Chapter 1
Chapter One
R ose ran her fingers around the edges of her latest Criminy Mystery novel while she waited.
The squeak and scoot of seats being taken and murmurs amongst the audience filled the front section of Brick Wall Books.
Rain pattered on the storefront windows while she studied her book cover, marveling once more at the artist’s rendering.
A boy with straggly red hair and a girl with two black braids down her back perched on the branch of a tree.
Above them, on a higher branch, sat a raven.
From beside her on the makeshift stage, Alec Kincaid cleared his throat. She looked up.
“You ready?” His eyes held questions.
She glanced at her audience. Eight rows of middle-grade children sat on metal folding chairs between her and the new release tables. Every pair of eyes was on her, including the adults, waiting for her to start. Her stomach flipped.
He’d already introduced her to the crowd. She hadn’t noticed.
“I’m ready.”
“Good luck.” He stepped off the stage. He’d be nearby if she needed him.
With a nod in Alec’s direction, she read the first pages of her latest book aloud. Each of her words brought Ruby and Jed to life.
Within minutes, her audience sat on the edge of their chairs, their eyes and ears caught as she gathered them into her character’s latest adventure. Fingers trembling, she turned a page, the twist inside her loosening as she continued.
There were no whispers or mutters among those seated. Even the parents and guardians accompanying the children kept quiet. Not a fidget among them.
That was a good sign. She took a slow breath and continued.
With the turn of another page, the feel of paper beneath her fingertips became the texture of tree bark with crevices wide enough to stick her fingers in.
It had been some years since she’d climbed trees, but writing these stories, reading them aloud, made her remember how it felt to do so. A glance at the adults around the room told her they might remember, too.
As Ruby and Jed perched on the favorite branches of an oak tree with a set of binoculars, the very image the artist captured on the front cover, she ended her reading, setting the audience up for the next chapter. A warm feeling moved through her as she closed The Mystery of Lost Time.
The rain hadn’t eased. A gentle drumbeat tapped against the windows. Alec, the new owner of Brick Wall Books, appeared beside her once more, looking as transfixed as the children.
In a low voice, just for her ears, he said, “That was incredible.”
Then he turned to the audience. “Thank you all for joining us this evening. Let’s hear it for the first chapter of the latest Criminy Mystery by Miss Everson Briar.”
The children cheered. He cupped his hand over one ear and raised his voice. “I can’t hear you. I heard some of you think this is a library.”
The children stood, jumping up and down in front of their chairs. The volume of their voices tripled.
“That is more like it. Who’s ready to ask Miss Briar some questions?”
Hands raised.
Rose thanked all of them. She called on a tall, gangly boy with spiked hair in the back row.
“Which of the Criminy Mysteries is your favorite?” He spoke slowly, as if he were sounding out each word from a card he held in his hand.
She held up her latest. “ The Mystery of Lost Time .”
“Why?” he added.
“I climbed trees in the woods as a child. I forgot how much I loved it until I started this book.”
What she shared was the truth. Coming home to Evers Hollow two years ago, back to the house she’d grown up in, had sent her imagination into the trees, onto the forest paths of her childhood.
The boy gave her a thumbs up and sat down as she motioned to another child. A younger reader with light blonde pigtails and hot pink glasses stood up. “Why is there a raven on the book cover?”
Rose shook her head and laughed. “Nice try. You’ll have to finish the book to find out.”
The girl flopped into her seat with a frown.
“Anyone else?” A few hands went up.
Rose called on a redhead in the front row. She looked like a high-school student.
The girl stood, her posture ramrod straight, as if readying for battle. “Colette Cooper, Weekly Warbler, Evers Hollow High. Are Ruby and Jed getting married someday?”
Rose curled her fingernails into her palms. It never failed. This question was asked at every reading.
She forced a smile. “Ruby and Jed are eleven. They’re not old enough to date yet.”
The redhead folded her arms, glared, and spoke in a defensive tone. “I think they get married when they’re older.” She flipped her hair as she turned and sat down. Her statement caused a reaction. Some of the other girls nodded in agreement. A few of the boys scowled.
“What’s your next book about?” asked a dark-haired Black girl from the fourth row.
Rose winked. “A mystery.”
The children groaned. Pleas for hints followed until she held her hand up for silence.
“You are a fantastic audience. I love answering your questions.” Except for that romance one. “How about I share something from the next book?”
The room quieted. Many of the children leaned closer.
She said, “Ruby and Jed need something different for their next mystery.”
The questions came all at once.
“A real magnifying glass?”
“A ladder?”
“A metal detector?”
She held her hand up again. The sound of shushes filled the space.
Rose said, “Ruby and Jed need a sidekick.”
Exclamations burst out of the children. It took more than one effort to calm them back down. There were at least a dozen hands in the air. She called on a few.
“Is it a copperhead snake? Jed could carry it in his pocket.”
Another voice. “Or around his neck.”
“It’s not a snake.” A poisonous snake as a sidekick would not go over well with the parents of her readers. Many snakes in North Carolina were poisonous.
“Is it a dragon?”
She shook her head. Children often asked if she could add a dragon to her books.
A child off to the side with a tiny voice asked, “What about a bear? They like berries. I like berries.”
Rose couldn’t help but grin. “I like berries too. Blackberries especially. It’s not a bear, though. Ruby and Jed’s new partner is a dog, a brown one.”
As the children celebrated this reveal, her gaze connected with Alec’s. He held up two fingers. Time for one more.
She called on a young woman, perhaps a college student, who stood off to the side.
“How do you get your ideas?”
Rose rubbed her wrists together and tilted her head.
“I grew up with a forest behind my home. The trees were my playground. When I started college, my imagination returned to the forest. I started writing. Ruby and Jed’s stories came to life on the page. My dear friend, Mr. Munstead, encouraged me to publish them.”
A small whisper of a voice came from the front row. “Like magic.”
Rose smiled down at a little boy with missing front teeth and nodded. “It is.”
Alec moved to stand beside her and spoke again. “Thank you again for attending our book reading. We have a special treat for you. Miss Briar brought Ruby and Jed’s favorite mystery solving snack. If you could all make your way upstairs, we have everything set up.”
Excited voices and the scramble of footsteps up the staircase filled the bookstore.
With her fingers, Rose traced the threads of the new patch her sister Willow had sewn over the latest tear in her favorite tartan plaid skirt, a hazard of walking in the woods and working in the garden alongside her grandmother, Magnolia.
The patch had small pink flowers on it. Her fingers fluffed her long hair before she followed everyone upstairs to the coffee loft.
Halfway up, she pressed her hand against the infamous three-story brick wall that inspired the store’s name.
It felt cool against her palm, almost damp, like the weather outside.
She loved the bookstores she visited for her readings, but this one held a special spot inside her heart.
Brick Wall Books had been a treat to visit as a child. Magnolia made a point of shopping here for books back when Alec’s grandparents ran the store.
Rose moved about the loft, talking with her readers. A black pen stayed between her fingers so she could sign copies of her books as she wound through tables and chairs. Some children hugged her; others had more questions. She posed for photos when asked.
Alec made his way toward her from the other side of the loft.
He was an attractive, lean man with piercing blue eyes, dark hair, and a light amount of facial scruff.
Rose watched as he answered every question from each potential customer.
It was the way his grandparents ran the store. Since he’d taken over, he did the same.
He pushed his black-rimmed glasses up his nose when he reached her, a look of astonishment in his eyes. “I can’t believe you brought the actual cookies.”
She nudged him and smiled. “Only for your store, Alec. I’ve got a special bond with Brick Wall Books. I’ve told you that.”
“They’d never know the difference.”
“But I would.” She glanced around the cheerful space, at young faces with cookie crumbs stuck to the corners of their mouths. “That matters.”
“My gran is going to lay into me all over again.”
“Because your gran loves me.”
“And wants you to have her great-grandchildren.”
“That’ll never happen.” There was no regret in her voice. One date had made that clear.
“It’d be easier if it could.”
She shrugged.
He folded his arms, a serious expression on his face. “Someday, I want to meet Jed. Give him a solid fist to the face.”
She had to fight a smile. “Jed is an eleven-year-old fictional character.”
“Bull—”
She smacked him on the arm. “Language.”
He offered a quirky grin. “Like they haven’t heard it before.”
She lightly smacked his arm again.
An hour later, Rose rubbed the ink stains on her fingers as she waited for Alec to lock up the store.
They always went to dinner together after her readings.
The store smelled of paper and wood now that all the customers were gone.
Beneath the dimmed lighting, she could make out the comfortable chairs set throughout the first floor.
She heard Alec’s shuffling gait moving toward her.
“All set?” He jangled his keys while his fingers hovered over the final light switch for the downstairs.
Rose nodded and lifted her canvas messenger bag over her head and shoulder as they stepped into the night. Rain coated the sidewalks and streets.
Alec slung his arm around her shoulders as they crossed the road. “Tell me again why you won’t give us a second chance?”
“Because you can’t kiss worth a damn.” She poked him in his side. He flinched and let go.
“You’re the only one who’s complained. I’ve got skills and really long fingers.” He held up one hand to demonstrate.
She laughed and brushed past him when he opened the door into Mad Dogs Brewery.
A cheerful hostess bedazzled in suspenders and Hello Kitty badges seated them at a high-top table.
Steel-gray light fixtures lit the place.
A wooden bar ran the length of the closest wall.
Customers filled the row of round red barstools.
When the server came by, Rose picked a beer off the menu, along with chicken fingers and sweet potato fries. After her pint of porter arrived, she took an inch off the top of the frosty mug.
Alec said. “We’d be perfect together, Rose. An ideal relationship.”
She wished he would let this go. It was never going to happen. “Without love? Without chemistry?”
It was his turn to shrug. “Less complicated.”
She tapped one pink-painted fingernail on the table. “I told you—I want chemistry. I want love. Our one kiss said everything. We have no spark.”
“Damn. That’s not a cool thing to say.” He drank two inches off the top of his own beer.
“Not to mention—you’re chaos—how many piles of books do you have in your apartment now?”
He ran a hand over his scruff and narrowed his eyes. “Sixty-two?”
“Case closed.”
“I own a bookstore. I’m a writer.”
“Buy some bookshelves already.”
He stabbed a French fry in a circle of ketchup. “Fine. Tell me about Jed.”
“There is no Jed.”
“I’ll figure it out. Nobody writes stories like that without having inspiration from real people. Ruby is you through and through.”
She ate another chicken finger.
“What about your dedication in every book?” Alec said. “ For my best friend, a little boy who once thought girls were disgusting. ”
She may have growled at him. Her words sounded corny coming from his mouth. So what if she dedicated all of her books to the same person? The stories wouldn’t exist without him.
Her cell phone rang. A quick glance at her watch made her frown. It was after nine o’clock. She slipped her phone out of her bag’s front pocket. She sucked in a breath when she saw her phone screen.
Four missed calls. Multiple texts. All of them from her siblings.
Hands shaking, she slid off her chair and said. “I’ll be right back.”
Her fingers touched the screen to call her brother, Broome.
He picked up immediately. “Rose?”
“What’s wrong?”