Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 142214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 711(@200wpm)___ 569(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 711(@200wpm)___ 569(@250wpm)___ 474(@300wpm)
She shrugged. “You’ll always be my boys.”
“Well... we’re men now.”
She smirked at his need for validation. “Fine. Men it is.”
When they parked, there was only one other car in the lot. She hoped to see Mrs. Zian, the old librarian who used to run the library when they were kids, but a younger woman with glasses sat behind the counter. Logan said hello as they walked past, and the woman smiled. She looked about their age, but Wren didn’t recognize her.
When they got to the children’s section, everything was much smaller than she recalled. The old, braided rug had been replaced with a large, circular rug that resembled a globe. The shelves were shorter than she remembered, and the walls were painted a different color.
“Wow. It looks so different.”
“Still smells the same.”
Wren breathed in the scent of paper, ink, and pine cleaner, then grinned. “It does.” She scanned the shelf and spotted a red envelope. “Oh!”
Stuffed like a bookmark inside Peter Pan, she tipped the spine and withdrew the clue, pulling out another vintage postcard with a Christmas scene on the front tied to a candy cane and a long string.
She opened the card and read, “Put this on.”
Pulling the string, a pair of mittens tugged free of the bookcase. When she stuck her hand in the mitten, she found another clue, this one written on an old holiday recipe card.
“I hope you’re feeling lushy because we’re off to get some slushies.” She smiled and looked at him expectantly. “The corner store?”
“Only one way to find out.”
She put on her hat and waved with an almost giddy bounce to her step when they passed the librarian. “Have a nice night!”
When they reached the corner store where they used to get slushies after school, Logan let her lead the way. She walked in and out of the aisles but found no clue. When she asked the clerk if he had a clue, he looked at her like she was insane.
“Are we in the wrong place?”
“You haven’t checked everywhere yet.”
She remembered they used to sit out back on the palettes and boxes with their slushies, so she went around back. “Oh, my gosh!”
A bottle of wine waited on a stack of palettes with a quilt draped over them. Two milk crates were flipped over as chairs.
“Table for two?” He waved his hand like a maître d’.
Once she sat down, he uncorked the wine and lit the small candle in a mason jar. “I can’t believe you went to all this trouble.”
“We spent a lot of time here back in the day.”
“I remember.” She turned the bottle and snorted. It was the swill they used to steal from her Aunt Astrid’s house. “I didn’t know they still made this.”
“I wanted to be nostalgic.” He poured them each a glass. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
They each took a sip and winced. “Oh, God.”
He gasped. “I don’t remember it burning like that.”
She gagged. “Maybe it’s an acquired taste.” When she sipped again, her eye twitched.
“You looked so nervous when I showed up.”
She blushed, now feeling silly for ever being nervous about Logan. “I was.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. This is... weird. We’re friends.”
“So? Sometimes friends date.”
She still wasn’t comfortable calling this a date. “Some friends aren’t as close as we are.”
“True. I was surprised you changed your mind. What made you call?”
She’d called to goad Greyson, but she didn’t want to bring him into this. “I don’t know. I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
“Is that because you still see me as the kid brother? Because I haven’t been a kid in a long time, Wren.”
She looked at his defined jaw and five o’clock shadow. Meeting his dark eyes, she agreed, “No, you haven’t.”
He refilled their wine. After the first glass, it went down a little easier. He studied her for a long moment, and nervousness crept in again.
Sipping the unpalatable wine, he asked, “What’s something you used to believe about love that you don’t anymore?”
His question cut to a hidden part of her she didn’t easily expose. If he was trying to knock her off balance with his emotional maturity, he succeeded.
“Um…that’s a deep question.” She laughed and tried to think of a truthful answer. “That there’s someone out there for everyone—like a perfect soulmate.”
“You don’t believe in soulmates?”
“Not anymore. How about you?”
He shrugged. “Hard to say. I’ve never actually been in love, but I think it’s possible to meet someone who fits your personality so well they complement your soul and fill in all the missing pieces.”
“That’s really sweet. What’s something you stopped believing in?”
He took a deep breath and smiled softly, staring into the murky wine. “I used to think love was something you had to earn. Like, if you worked hard enough, stayed out of trouble, did everything right, eventually, the payoff would come.”
“What do you mean? Of course love begets love.”