She laughed at that, then ran a hand through her long hair.
“Man, this place hasn’t changed a bit.”
I looked at her with surprise. “You’ve been here before?” I did my best to remember my customers whenever I could, but I couldn’t place her anywhere in the shop. Considering who she was, it wasn’t something I’d easily forget.
“It’s been a while,” she said, averting her gaze but not before I noticed the color on her cheeks. “My mom used to bring me here every weekend when I was a kid. I was allowed to get a new book so long as I kept my grades up.”
“Funny, you’d think she would’ve wanted you to read anyway,” I mused aloud, stepping behind the counter so I could open the box she’d brought with her.
“She did,” Cassidy said with a nod, “but at least with the good grades, I got to pick the book. Mom was more interested in long prologues and such like that. I was all about the fantasy.”
“Me too,” I said without a bit of hesitation. “It’s way more fun traveling to another world.” And now I sounded like a complete nerd.
If she noticed, she didn’t say anything. “Anyway, when I went off to school, the world got busy and…” She shrugged.
“I ran in and out of here so fast the other day, I didn’t give it a proper look.”
“It happens to the best of us. Let’s see,” I said, going through the contents of the box. “These are quite old.”
There was a worried expression on her face. “Does that mean you can’t sell them?”
“No, I can, but I want to make sure they aren’t something you’d like to keep.”
“If they were by Piers Anthony or R. A. Salvatore maybe, but I’m not really into that.” She wrinkled her nose, then turned on her heels to look around the store. “That wall over there is new,” she said, walking over to my top picks for the month.
“Those are some of my favorites,” I said, leaving the historical romances where they were so I could join her. “This one here was really good. It’s actually the fourth in a series but has a critical turning point. The rest of the series is really good. I read most of them in under a week.”
She took the book off the shelf and turned it over so she could read the back, talking as she did. “I always wanted a gig like this when I was a teen. I can’t tell you how many times I left my resume at some of the big chains. I never got a call back, though.” She put the book back and faced me again.
“It isn’t as amazing as you’d think,” I said, dropping my gaze before busying myself with a book that was fine right where it was. “I don’t get to read until I’m home for the night.
Working behind the scenes is a lot different than what we see as a kid. I still love it, but it’s also tough.” Really tough.
“How did you get the job?” she asked, offering me a small smile when I finally met her eyes. “I tried to get one here before college, but back then it was a family business. Is that not the case now?”
“It is,” I told her. “I was the owner’s daughter. One of them, anyway.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. I just thought that they retired.”
“He tried,” I said with a laugh, “but when you’re as passionate about your work as my dad, retirement means taking a few weeks off before going at it again. I finally got him to stay in the back when he got ill, but he never stopped coming to work, not even when the doctors told him to rest.”
“He lived by doing that he loved,” she said, her voice dipping at the end. “If only we could be so lucky.”
“What? To come into work in your pajamas and snore loud enough for the customers to hear?” I asked, smiling as I did.
She laughed. It was a full belly laugh and music to my ears.
“Man, the image you put in my head is just…” She shook her head, waving me away when I went to say something else that might send her over the edge again. “I remember this one time when we came in around Halloween. He put black paper over all the windows so it was super dark. He scared the crap out of me and my mom by coming up behind us with a wolf mask on.”
“Oh god, I remember that thing! It got quite scraggly over the years, but he still insisted on wearing it.”
“I haven’t laughed like this in… well, I don’t know how long. It feels nice. Thank you.”
“After my dad died, it took me months to feel like I could really laugh again. My sister begged me to close the shop and take a few days off, but I just kept coming, same as him.”
“That must be hard, working here I mean.”
“It has its good days. My sister wanted me to sell it, but I can’t let it go.”