I rolled my eyes and sighed. “It’s not a private room, it’s a study room, and you can see right into it through the glass windows.”
Brighton stretched up on her toes as if attempting to look across the entire bookstore and into the room. “Well, that’s a disappointment. Who is he?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
Brighton brought her gaze back to mine and tilted her head as she looked at me. “He’s cute.”
“Do you know him? Or I mean, have you met him?” I pushed off the counter and tried to busy myself with moving things around.
A smile formed on her face. “I bumped into him outside when he was looking down at his phone.”
“Oh,” I casually said, trying hard not to ask any questions, like does his body feel as solid as it looks? Did he touch you with his hands to steady you?
“I have to say, Greer, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tongue-tied before.”
I huffed. “I wasn’t tongue-tied.”
Candace walked up and laughed. “You were most certainly tongue-tied.”
Brighton pointed to Candace. “See, totally tongue-tied.”
“Did you need something, Bree?” I asked as I focused back on Brighton.
Brighton and I had never really been that close growing up. She was a few years younger than me and mostly hung out with Willa. I liked her a lot though. She spoke what was on her mind and didn’t play games. I honestly wanted to get to know her more one of these days.
She held up a book and grinned. “I picked up this historical romance, and I need book two. Like yesterday.”
And just like that, Brighton Rogers became my new BFF. “Oh, The Highwayman. Kerrigan Byrne is one of my favorite authors,” I said as I walked around the counter and through the bookstore to where the historical romance books were located.
“Why do you have all the good books in the back of the bookstore?” Brighton asked.
With a chuckle, I replied, “I have a pretty large collection of romance books, and I have a lot of little eyes in here. This is my adult corner.” I used air quotes around the word adult.
“I can see that,” she said, running her finger over the spines of the books as if she were getting ready to make love to them. I always knew I liked Brighton for a reason. “If you don’t have book two, I’m going to have to kill you.”
“No need,” I said, pulling The Hunter off the shelf and handing it to her.
A wide grin spread across her face. “How many books are in this series?”
“Six. I have them all in stock.”
Her eyes lit up and the corner of her mouth twitched ever so slightly. “Give me the rest of them. I already know I’m going to binge read them all.”
Candace walked up and leaned against the bookshelf. “You do know there’s this thing called an e-book.”
I spun around and glared at her. “Excuse me? You don’t say that in a bookstore! How many times do I have to remind you, Candace?”
With a half shrug, Candace winked at me. “If she loves the books enough, she’ll want the paperbacks anyway. Am I right?”
Brighton was in the process of pulling the rest of the series off the shelf and piling them up in her arms. “I can’t stand reading digital books. I like the feel of a real book. What else do you have for me?”
“Wow, are you planning on having some downtime?” I asked with a slight laugh.
Brighton shrugged. “My folks decided they needed to go on a cruise since Willa’s parents went on a trip to Italy. So they booked a two-week cruise around Europe. According to my father, they used up every single penny of their savings to go on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. It’s not true, of course, but that’s my dad for you. They’re leaving in a few days, and I agreed to play hostess at the bed and breakfast. I’m going to need a lot of good books, since I forgot my vibrator.”
I was positive my mouth dropped open just as widely as Candace’s did.
“Oh, I like you. Where have you been?” Candace mused.
Brighton winked at her. “Boston.”
Smiling, I folded my arms over my chest and sighed. “What must that be like, to spend two weeks traveling around Europe?”
Brighton returned my smile with one of her own. “I know. I’m happy they’re taking the time for themselves. I can’t remember the last time they took a vacation.”
We all stood there and nodded. Clearly we were all workaholics.
“Anyway, back to your question about more books. Are you new to this genre?” I asked.
Nodding, Brighton said, “Yes. Give me some good, sexy books.”
I nearly squealed with joy as I did a little hop. Historical romance was my favorite genre, so introducing Brighton to some of the books was going to be so much fun. “Oh, after you read this series, you need to read Tessa Dare!”