Emmie had just unpacked the order of books that contained the adventure novels she’d ordered for Ox when she heard unfamiliar voices in the shop. She grabbed Ox’s books, walked downstairs, and peeked through the door, curious who had come to visit. According to Ox, she’d successfully avoided Adrian Saroyan three times now. She didn’t want to break her streak.

“So you’re going to Sierra Community now?” Ox asked. “What are you studying?”

“Just general ed right now,” a girl said. “But I’m going to be a psychologist.”

Emily peeked farther. No Adrian. Three college girls sitting in the lounge. Ox being inadvertently charming.

Emmie was pretty sure he didn’t try to be charming, but she’d seen the same phenomenon too often to consider it a coincidence. The more Ox ignored the girls who flirted with him, the more they liked him. To Emmie, it was really confusing.

Ox held up a hand. “Better not tell you too much then. You’ll start analyzing me.”

All three girls giggled.

It wasn’t that funny.

Emmie examined them. They were all in their late teens or early twenties and dressed for winter, throwing on stylish wraps and boots even though the temperature had barely dipped below sixty the night before. They’d be sweating by afternoon, but for the moment they looked cool and clever and impossibly stylish. Emmie glanced down at her clothes. INK wasn’t officially open, so she wasn’t wearing her new wardrobe. Her oversized T-shirt sported a cat with laser-beam eyes, and her jeans were the baggy variety.

Get over yourself, Em.

This wasn’t high school even if the girls in the lounge reminded her of it. She was a business owner and these were potential customers, though from the look of things, they were way more interested in Ox than in books. Still, three coffee cups from Café Maya littered the table between them, people were in the shop, chatting and laughing. It wasn’t a bad way to start her working day.

Emmie straightened her shoulders and walked out of the hallway. “Hey!” she said cheerfully. “Welcome to INK. We’re not officially open, but can I help you?”

“Girls, this is Emmie. She runs the bookshop.” Ox stood. “Remember Russ across the street? Kim is his sister, and these are some of her friends.”

All three girls waved at once. “Hey.”

“Hi.” Emmie waved back. “Did you need help with anything?”

“We just came by to say hi to Ox. My brother said him and Ginger broke up.”

He and Ginger. Emmie smiled and reined in any grammar-correcting urges. “Yeah, I’m pretty excited to be working with him here at INK.”

The girl who’d spoken was the blonde studying psychology. She pulled out her phone and started taking pictures of the shop. “This place is so cute.”

The next girl pulled out her phone too. “It’s supercute. I need to buy a book and some winter stuff to go with that really furry blanket my mom got me. That would make such a cute picture, right?”

The third girl said, “Oh my God, Amber, that would look amazing. Like coffee and books and cute socks?”

Emmie quietly counted the number of times they included “cute” in the conversation.

Too many.

“Cocoa,” Kim said. “Use cocoa instead. Cocoa is cuter than coffee.”

“You’re so smart.” Amber turned to Emmie. “What’s your Instagram? We’ll tag you.”

Emmie’s brain was scrambled and she’d lost count of how many cutes they’d uttered. “Sorry, what?”

“Hey!” Tayla walked downstairs just in time. “I love your boots!” she said to Kim. “Did you just get those this season?”

“They’re vintage,” Kim said. “My mom had them.”

“You’re so lucky.” Tayla immediately walked to the counter and grabbed three business cards. “So, all our information is on there. Instagram. Snapchat. We totally follow back. We don’t have a YouTube channel up yet, but Emmie and I are going to be doing online book reviews eventually.”

They were?

Tayla was still talking to the three girls “Do any of you have tattoos from Ox already?”

“I do!” Kim held up her hand. “I have this little star on my wrist. I got it last year.”

Ox had come over to the counter and was leaning against it with Emmie, fighting off a smile. “They invaded at dawn,” he said quietly. “I couldn’t turn them away. Kim brought me coffee, and you weren’t awake yet.”

“I’m so confused, but I’m letting Tayla do this part. She speaks cute.”

“Trust me, you speak cute fluently.”

Tayla had walked to the YA section and grabbed a new fantasy romance with stars on the cover. It was a stunning hardback and one that Emmie had been planning to feature at the opening because the online reviews were glowing.

“Do you like fantasy?” Tayla asked.

“I watch Game of Thrones,” Kim said. “Oh, I love that cover!”

“Right? Okay, so let’s give you this and hold it with the hand where the tattoo is—”

“Got it.” Kim took over immediately, grabbing the book and angling her phone to snag a shot of her right hand holding the book, the small black star peeking from the corner of her wrist.

“That looks amazing,” Tayla said over her shoulder. “Now you can say you get all your ink at INK.”

“Caption!” Kim said. “So. Cute.”

“Tag us and I’ll repost.”

Tayla kept chatting with the girls while Emmie started the coffeepot.

Ox grabbed the books Emmie had forgotten on the counter. “Hey, are these for me?”

“Yeah.” She glanced at him nervously. “I hope you like them.”

He was already reading the back covers, his brow wrinkled in concentration. Had he looked at her bare skin with that same look? Because she was melting a little inside thinking about that.

It had been two days since she’d drunkenly bared her back to Ox. She’d been expecting him to mention it, but he’d been totally silent. Hadn’t brought it up once. If not for a quick question about her head the next morning, she might have thought she’d imagined the whole thing.

“How’s your back?” he muttered. “Spider finished last night, right?”

“Are you a mind reader?”

He looked up. “What?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head. “It’s fine. He finished all the details on the shading, so it’s slightly sore all over, but not as intense as when he did the fill.” And that sticky bra Tayla had forced on her was already coming in handy.

Ox asked, “Do you toss and turn at night?”

“Nope, I sleep like the dead.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” he muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He nodded at the girls. “This is good, right? Russ asked if they could come by, and I said it was cool.”

“Yeah, totally cool. They clearly shop a lot. We just need to make sure they think books are photo-worthy accessories.”

Ox chuckled. “Accessories. Right.”

He was holding his books like they were shiny new toys. It warmed Emmie to her toes. He really was going to read them. He really was excited.

And he just got hotter. Great.

“So when is your opening?” Amber asked Tayla. “Kim, we should totally go.”

“I don’t know…”

Ox looked up from his books. “If you girls come and bring some friends, I’ll give you little stars like Kim has.”

The three girls lit up. “Oh em gee, Kim, how cute would that be?”

“We could take pictures.”

Tayla said, “Take pictures holding books!”

“The cutest,” Kim said. “We’ll be here.” She held up her phone. “Look! You already have two hundred and eighty likes.”

Emmie blinked. “What?”

“On the picture of me with the book.”

“Holy shit, that’s awesome. Thank you!”

Kim beamed.

Tayla wandered over to Emmie and whispered, “Get all your ink at INK. Remember that one.” Tayla plucked at the edge of Emmie’s laser-cat T-shirt. “What are you wearing? Picture ready, remember?”

Emmie rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll go change.”

Ox was still reading the backs of his new books. “She looks fine to me.”

“She’s wearing laser cats.”

“And?” Ox bumped her shoulder. “Thanks for the new reads, Buttons. That sci-fi one looks good.”

Tayla waited for Ox to get back to his side of the shop. “Buttons?”

“As in, pushing all of them this morning.”

“Chica, you’ve got it bad.”

“You have no idea.”

Emmie was getting her afternoon pick-me-up at Café Maya when she heard the voice she’d been avoiding for weeks.

“Hey, Emmie.”

Oh no. She’d changed her clothes, but she still wasn’t prepared to meet Adrian Saroyan.

She looked over her shoulder and feigned surprise. “Adrian! How are you?”

He still looked amazing, if a bit overdressed. Emmie wondered if he always met clients that way. Maybe he had to visit the bank. She’d quickly gotten used to being in Metlin again with its more relaxed dress code. Seeing a man in a suit—even a nicely tailored one—was jarring.

“I’ve been trying to get ahold of you,” he said. “Did your friend tell you I’d stopped by?”

“Who, Ox?”

“I don’t know.” Adrian chuckled, his white teeth gleaming against a dark tan. “The big guy with lots of…” He motioned over his arms.

Emmie frowned. “Lots of muscles?”

Adrian’s smile turned stiff. “Tattoos.”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s Ox.”

“Ox?” He nodded. “Okay. I was there last week and told him I needed to speak to you. I left a card.”

“I got it. I’ve just been super busy with all the prep for the opening next week.” And also avoiding you.

“Everything in the shop looks great.”

“We’re getting good advance buzz,” Emmie said. “We’re very optimistic.”

“Moving a tattoo shop into the other side of the store was… innovative.” Adrian shuffled his feet. “I really hope it works out for you.”

Emmie nodded and smiled. It was hard to forget Adrian’s initial reaction to Emmie’s reopening the shop.

“I’m serious,” he said. “I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, and I’d like to make it up to you. Buy you a coffee?”

“I don’t know. I’m really bus—”

“Just to catch up,” he said. “Also, my mom was asking about you. She’s so excited Metlin is going to have a bookstore again. Plus her birthday is in a couple of weeks. I was hoping you could recommend a book.”

“Okay.” Curses! She couldn’t say no when someone asked for a book recommendation. It was a compulsion.

He stepped to her side. “What can I get you?”

A few minutes later, they were settled into a corner table at Café Maya while Daisy shot them laser looks from behind the counter. Emmie ignored her and focused on Adrian, who was drinking tea while she sipped her latte.

“So… San Francisco, right?” he asked.

She nodded. “I was up there for school and working part-time at a big bookstore.”

“A chain?”

“No, an independent place. An institution, really. Lots of big-name authors would come in for signings. Major events. It was pretty cool.” She smiled. “Well, pretty cool for a book person.”

Adrian smiled. “Sounds pretty cool for anyone. That was always your thing in school. Books, right? Smartest girl in class.”

Oh yeah, because that had been the title her sixteen-year-old self had wanted. “They hired me on full time after I graduated. I was an assistant manager and did all their displays.” She shrugged. “It was good. They paid well.”

“And now you’re your own boss,” he said. “Was that something you wanted?”

Emmie thought about it. “Not consciously. But I guess when you grow up with your grandma and your mom working for themselves, it feels like a natural transition.”

“Your mom still doing the…?” He played air guitar.

Emmie laughed. “Yeah. A lot of studio stuff lately. Some of her own pieces. Some covers. She keeps busy. She’s touring with a band next year. She won’t tell me who yet.”

“Sounds cool.”

“She is cool.” Emmie sipped her coffee. “I was always the straight arrow in the family.”

Adrian looked at her and a smile touched his lips. “Straight arrow looks good on you, Marianne Elliot.”

Emmie covered her face. “I forgot you knew my real name.”

“Perks of working in the high school office.”

Emmie groaned. “Why?”

“Why do you hate it?” he asked. “Marianne is a beautiful name.”

“Marianne Elliot sounds like a sad Jane Austen character who gets passed over for a more witty cousin.”

“That’s not true.” He laughed. “At all.”

“That’s because you don’t read Austen.”

“So tell me what to read. You’re the professional.”

Emmie smiled. “Funny.”

“I’m serious.” He leaned forward. “You were right. I don’t read enough. How am I supposed to impress beautiful women at dinner if I don’t read books?”

Emmie was speechless.

“So what Jane Austen novel should I read? Pick one, I’ll read it, and then… we can go to dinner and talk about it.”

Emmie stammered, “Are… are you using Jane Austen to ask me on a date?”

“Yes.” He raised an eyebrow. “Did it work?”

“Sure.” She spoke before she thought twice. Her eyes went wide. What was she doing? She’d just accepted a date with Adrian Saroyan. If she were sixteen, she’d be ecstatic. At twenty-seven, she didn’t know what she was thinking.

He asked, “Did you surprise yourself by saying yes?”

“You surprised me first, so I’m blaming it on you.”

Adrian smiled and brought his mug to his lips. “So the Jane Austen thing worked.”

“Sense and Sensibility.”

“Is that the book?” He took out his phone. “I’m making a note now.”

“You better not buy that online,” she said. “I have a copy at the shop.”

“But you’re not open yet.”

“I’ll make an exception, and you can pay me back later.”

“Cool.” He leaned on the table. “So when are we going to dinner?”

“How fast do you read?”

“Pretty fast when I’m motivated.”

Emmie’s head was starting to spin. Was this real life? Why was Adrian Saroyan asking her out? She grabbed her cup of coffee and stood. “I need to get back to work.”

“Great.” He stood and slung his coat over his shoulder. “I’ll follow you over and get my book.”

He followed Emmie out of the shop and she studiously avoided both Daisy’s laser eyes and the phone buzzing relentlessly in her pocket.

Oh, she was going to have some explaining to do by the time all this was over.