Chapter Six
Six
If there’s one thing small towns can’t get enough of, it’s gossip. The moment Melody made her very loud exclamation at the newcomer, every single person seated in the bookstore spun around to look at what was happening in the foyer.
This included Connor, the assistant, whose phone was pointed directly at the drama, and my own staff, who stopped in the middle of putting out more chairs to gape at Melody and the man.
Perhaps I should have intervened, but I was so surprised by her outburst I didn’t have time to react to it. She crossed the short distance between her and the man and jabbed a finger into his chest. “What makes you think you can come waltzing in here after what you did? We told you to stay out of this.”
My first thought was that I was witnessing some kind of lovers’ quarrel and this was Melody’s boyfriend. But the way she said we told you had me second-guessing my initial response.
Sebastian, who had been hanging around in the back hallway, came into the main part of the store, probably summoned by the yelling. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the man in the doorway. I shared a quick, nervous glance with Imogen, who just shrugged helplessly.
“Dude, you can’t be here right now,” Sebastian said. His voice was much calmer than Melody’s had been, but he was keeping his words as quiet as possible across the distance. There was no way the crowd hadn’t heard him, but I got the sense Sebastian was trying to limit the drama as much as he could.
“Can we just talk?” the dark-haired man asked. He was ignoring Melody entirely, his expression solely fixed on Sebastian.
“He doesn’t want to talk to you,” snarled Melody.
I didn’t want whatever this was unfolding at the biggest event of the year. I stepped between Melody and the new arrival. “Hi. I’m Phoebe, and this is my shop.”
“Oh, Phoebe, of course. I’m Deacon.” He shook my hand eagerly, as if there was no tension in the room whatsoever.
Ah, well, that explained some of the response I was seeing, but perhaps not the level of vitriol that Melody was wielding like a sharpened blade. Was Deacon trying to get his job back? I didn’t know what had happened with the work dynamic, but the pleading way he kept darting glances at Sebastian told me there was a lot that had gone unspoken.
“Look, Deacon, we’re just about to start the signing. Why don’t you have a seat in my office, and once everyone is gone, I’ll make sure you all have somewhere quiet to talk. I just don’t think now is the time.” I waved toward the large crowd, who were all staring at us without even pretending to hide their curiosity. I loved my town, but I did wish that sometimes, just sometimes, they pretended to act like normal humans.
Deacon looked like he might argue with me, and I didn’t need to check with Melody to assume she was twelve shades of purple. Finally, after an excruciatingly long moment, Deacon nodded. “Okay.”
I gave a wave to Imogen, who immediately knew what I needed. She guided Deacon through the center foyer, past the kitchen, and into my office. I turned and gave Melody one quick pleading glance, and though she looked furious enough to blow a blood vessel in her forehead, she just let out a huffy sigh and moved out of the way.
“Good afternoon, everyone! I’m glad our little show got your attention. I’m sure you all know that drama is the name of the game when it comes to going viral on social media, but our guest today managed to do it by simply looking outside his back window. On any given day you can see blue jays or crows in your very own backyard, having their own little fights like the one we just staged for you now, and Sebastian Marlow has made a career out of helping us understand what those avian squabbles really mean. So, without any further ado, the reason you’re all here today, Sebastian Marlow!”
I had no doubt that my little fib wasn’t fooling anyone, but I needed to say something , and it was the best I could manage under pressure. Whether they believed me or not, the crowd applauded wildly, whistling and cheering as Sebastian moved down the aisle to where one of the big armchairs at the front of the room was waiting.
Janice Delaney, the leader of our local nature club—who knew we had such a thing?—had been kind enough to volunteer as the coordinator for the Q and A and conversation session before the signing, which was probably for the best, since I couldn’t tell a purple finch from a pine siskin to save my life.
Things went without a hitch through the chat, but just as Janice was about to turn things over to the audience for the Q and A, Sebastian raised a hand to silence her midsentence.
“Janet, I really wanted to thank you for such a thoughtful discussion.”
Janice’s mouth formed a thin line, but she didn’t correct him about her name, even though I could tell she was dying to.
“But before we go any further, there is something I need to confess.”
A collective gasp ran through the audience, and I cast a worried look at Melody to gauge her reaction to this statement. Her eyes gleamed, and all the former rage in her expression was replaced by something akin to giddiness. Whatever Sebastian was about to say, she was not only prepared for it but also excited. Perhaps this was the thing she’d been hinting about yesterday when she said Sebastian was going to put Raven Creek on the map.
“You see, I have my own reasons for wanting to come to your town that had nothing to do with signing books—not that I’m not excited to sign your books.” He let his megawatt smile travel the room so everyone in the audience felt like it was solely for them. “Even tomorrow’s hike is just an excuse for me to get out in your pristine wilderness. Friends, what I’m about to tell you could change amateur birding forever.”
Everyone leaned forward, and I hated to admit it, but I caught myself holding my breath. He just had a captivating presence in front of an audience. No wonder he’d amassed such a big following online. His charm radiated with every smile and wink.
“I have been looking for a bird believed to be extinct for over fifty years, and my research had led me to your town. I believe that the Pacific tanager might be right in your very backyard.”
Janice, who had been listening to this speech, interjected. “Do you mean the western tanager?”
Beside me, Melody scoffed loudly. Sebastian was more polite in his response. “A close relative, but no. The Pacific tanager was thought to be extinct since 1957. I’ve been tracing potential sightings of it for most of my career. I believe it is here, and if it’s not the Pacific tanager, it could quite possibly be an entirely new tanager subspecies.” Sebastian said this as if announcing he was going out looking for Atlantis in our mountains.
Everyone listening cooed and clapped appropriately.
“Do you think we might find it tomorrow?” one of the women in the audience asked.
“If the weather favors us, I think we could get lucky. I’m hoping so, anyway.”
I grabbed one of the Sibley field guides we’d needed to relocate from the signing table. We’d put up a new display of more generalized birding and natural history books on the main foyer table, so it was right next to me. I flipped through to the tanager section, because I had no clue what he was talking about. A stunning array of small birds greeted me; some were black and yellow, some blue and green. The western tanager was one I actually recognized. It was a bright-yellow bird with an orange-and-red face, and I’d seen them in the trees behind my house before. They weren’t birdseed birds, but sometimes I’d spotted their cheery feathers at one of my suet feeders.
These birds were simply stunning. I could see the fascination with wanting to find a new one, or one previously believed to be extinct. It would be huge news in the birding community, not to mention an incredible feather in Sebastian’s professional cap. Pun not intended.
Melody hadn’t been kidding about it putting us on the map. Raven Creek was already a huge destination for birders, but with a new—or newly rediscovered—species in our very backyard, we’d see a ton more people coming through during the season, hoping to spot it and add it to their life list.
I set the bird book back on the table. Janice was taking more questions from the crowd and Sebastian was wooing his audience, but things were beginning to wind down. The signing table was prepped and ready, with Daphne standing by carrying a fistful of extra Sharpies just in case Sebastian needed one.
Seeing that everything was going beautifully, I ducked down the hallway to my office, hoping to get a chance to ask Deacon a few questions while Melody and Sebastian were distracted.
But when I opened my office door, Deacon was nowhere to be found.