay,” she said, and she meant it. “It’s hard. Not gonna lie. But I’m hanging in there.”
“Have you heard from her?”
Sawyer sighed. “She called the other day. Wanted to know my new address.”
Courtney’s eyes widened. “You didn’t give it to her, did you?”
“No. I told her she couldn’t have it.”
“Good. The last thing you need is her showing up at your door and doing her best to reel you back in.”