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Archer had left early after dropping that bomb. He promised they’d talk soon, but he needed to get back to his apartment. He was expecting a call. As he was leaving, Rarity pulled him into a hug. She met his gaze. “There’s not someone el se, is there?”

He shook his head and squeezed her. “Look, I promise we’ll talk soon. I need to get things straight in my head. And it’s not because of a nother woman.”

“Or a secret baby?”

He laughed and kissed her forehead. “You’ve been reading romance again, haven’t you?”

“Guilty as charged. But Archer…” She leaned on the door as she watched him step out on the porch. He turned back to meet her gaze as she continued. “I love you. There’s nothing we can’t get thro ugh together.”

He smiled sadly but didn’t respond. She watched him get into his Jeep and slowly drive away. Killer stood by her heels, watching him leave as well.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with Archer,” she told him as she picked the dog up so he wouldn’t run out to the street and try to fo llow the Jeep.

Even though it was late, Rarity didn’t feel like sleeping or eating dinner. Instead, she put her swimsuit on and did laps. She was hoping to not worry about Archer until he was ready to talk. She couldn’t make him love her, but she was beginning to think that a long-term relationship wasn’t in her future. So far, it looked like she was battin g zero for two.

* * *

She swam again early Wednesday morning. She would regret it tomorrow. But since she hadn’t slept well, she figured she might as well get something off her list. She made a quick breakfast afterward and checked the daily newspaper she had delivered at the shop. She’d tucked it in her tote Tuesday morning and hadn’t felt like readi ng last night.

Rarity scanned the articles and stopped at an advertisement for a new cancer treatment center in town. The office was associated with her doctor in Flagstaff, and she pulled out her planner. She had an upcoming appointment and wondered if she could transfer it to the Sedona clinic. Driving to Flagstaff for a check-in seemed like a lot of wasted time. And, it looked like they did mammograms at that location as well. It was too early to call, but she put the information in her planner. She’d deal with it when she got into the shop.

She needed to put a post up about the lost book, so she wrote down the task. About to close her planner, she noticed an ad in the newspaper about the upcoming spring festival. She’d forgotten all about it. She opened her laptop to sea rch her emails.

The city set up a carnival and an egg hunt that Saturday, two weeks before Easter. She’d told the organizer that the bookstore would love to stuff a thousand plastic eggs with candy and small toys. According to an email she had from Heidi Youngman, the eggs and filling materials would be dropped off at the store today. They had a week before they had to deliver them back to Heidi so she could get them set up for the Saturday ev ent next week.

Worse, besides the eggs, no one, meaning herself, had ordered books for their tent bookstore yet. This was going to be close. She sent an email to Shirley and Katie to let them know that it would be all hands on deck this weekend.

The good thing about being busy is that you don’t have much time to worry about the status of a relationship. She had to focus on work. If you could call filling plastic eggs work. Maybe she’d bring the activity to the Tuesday night book club and they could help. Wasn’t community service supposed to make people feel happy? She got ready to head to the bookstore.

Shirley called at about ten thirty. The mothers had already started arriving and were gathering around the firepl ace, chatting.

“I’m sorry to do this, but I was on my way there and William Jully, from the nursing home, called. He wants to talk about George. He’s been caus ing problems.”

“Shirley, the moms are already here.” Rarity stared wide eyed at the women and the preschoolers. “I can’t se nd them home.”

“You can run the event. All it is today is reading The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith. Then we’ll act like donkeys and eat cookies. I’ll drop off the cookies before I go to the nursing home.”

“You want me to read? Aloud?” Rarity didn’t even want to think about what a donkey sounded like. Or acted like.

Shirley didn’t laugh. Instead, she said, “I’m pulling up out front. Run out here and grab the co okies, please?”

* * *

Thursday morning, the bite on her arm from a two-year-old terror named Angel still ached. Rarity wondered if she should get a tetanus shot. Can you get lockjaw from a kid? She’d ask Shirley when she came in. She’d tried to call her last night, but Shirley’s phone must have been shut off.

At nine, Shirley came in and dropped her bag in front of the cash register desk. Rarity could tell she was upset. Maybe it wasn’t a good time to ask about the bite. “Please tell me you didn’t put hi m up to this.”

Rarity needed to finish the book order before the cutoff at ten. She held up a finger, then made a line where she’d ended on the list of books they’d decided to order for the event. As well as restocking the kids’ section and the new releases. This month’s book bill was going to be crazy high. “Sorry, I lost my place three times when I had to help a customer. So what did I te ll who to do?”

She took a deep breath. “Terrance. He’s working at the nursing home. Can yo u believe it?”

Rarity held up her hand. “In full disclosure, he told me about it but only after he’d started. I told him it was a bad idea. Especially him being friends with George.”

The words were out before she realized that Shirley didn’t know that part. Shirley went over to a table and sank into a nearby chair. “He and George are friends now? What alternate reality do I l ive in today?”

“Look, in Terrance’s defense, he thought he was helping out. They needed an expert in security since there had been some issues with their system. He was working and George came to talk to him about what he was doing. To advise him.” Rarity smiled at the image. “When Terrance realized who he was talking to, it was too late to quit the job without leaving the hom e defenseless.”

“George always did love helping out. And you knew this.” Shirley looked up at her. “How long have yo u known this?”

“Terrance and I talked on Monday. I was going to tell you, but things have been a little crazy around here. And at home,” Rarity added. “Besides, now that you and Terrance aren’t, um, friends anymore, this shouldn’t be an issue.”

“It’s complicated,” Shirley said as she closed her eyes. Then she stood and collected her tote. “You’re right, but I still care for Terrance. And George, of course. Life is strange right now. Did Heidi drop off the eggs?”

Rarity was a little thrown at the quick change of subject, but she nodded. “Before we clos ed yesterday.”

Shirley laughed. “Of course. I’ll be in the back working on them unless you need me somewhere else. Katie has the high school group this Saturday, so we’ll be babysitting hormonal teenagers for most of the day. We probably need to work on the egg project as much as possible before that. Let me know if you need help out here. And remember, you’re helping at the home with Friday Night Dat e with a Dog.”

“I didn’t put it in my planner. I’ll do it right now.” Rarity wondered if using a planner was even helping. She remembered now that she’d agreed to be part of the local humane society’s event at the nursing home. Bringing pets into the home to spend time with the patients was a trial study to see if it helped with memory retention. Rarity watched as Shirley went to the back room to start setting up the egg stuffing project. She didn’t know how the woman kept up with all of her vol unteer events.

Rarity felt like she’d betrayed Shirley by not telling her about Terrance and his new job. But if she had, she would have betrayed Terrance’s trust in him telling her. It was a lose-l ose situation.

Rarity went back to ordering and groaned when she heard the bell over the door go off again. She called out without looking up, “Welcome to the Next Chapter. Let me know if I can help you f ind anything.”

“I think I know where my table is. And the coffeepot,” Jonathon said as he walked into the bookstore.

Now Rarity did look up. “I didn’t realize you were still in town. Did Edith kick you out?”

He shrugged. “Let’s say she thinks I should smooth some things over while I’m here. After this week’s book club run-in, I realized that Sam’s still mad at us no matter what Drew said. I’m going to ask her to dinner to talk about the H eather thing.”

“Or you could volunteer with her and me at the nursing home with the pet visit.” Rarity told him about the event on Friday night.

“You’re sure Sam will be there?” Jonathon sat down at his f avorite table.

Rarity didn’t know why Sam was so mad. Drew hadn’t taken the blind date anywhere after dinner and he’d explained to Heather during dinner that he was currently in a relationship. Drew had thought he was meeting his folks for dinner at the steakhouse, but Edith had invited Heather along. “I think she was surprised that you weren’t letting their relat ionship heal.”

“From the argument we had the last time I was here, I was pretty sure that she was blowing me off when I told her that couples fight. Like I said Tuesday, Edith wants more grandbabies.” He set up his laptop. “Anyway, I’ve got edits to do. I read pages last night at the Flagstaff group. They fit me in since I was in town. I lov e those guys.”

“You and Edith should move back here. You’d be closer to your writing group.” I went back to the ordering.

“If Drew would give her a grandbaby, Edith might agree to buy a second home here and go back and forth.” He opened his notebook.

“I don’t think I’d open my conversation with Sam with that suggestion.” Rarity checked the time. It was nine thirty. “I need to finish this order or I won’t have books for the festival.”

“I’ll shut up an d work, then.”

Rarity loved having Jonathon in the store. If she was bored, he’d chat. If she was busy, he’d work. And he liked to talk to the customers as they came in to look for books. As long as they weren’t kids. He wasn’t much of a kid person. But Rarity assumed that there was a difference between grandkids and other people’s kids. Except for Shirley. She loved them all. Probably even that hellcat who’d bit Rarity at the Momm y and Me event.

Rarity got a confirmation email at five to ten. She blew out a breath. She’d almost messed this festival up. She needed to figure out a way to add upcoming events to her monthly checklist. Shirley was still in the back and there hadn’t been any customers yet, so Rarity opened the Word document that held her checklists. She had one for the beginning and end of the month as well as weekly and daily sheets. And she’d started one for book clubs and another for special events. She printed out the special event one. Then went to the monthly to-do lists, which she edited to add, Check for special events this month to the beginning of the month sheet, and Check for special events next month to the end of the month list. It might be overkill, but she didn’t want to be in th is spot again.

Rarity was about to see what Shirley and Jonathon wanted for lunch when Shirley ran out of the back room.

“I got another call from the nursing home. This morning, George attacked one of the administrators, William Jully. George has been talking about the guy and how he’s always around Lizzy.” Shirley saw Jonathon sitting at the table. “I hoped I could settle him down yesterday when we talked. But no. Anyway, I’ve got to go convince them to not kic k George out.”

After Shirley left, Jonathon looked at Rarity. He was obvio usly confused.

Sighing, Rarity went over and sat next to him. “Here’s the skinny. Lizzy Hamilton is George’s girlfriend at the nursing home. At least she is when they both remember. He doesn’t remember Shirley or their life together an ymore at all.”

“Man, that must be hard on Shirley.” Jonathon leaned back from his laptop. “Stories like this are why I took early retirement from the force and moved back to Arizona. I wanted time to be with Edith and figure out who I am out side of work.”

“I get that. That’s why I moved here. I needed to own who I was at the core, not all the corporate goals I’d set during college. It was like a huge weight fell off my shoulders when I put in my resignation letter. Everyone at work tried to talk me out of it. They thought I was reacting to the cancer scare. Which I was. But not in a bad way.” Rarity shut her laptop. “I’m going to go grab some of the eggs from the back. If we don’t get these finished, there are going to be a lot of sad kids n ext Saturday.”

As Rarity gathered the supplies, she rubbed her injury. Maybe the Easter Bunny should have a naughty list like Santa. Angel would definitely be on that list.

When she came back out to the front, Jonathon wasn’t at his table. He came back from the bulletin board with her flyer. “Someone lost a book here? How can you tell?”

“You’re funny. It’s a book I don’t sell. Hold on a second,” Rarity said as she opened her office safe. “Maybe you can tell me what you t hink this is.”

Rarity grabbed the book out of the safe. She’d put it into a plastic bag to keep it safe, but she wasn’t sure if that was the best storage system or not. She didn’t know a lot about old books and how to keep them protected. She took the book out of the bag and set it o n the counter.

“This looks old.” Jonathon took the top of a pen and turned the cover over. “Have you had anyone look at this?”

“I don’t know who it belongs to. I thought I’d wait until the owner shows up.” She watched him turn the pages with the pen. “I guess I shouldn’t hav e touched it?”

He looked up at her. “It’s an old cop habit. I didn’t want to leave fingerprints, but I don’t know if you should be touching this or not. I know someone who might be able to tell you more. He might be in town still. Let me do some digging and see if I can get in touch with Arthur.”

“I’ll keep it in the safe. Hopefully, someone claims it.” She waited for Jonathon to step back before returning the book to the bag. “So I might get a call fr om an Arthur?”

“Arthur Wellings. He used to own a rare bookstore here in Sedona with his wife, Frieda. I think he moved the store a few years ago after she passed.” He stood there, staring. “This is weird. Have you asked Archer ab out the book?”

“Why would I ask Archer about an old copy of Alice in Wonderland ?” Rarity didn’t want to mention their recent troubles. Rumors flew quickly in Sedona, and she didn’t know what their status was right now.

“His grandmother used to collect old books. In fact, she worked for Arthur and his wife. She was their buyer. She’d go to used bookstores, garage sales, consignment shops, and even estate sales to check for old books. She found several that were worth a pretty penny.” Jonathon smiled at the memory. “Marilyn loved the hunt. After her husband died, she went to work full-time with the bookstore. She said it gave her som ething to do.”

“So this might be from her collection?” She tapped her fingers near the book. “But Archer’s folks moved, didn’t they? Wait, no, he said his mom moved to California. Wh ere’s his dad?”

Jonathon studied her for a minute before answering. “Archer’s parents divorced and June sold the house. Caleb moved to Flagstaff after that. I haven’t talked to him in years.”

“Archer doesn’t talk about his dad at all.” Rarity was trying to follow what Jonathon was saying. Archer’s dad couldn’t be more than sixty—sixty-fiv e at the most.

Jonathon nodded. “Caleb never forgave me for not finding out who killed his mother, Marilyn. He took on the case after I moved to New York. He kept trying to put pieces together that didn’t fit. So any lead or partial lead, he went down the rabbit hole. Finally, June divorced him and started a new life. The kids were out of the house by then. She deserved to have something besides Caleb ’s obsession.”

“No wonder Archer doesn’t talk about his folks.” Rarity put the book in the safe. “I’ll ask him ab out the book.”

“I haven’t seen Archer since I’ve been back. Is he walking you home tonight?” Jonathon returned to his laptop, focusing on his next sentence.

“I’m not sure.” Leave it to an ex-cop to see a trend. Rarity tried to brush it off, but she saw Jonathon’s head turn toward her, concern in his eyes. So she lied. “He said something about a new client.”