Just One Look (Castleton Hearts)

Mom called me that afternoon and she noticed the difference in me immediately.

“Your face is all lit up!” she said. “I love seeing that. Want to share with me why that is?”

She was needling me, and I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“Theo and I are kind of seeing each other. I think. We kind of haven’t talked about that part yet, but she told me she likes me and she showed me she likes me,” I said, totally gushing. “She’s so smart and so strong, and she pretends to be mean, but she absolutely adores her niece and her dog, and I can’t stop talking about her.”

Mom laughed. “She sounds like a lovely woman.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I like her a lot anyway,” I said, and we laughed together.

“Will I get to meet her when I come up?” Mom asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Things are so new. Really new. I’d like for you to meet her, but she has problems trusting people.”

That was going to make things difficult. Theo didn’t make the best first impression. We’d have to work on that.

“Well, I hope she comes around. I want to meet the woman who’s given my daughter the stars in her eyes.”

I blushed. “Mom, stop.”

“Never,” she said.

The next week with Theo was just a haze of sex and snuggling and jokes and missing her when we weren’t together.

I was so doped up from the sex that I could barely form a thought, and everyone noticed.

“It’s a really good thing I’m with you right now,” Paige said as I missed the entrance to the parking lot I was supposed to be pulling into for the second time.

We’d come to Arrowbridge, the town right next to Castleton which didn’t have a bookstore, and also had a space on Main Street for rent that might just work for mine. This was the third place I was visiting, and my hopes weren’t high. The other two would require too much work or hadn’t been suitable. This one had looked promising online and sat right between a pottery studio and a café, which was almost too good to be true.

As I locked my car, a message from the realtor I was meeting came in that she was here, and I could meet her in the front of the building.

“This is so cute, I never come over here,” Paige said as we walked from the lot down the row of shops and businesses including a bank, a hair salon, a gift shop and stationery store, a pizza place, and a clothing boutique on the other side of a pottery studio.

“It is really nice,” I said. There was tons of foot traffic and you could really feel the energy of the town, even though it was the middle of the day on a Thursday.

We met with Gail, the realtor, and she couldn’t have been nicer. She gave me a bright smile and a nice handshake and told me how much the town would love to have a bookstore, and how good the space would be for it.

Paige gave me an encouraging look as we stepped through the door and walked around. Sure, it wasn’t a large space, but that didn’t matter.

I knew, in my soul, that this was my place. The interior walls were beautiful brick, and there was a second story with the cutest little nook. There was also a large basement, and plenty of room for bookshelves. The bathrooms were large and well-maintained, and I couldn’t see any red flags.

“The owner of the building renovated it not that long ago. Someone was going to open up a record store, but the deal fell through, so now they’re looking for a tenant,” Gail said as we kept walking through the space. I didn’t want to seem too eager, so I made myself ask some questions, and so did Paige.

“There’s not a ton of interest, but I wouldn’t wait too long,” Gail said.

“Got it. Well, if you want to send me over the lease so I can take a look at it, along with the application,” I said.

“Of course, I’ll get it to you within the hour,” Gail said. Her phone went off and she gave us an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry, I have to take this. Look around and let me know when you’re ready.”

She went outside to take her call and I looked at Paige.

“You know this is it, right?” Paige said. “This is absolutely it. I had no idea this was even here.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s perfect. I’m not going to get my hopes up, though, because there are so many hoops to jump through.”

I made sure to take a ton of pictures of the space so I could get some feedback from other people and make sure that I didn’t just agree to the space without thinking it over.