A what?"

Beth leans across the counter on her elbows, watching me add books to the shelves while demanding that I repeat what I just told her.

"Marriage broker," I say again.

"The fancy redhead with the giant rock on her finger?"

I chuckle to myself as I nod without looking back at her. Maybe it wasn't the best idea to fill Beth in on the details of my sort of engagement after all.

It's just that things have been going so well with Nate, there's no way I can keep it a secret for much longer.

"Raven," I remind Bethany that the fancy redhead has a name.

"So like...'marriage broker?' Is that like what? A match-maker or something?"

This morning I made the mistake of letting it slip that I was planning another trip back to Colorado soon and asking Beth if she thought she was ready to run the shop alone for an entire week. I've never left her alone for more than a day or two. This is a big step. For both of us.

It's also going to help me determine what I'm going to do with the store when I move.

"Pretty much," I answer as Bethany comes out from behind the counter and joins me in my mission to get the new books added to the shelf.

"Wow," Beth mumbles as she hands me books from a new box she's added to the stack, "I didn't even know match-makers were a real thing. I thought they only existed in like--"

"Fiddler on the roof?" I ask with a laugh.

Beth giggles, "Yeah. And reality TV...but I didn't think that was like, for reals."

"So, you're going to marry this guy?" Bethany is fascinated by my confession about hiring Raven.

I probably should have just told her that I met Nathan online like a normal person. Beth is barely even 18 and a total hopeless romantic. At this rate, I'm never going to get everything done that I need to before I leave because I'm going to be too busy answering all Beth's questions.

"That's the plan," I tell her.

"So is he going to move here?"

I hear the worried note in her voice and I know what she's thinking.

"No," I say apologetically, "I don't think that makes sense. He owns his house on some land in Colorado. He has a business. He's established there."

Bethany's face scrunches up in confusion as she looks at me, "But you own your house. And you have a business too. You're established here."

She does make a good point.

I'm trying to think of how to explain it to her. The complicated process of deciding to get remarried at all. Of how I'm looking forward to leaving my past behind me. That it's time to move on and live again.

I don't even know if I've explained it to myself yet. When I hired Raven I just wanted the companionship. A good friend to share my life-- and expenses-- with. I was expecting maybe a widower, especially when I found out that Nathan was older than me. Someone who just didn't want to be alone anymore. Like me.

Finding myself smiling every time he calls or texts, the way my stomach gets all fluttery, the way my imagination runs away with me when I'm alone remembering that kiss in the elevator-- this isn't what I expected at all.

So yeah, I didn't expect to be thinking about selling the house and moving to another state. I sure as hell didn't think I'd be contemplating giving up my bookstore.

"Is that why Raven was asking us all about you when she came by that day?"

Beth is busy rearranging books on the next book case. She asks the question so casually it almost doesn't register with me. Then I remember the week Raven came out to do some final interviews with me before she started looking for matches for me.

"Us who?" I ask Beth.

"Me and the book club ladies," Beth quips happily.

"What kind of questions?"

One of the reasons I was so surprised when Raven took me on as a client was because I didn't have a "team" to help her with the decision making process.

Her application guidelines clearly state that she requires at least one person from the applicant's personal life to take on the task of making the final choice from the matches Raven narrows it down to.

But I didn't have anyone. My parents are gone. I'm an only child. It's not like I could ask my former in-laws to help me pick a new husband. By the time I got to the part of the application process where I needed to provide Raven with the names of who I wanted on my team, I realized I didn't even have any close personal friends.

After Paul passed away, I guess I just kind of shut myself off.

"She just wanted to know how long we all knew you and then she asked about how you and I met," Beth rattles on. "She was really interested in what kinds of books you like to read and you know Alice was more than happy to give her a detailed plot synopsis of every book you've ever sold her."

Bethany giggles and I'm reminded of just how young she is.

"And Elizabeth wouldn't stop talking talking about the sex scenes in the ebooks you keep recommending to her, I think Raven was really surprised that Elizabeth loves all those smutty books."

I chew on my lip as I watch my teenage assistant pull mis-categorized books off the shelf and stack them next to her where she's sitting on the floor.

Elizabeth is in her 70s, when I met her, I was surprised at how dirty she likes her books. It took me awhile to stop apologizing for the sex scenes whenever I found a new author I thought she'd like.

Thing is, I have a sneaking suspicion that Raven was less surprised at how dirty Elizabeth likes her romance novels than she might have been at how dirty I like mine.

So many of our conversations come flooding back to me suddenly. Every time Raven asked about my sex life. All the raised eye brows when I told her I hadn't been with a man since Paul died. Her insistence on our short flight out of Durango before we parted ways that I needed to spend time alone with Nathan and make sure we were "compatible" before I committed to marrying him.

"Oh, and she did call once and talk to me for a really long time before you guys went to Colorado," Beth tells me as an afterthought as she gets to her feet and carries the stack of books to another book case.

"She did?"

"Yeah," I hear Beth's disembodied voice from the other side of the book case I'm working on, "I thought she was just trying to set you up with someone--" Beth's beaming smile appears around the corner of the shelf, "But now that I know what she was really doing, it makes a whole lot more sense!"

Before I can follow Bethany back to the new shelf she's working on, she volunteers the exact information I was going to grill her for.

"She was wondering if you ever went out at all, like just to meet guys and--" I have to stop quickly to avoid bumping into her when she suddenly stops and looks back at me shyly.

"And what?" I half laugh, wondering what Raven might have asked that would have my Love-Conquers-All assistant blushing so bad.

"Well, I mean, she did apologize for asking. I mean, she did say she realized it wasn't exactly the most appropriate question to ask me since I'm not quite even 18 yet and you're my boss and all but..."

"Spit it out, Bethany," I order her sternly as I cross my arms.

I'm trying to play it cool, acting like no matter what Raven asked my assistant, it's all part of the process, but the truth is I can't imagine what it could have been that would make Bethany so nervous to tell me. I'm even more curious to know what Beth said.

"She wanted to know how long I thought you'd wait to sleep with a guy if you really liked him."

Bethany shrugs nonchalantly and then high-tails it to the back and locks herself in the bathroom before I can scrape my chin off the floor.

I don't know if I'm more mortified that Raven asked, or that she asked my 17year old assistant.

"I'll be 18 next month!" Beth yells from behind the locked door when I finally find my voice.

"Fine!" I answer impatiently as I wait for her to come out.

It's an ambush, plain and simple.

"So what did you say?" I demand as soon as Bethany emerges from the back room, cautiously approaching the register where I'm trying to look busy and not at all desperate to hear what she really thinks about me.

Beth's lips purse together and slide to the side of her face as she watches me change a brand new roll of receipt tape in the credit card machine.

I roll my eyes at her, painfully aware that I'm the one acting like a teenager right now. Bethany's smile returns to her young face and she opens her mouth to answer me at the exact same moment the bell on the front door chimes.

"Hi, can I help you find something?" Beth's sing-songy customer-greeting voice fills the book store and I'm left to let the curiosity gnaw at my gut while she leads the unfamiliar woman to the back of the store where the non-fiction is.