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Surprisingly, there was a queer section of the store which had everything from books on queer theory to memoirs to romances. I managed to find a few from an author that Cade had recommended to me who was from Maine.

Stace had wandered off somewhere, but she popped up and held a book in front of my face.

“How awesome is this?”

The cover was bright with bold pastel colors, but that wasn’t what your eye focused on first. There was a woman in a gown that was barely covering her chest and a shirtless man clutching her in the throes of passion. The title was metallic pink swirling font.

“It’s quite something,” I said, snorting.

“My mom has a huge collection of these covers so I always grab them when I’m here and then give them to her for Christmas or birthdays. This one is pretty spectacular, I think.”

“It looks like a piece of candy,” I said.

“I wouldn’t mind licking her,” Stace said, glancing down at the cover. “I wish book covers of sapphic books would look like this. Bosoms all out there and heaving.”

I coughed and stared at her.

“Big fan of heaving bosoms. Big. Fan.”

Stace wiggled her eyebrows.

“Can you ever be appropriate in public?” I hissed as I looked around to make sure no one had overheard her. Stace didn’t exactly speak at a low volume, even in a bookstore.

“Rarely,” she said, winking. “What did you find?”

I showed her the books I had so far, and she went to the front and came back with a metal shopping basket that looked like it had seen better days.

“Just put whatever you want in here and I’ll carry them for you.”

She didn’t need to carry my books, but it did free up my arms to look for more treasures.

This damn store was growing on me. The cat was even growing on me. It had come over and rubbed up against my legs a few times and I’d bent down to stroke its head once when I thought no one was looking.

It would have been impossible to look through every nook and cranny of the shop, so I made a mental note of what shelves I’d looked at so I could come back another day and search again. Cade would love this place too. And Reid for sure.

But like the diner, I didn’t want to share this place with them. I wanted to hoard it and keep it for myself. And Stace. Like it was our secret.

I found a few more books that looked of interest, including a very strange and gory poetry book that I wasn’t sure I liked or if made me too uncomfortable to read. Stace had found more romance paperbacks that she’d added to the basket.

“Okay, time to find something really weird. I’m going to give you ten minutes to find the weirdest book you can, and I’ll do the same. Ready?”

Not really, but I said I was anyway.

“Go!” she said it way too loud, startling me. She also kind of shoved me into the shelves as she bolted to the other side of the shop.

It was times like this when I remembered that Stace grew up with brothers and that our childhoods had been as different as if we’d been raised on separate planets.

She probably did things like this all the time. I bet she knew how to escape a headlock and had experienced a wedgie at least once.

Not that I was jealous or anything. I didn’t long for headlocks and wedgies.

While she buzzed around the shop like a bee on a mission, I took a more leisurely approach. I wandered and waited for something to reach out and grab me. It was the same strategy I had when Cade and I were looking for haunted things. You didn’t go looking for them. They found you.

I wasn’t sure what drew me to the crafting section, but I reached out and pulled a volume off the shelf. The title made me gasp with surprise and then laugh. It was, ostensibly, a book about quilting, judging by the smiling woman on the cover wearing a quilted vest, standing on several quilts, but the title Still Stripping after 25 Years gave a different impression. No one could have told her that the title was suggestive? Or maybe she did it on purpose to try and sell the book? I didn’t know, but I knew I’d found what I was looking for.

I returned to the front and took a seat in one of the chairs to wait for Stace. She arrived just as the timer on her phone went off.

“Okay, I know I’ve won, but I still want to see what you got.”