Lucy changed into her new clothes in Juanita's changing room (a converted closet). Eren didn't know anything about women's clothes, but when she came out, he felt that she looked somehow much moreherthan she had while she was wearing his sister's cast-offs. She had picked a pair of tight jeans with embroidered birds and flowers, and a cream-colored blouse with a wide edging of bright tropical flowers around the hanging bottom and the loose, flowing sleeves. It somehow managed to look bright yet classy.
"Oh, you've got a great eye for this kind of thing," Juanita told her. "Your style is fantastic. Come back anytime. And let me know when would be a good time to get together on the spa thing!"
They left with Eren carrying the bags.
"These are so much easier to walk in," Lucy declared, doing a kind of little tap-dancing step in her new flat shoes. "Everyone here is so nice. Including you! Eren, thank you so much." And with that, she hopped up on tiptoe and planted a kiss on his cheek.
Her lips brushed his skin, and it was as if an electric spark jumped between them, a powerful bolt of shared energy.
Eren turned his head and met her lips full on.
Lucy gave a little gasp and then sank into the kiss.
She was as luscious to kiss as she looked. He was gone in a moment, losing himself instantly and utterly in the sensual heat of her mouth and the feeling of her body pressed against his. Eren wrapped one arm around her back, pulling her closer. Her mouth opened and she made a tiny, wanting noise as he drew her into his arms.
And then she pulled away with a small, dismayed cry.
Eren let her go immediately. The bags had fallen to the ground. He picked them up, looking at her.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, no, it's just—" She touched her hand to her lips and fell silent.
She's been through a lot,Eren reminded himself. Holding the bags in one hand, he rested his other hand against the small of her back. She leaned into it, giving him a little relief that he hadn't pushed too hard, too fast.
"Bookstore?" he asked.
"Bookstore!" she exclaimed, relieved.
The bookstore, Bayside Books & Lending Library, was in an adorable green-and-blue building with sculpted gargoyles all over it. Even Eren, who was used to the gargoyles all over town, thought it might be a bit overdone. The two flanking the door had come with the place, but the others were all new, an entire flock of stone gargoyles peeking out of the flowerbeds and crouching to look over the eaves.
If the gargoyles really do have protective magic,he thought,this is the best-protected house in town.
But it would have to be, because the woman who ran it was the niece of the town's rumored actual gargoyle.
The door had a sign shaped like a gargoyle and a little bell that tinkled when Lucy opened it onto an interior that was packed with books. She let out an audible gasp of delight. A dusty book smell wafted out. Eren was not really a book person any more than he was a clothing person, but as before, he found himself caught up in Lucy's visible happiness. She looked like a kid in a candy store and immediately started pulling out books, filling her hands with them.
"Oh, hi!" a voice called from deeper within the store. A moment later, a tall young woman appeared. She was dressed in librarian-style clothes—a long gray skirt and a brown cardigan—with her hair pulled back in a braid. There was a striking splash of color in the baby wrap she carried; it was a woven woolen front-carrier, holding a small baby tucked up against her chest.
"Hi, Jess," Eren said. "This is Lucy. She wanted to see your bookstore."
"Oh, baby!" Lucy exclaimed. "Is it a boy? Or a girl?"
"A boy," Jess said, smiling. "His name is Rhein." She pulled down the woven flap of the carrier, and Lucy promptly went into raptures.
Eren wasn't immune to the appeal of a baby this small and cute, either. Jess and Reive's baby was tiny and adorable, with a complexion a few shades darker than Jess's cream coloring and a tuft of dark hair on his small round head.
"Oh, Eren, could you do me a favor?" Jess asked. "I don't like climbing on the stepstool with Rhein in the carrier, and I need to get some things down."
"Ma'am, you can count on me," Eren promised.
Jess fetched the stepstool from the corner, and soon Jess, from below, was talking him through picking out the exact boxes of books she wanted. Meanwhile, she and Lucy appeared to have bonded at the speed of light and started talking about babies. When Eren looked down, the women had their heads together over the baby carrier.
"I never really was around babies much as a kid," Lucy was saying. "I don't have brothers and sisters, and I hardly ever even got to babysit because most of my mom's friends had—um—didn't need that. But I love babies a lot."
"Do you want kids?" Jess asked.
Eren's bear was also pressingly curious.Cubs?