Bookish

Chapter 1

Independent bookstores—they’re important.

Big box stores sell books. The chain stores sell them too. Even grocery stores and convenience stores, but no one creates an atmosphere quite like an independent bookstore.

Within the walls of The Reading Nook in Pine Haven, Colorado, you’ll find my dream of a perfectly curated collection of books.

Though I’m a lover of everything romance, I appreciate every genre and every voice.

I want every reader that walks through my door to find something to satisfy their need for words.

Those who are bookish need places like this—like my store—like independent bookstores of all kinds.

I run my duster over the colorful covers of the romances that I adore.

Spines with bright colors, couples in embraces, illustrated covers that mask the true heat to the story within their pages.

However, the best part of a romance is that each one has a happily ever after or satisfyingly happy ending.

It causes me pause. My store is my happily ever after.

“The box is here,” Julia shouts across the store as she walks through the front door.

In her arms she carries an enormous, heavy box from Fitzgerald as it should be.

Finally, Julia picks up the cutter again and takes it to the custom Fitzgerald & Clark Publishing tape that seals the box she’d carried in.

Usually we get an assortment of books prior to release so that we can make informed decisions when purchasing upcoming books. But this care package is filled with items for the literary event.

Julia picks up the advance read copy of Noah Carter’s newest release, which, according to the email they sent me, will be launched here at the store.

Julia turns the book over and gazes down at the picture of the man on the back. “He is dreamy,” she says drawing out the words and I shake my head.

“He’s old enough to be your father,” I tell her and she shrugs.

“And the top actor on your hall pass list has always been Ed Harris, and ditto,” she says to me and my cheeks heat.

She’s right, and I can’t help it. There isn’t an Ed Harris movie I haven’t committed to memory and drooled over.

Even if he’s the bad guy, and he’s played his share, he remains on my list of people I’d give up anything to have just one night with.

As Julia holds up the book and begins to leaf through the pages, I study the man on the back of the thriller. I’ve never met him in person, though I once did have a rather brash exchange of emails with him.

When I was working a summer at my aunt’s bookstore in New York City, Noah Carter was supposed to have a signing there.

We’d sold hundreds of copies of his very first New York Times Best Selling novel The Winds of Death , and he was going to do a reading and stay to sign.

But, two days before the event, which my aunt had gone all out for because she was, self-proclaimed, one of his biggest fans, he cancelled.

I intercepted the email, and Noah Carter and I battled it out in a tangle of words via the internet.

The emails were curt, mean spirited, and filled with the kind of vulgar language that says the corespondent on the other end lacks education.

I know for a fact that’s not true, but that’s how I remember it. Noah Carter is a talented author, but I wouldn’t give him much more credit than that. As a well functioning human, he doesn’t make the cut.

Needless to say, the interaction left me a bit jaded.

I’ve read every one of his books, because he’s a hell of a writer and sells like gangbusters.

No bookstore owner would be crazy enough to not carry him.

But I have to wonder, what really goes on in someone’s head that only writes of conspiracy theories, terrorism, and death?

I mean, I’ve had to put the book down, sometimes hiding it in a drawer, before I can come back to it.

The details are so disturbing that I can’t comprehend what I’m reading.

How does someone who is a functioning human write such twisted things?

It all leads back to my point that he’s not a functioning human and he has no decorum when it comes to others.

The headshot on the back cover, however, does show off his best features. I won’t admit that to Julia, but she’s right, he’s dreamy, and more age appropriate for me to be gushing over.

Dark hair that is salt and peppered gives him a distinguished look, and dark eyes peer at you from the back cover as if they’re searching into your soul—perhaps looking for your flaw so he can dismember you.

There are subtle creases around his eyes that weren’t edited out, and a goatee frames a tight smile.

It’s enough to have me let out a little noise and Julie looks up at me.

“Is it any good?” I ask her, hoping she didn’t know what the noise was for.

“Do I get to read it first?” she asks.

“If you want to.”

She hugs the book to her chest. “So he’s really coming to that literary event?”

“He’s on the list, but don’t hold your breath.

” I expect that two days before he’s supposed to sign, he’ll back out.

I wonder what his excuse will be. Come to think of it, he didn’t give an excuse when he'd canceled on my aunt, and wasn’t that the start of the chain of emails that had left me questioning his character?

“Can you schedule me the night of his signing?”

I snort out a laugh. “You’re going to be on the schedule the whole week. Everyone will be.” I lean my hip against the front counter. “Do you have any idea how busy we’re going to be?”

Her young eyes go wide. “How big an event is this?”

“Look it up online. The resort will be sold out and so will most of the smaller hotels and private rentals.”

She mouths the word wow and I nod.

Julia takes off with the book still pressed to her chest and I pick up one of the other books from the box.

When the email chimes on the computer on the counter, I set down the books in my hand and click to the reader and stare at the incoming email.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I say clicking on the message.

To Whom it May Concern,

I am one of the featured authors for the Fitzgerald & Clark Publishing Book Affair Literary Event.

I will be coming in two weeks prior to the event next month to work on my newest manuscript.

The event coordinator, Katie Stevens, has informed me that your store is quaint and might be the right place for me to work while I am there.

I am inquiring about a work space, for me to rent while there. Please advise on the rental price.

Sincerely,

Noah Carter, Author

“You haven’t blinked in like three minutes,” Julia says, so I blink. “What’s wrong?”

“Noah Carter wants to rent space for a few weeks prior to the literary event—here.”

I don’t miss the grin that spreads across her face from my periphery. “He’d be here?”

Now I look at her. “He’s old enough to be your father,” I remind her about our earlier conversation.

“Yeah, but he’s just your age, or so,” she says laying his book on the counter, back cover up. “I heard that little sound you made while we were ogling his picture."

Shit, I didn’t think she’d noticed that.

“Are you going to rent him a space?” she asks.

“No,” I say quickly and Julia flinches.

“Why not?”

Oh, there are so many reasons.

“Where would I put him?” I look around the tight confines of the store.

“We have the reading nook,” she says pointing to the small alcove where we have oversized chairs for patrons to sit and read.

“I’m not displacing my customers.”

“The storage room?”

I snort out a laugh at that. “As if.”

“Your office?” she suggests, wrinkling her nose.

I look behind us at the door that is slightly ajar. My office is just that—mine. Not because I don’t want anyone else in there working with me, but because it’s that small.

“I don’t know,” I say and Julia crosses her arms in front of her and purses her lips.

“He wants to write his next book here. You can say that Noah Carter wrote his next bestseller in your store. It’ll be huge.

We can keep his picture on the wall with a plaque that says bestseller written at The Reading Nook ,” she uses her hand to imagine the sign like a marquee.

“Maybe you can even get him to do his book launch here.” She makes a little noise of joy, I assume.

“Oh my god, it could be the next big event to come to town. What if they make a movie in Pine Haven?”

I can’t help but snort out a laugh at that. “That’s a little far fetched.”

“Not so much. Terrorists Among Us was set in a small town and they made the movie there.”

I hadn’t paid too much attention to that. The book was fine, but seriously, I could only imagine the ego trip Noah Carter had to have been on to have his book made into a movie of that scale.

“I’ll think about it,” I say.

Julia picks up the book again and holds it to her chest, just as she had earlier. “You’ll do it. You can’t let it go now. You will only be able to think about him writing a book within these walls. It’s like your literary dream come true.”

I watch Julia walk away with the book and I look back at the email on my computer. It wouldn’t be the first book written within these walls, just the first book to ever be published.