LITMIR.BIZ

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his sales were for credit. Or, in the case of Zeb Shackleford, free.

      Laura didn’t mind David giving so many books to the precious older man, but she didn’t understand how he could continue running this business with virtually no income. And then this morning he’d given her a paycheck for her first week of employment, and he’d paid her well. Nothing excessive, but more than she’d expected considering the fact that he let her rest whenever she needed, let her go to her doctor’s appointment yesterday and told her she could arrive late and leave early if she felt weary from the pregnancy.

      But with the lack of customers and income that Laura had seen this week, she had no doubt David wasn’t making enough money to support the store, much less to pay Laura as though everything were a-okay, hunky-dory.

      And something else that wasn’t a-okay or hunky-dory was the fact that her good-looking and nice guy of a boss was undeniably single. She’d paid attention throughout the week; he never texted, didn’t phone anyone for quiet conversations, and even though several pretty ladies had stopped by the store over the past few days, he’d offered nothing more than a friendly smile. No flirting. No invitations for dinner or even coffee. And Laura got the impression that at least a couple of the twentysomething females had stopped by specifically to see the dashing owner and maybe even find themselves on the receiving end of his attention.

      But David didn’t appear to even notice he had a following. Then again, Laura had never actually realized how cute he was until this week. Maybe it was the pregnancy hormones kicking in. Or maybe he’d always been attractive, and she’d been too absorbed in Jared to notice. But in any case, he hadn’t seemed the least bit interested in any of the single ladies of Claremont, which was a problem. A big one. Because Laura needed him to be interested in someone else. That would control this ridiculous notion that he might be interested in the very pregnant friend working in his shop. And it would also control her bizarre impulse to return the interest. Ever since their heart-to-heart Monday night, when he talked to her about loving and losing Mia, she’d felt even closer to David. And she wasn’t ready for a relationship, at all.

      Merely thinking about that day when she realized that she was pregnant and when Jared practically demanded that she end the pregnancy caused Laura’s stomach to pitch. She’d jumped into that relationship headfirst and had been undeniably stupid. She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Oh, no, it would be a long time before she handed her heart over. But when she did, she knew what she wanted. A guy who was honest. A guy who was faithful. A guy who loved her completely—no one else, just Laura—and a guy who she loved the very same way.

      She flinched as an image of David carrying her luggage up the stairs overtook her thoughts. David, giving her a job. David, holding her hand to help her stand. That was the kind of guy she wanted next time, but she simply wasn’t ready for that yet. Not that it mattered. There was still the fact that she’d dated his friend, was having his babies, in fact. And the fact that she didn’t exactly look the part of a girl anyone would date, seven months pregnant and waddling. And, as far as David was concerned, she didn’t share his faith. Not anymore. She’d given up on God because she assumed He’d given up on her.

      Plenty of reasons for David not to look at her beyond friendship. Which was good. Exactly what she wanted.

      Really.

      The bell on the front door rang, and Laura turned to see the object of her thoughts entering with a big brown box tucked under one arm. He wore a black cashmere sweater over a blue-and-white striped button-down shirt, well-worn jeans and black boots. He scanned the store. “No customers?”

      She shook her head then tucked a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. In spite of all of the cute maternity clothes her mother had bought her for the pregnancy, she never felt like she looked half as good as he did. Because right now, he looked very good. She stopped herself from attempting to check her reflection in the nearest window and tried to control the nervousness that had started occurring whenever her boss came around. “It’s been a slow hour,” she said. Truthfully, it’d been a slow week, but she wouldn’t point out the obvious.

      “That’s okay. It’ll give us time to check out what we got in the mail.” A dark wave of brown hair shifted to cover one eye as he nudged the door shut with his shoulder. He jerked his head to the side to toss it back into place. Laura liked the way he managed to dress neat but also look rumpled, like he’d taken in a game of Frisbee on the square on his way to the post office. In college, he’d often played ultimate Frisbee with Jared and several of the other guys they hung around. Even though David gave the appearance of being Mr. Studious, he’d surprised everyone with his athleticism and competitiveness on the quad. Laura had thought it funny that he’d turned out to be the superb athlete in the bunch, something Jared and the gang hadn’t expected.

      Funny...and impressive.

      She shook the memory of David running and diving for those soaring discs and told herself she would stop recalling anything about him that might be considered overly appealing. He was appealing enough without being an athlete, too. But this was a business relationship between friends. He’d given her a job and helped her find a place to stay, and he’d watched over her since she arrived in Claremont like any good friend would do. So this emotion that kept creeping in was gratitude. That was it, gratitude. And she had to keep reminding herself of that fact.

      “The Boxcar books came in today. I got a case, forty-eight books. You really think we might have that many kids show up?”

      Laura had asked him to get the books Tuesday morning, before she realized that the bookstore didn’t appear to hold its own moneywise. Now she feared if she didn’t have that many kids to purchase those books, she’d end up costing him more than she made. She swallowed. David had helped her too much for her to hurt his business, so she would make this work; she had to. “Sure we will,” she said, and did her best to sound upbeat, enthusiastic, excited even.

      His smile said he bought it, and Laura breathed a sigh of relief. If David was right and the majority of the town showed up tonight for the First Friday event, she’d focus on finding kids to join that club...and selling their parents the book. David might not have had the time to figure out ways to make money for himself and his store, but Laura wasn’t about to work here and not offer some sort of appreciation for the deal. And her appreciation would come in the form of more customers for her boss.

      “You do realize that there’s no way we could handle forty-eight kids in the children’s area at once. I’d say we couldn’t seat more than fifteen at the most,” he said.

      Laura hadn’t thought about that, but he had a point. And if she sold all of those books, she’d need to make sure she had room for all of the kids. “What if we had the book club each day after school instead of only on Mondays?” She remembered what Zeb said about potentially starting a teen book club, too. “And if we did additional book clubs for teens or adults, we could put those later in the day.”

      “You’re counting on this taking off, aren’t you?” he asked.

      “I am,” she admitted. “It’d be a good thing for the store, wouldn’t it?”

      “Definitely a good thing.” He picked up the list of kids who had already signed up for the book club. “Nine so far.” His mouth slid to the side as he silently read the names. “I know all of these kids, and some of them aren’t even close in age. Nathan and Autumn are both nine, maybe ten. And Kaden, Abi and Andy are all younger, six or seven, I’d say. Do you think we should divide them up by age?”

      “That’s a good idea,” Laura said. “I’ll call the ones on the list, get the specific ages and let them know we’ll set up the book club so that each day of the week corresponds with a different age bracket. I think that’d be more enjoyable for the kids because that’d put them with their friends from school and most likely with those on the same reading level.”

      “Except for kids like Kaden, who need a challenge,” David said, obviously remembering Mandy’s comment.

      Laura laughed. She’d been around Mandy and her family a good bit this week because they were often in the gallery when

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