Page 104 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

No, she’d saved all that for today.

But she’d spent so much time thinking about it, and worrying about it, and deciding to just call him and then abruptly deciding never to speak to him again, she was now late for work.

‘Sorry, Alex! I’m here.’ She hurried through the door and found her second in command behind the counter.

‘Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it covered.’

‘I said I would be in at twelve and it’s nearly half past.’

‘Hazel, it’s fine. I told you, you didn’t even have to come in today.’

She knew that. Her employees were great. But if she had stayed home she only would have had longer to stew in her current discomfort over the Noah situation and she really didn’t need any more of that.

She paused at the counter, leaning against it with her hip, letting the familiarity of the bookstore seep into her. It was quiet this afternoon, but several customers contentedly browsed the shelves. The front table was decked out in the latest fall reads and Lyndsay had hung the cute fall banners with colorful leaves and sparkly cinnamon buns that Hazel found on Etsy around the shop. The smell of cinnamon sugar lingered in the air. It never quite left, even when they weren’t selling the baked goodies, like the scent had seeped into the walls themselves. The low, fall sun streaked in through the front window and Casper, here for a visit, was napping in a sunbeam.

Alex smiled at her from their place at the register.

And Hazel remembered that she loved it here.

This was her place and shelovedit.

And it was fine that she had never sowed any wild oats or ever had any wild oats to begin with. She was thirty years old and she knew who she was. Hazel Kelly, bookstore manager, tea drinker, book reader, blanket snuggler, indoor cat. And she was also fun and flirty and sexy if she wanted to be. And sometimes she might get bored or antsy and that was fine, too, but Hazel liked her place here. She was allowed to be content. She was allowed to not want anything more than this.

Because what more did one need besides good friends, good books, and the occasional cinnamon bun?

A certain auburn-haired fisherman came to mind but Hazel gently pushed that thought aside. She’d deal with it later. Or never. She still hadn’t decided.

‘Did you have a fun night?’ Alex asked.

‘I did actually.’

‘You sound surprised.’

‘I was.’ Hazel smiled.

‘Well, I had fun, too.’ Alex lifted their eyebrows mischievously. ‘Me and Joe...’

‘No way!’

Alex’s smile grew. They’d been lusting after Joe from The Pumpkin Spice Café for months.

‘Yes, way.’

‘It was a good party.’ And it was. Other than avoiding Noah at all costs, Hazel had danced and laughed and basked in the love of her family and friends. In the end she was glad her dad had ambushed her and she even had to admit that she was glad for his summer of clues. She had, after all, had an amazing last two months of her twenties.

If nothing else came of it, at least she had that.

‘Well, I’m here now,’ she said, patting the counter. ‘Let me just put my things down and you can go on break.’ She hustled to the back office to drop off her coat and purse, firing off a quick text to Annie who had rather suspiciously disappeared right around the same time that Mac had last night. So either they’d hooked up or one of them had been murdered. Hazel figured it could have gone either way.

You alive?

Yep

The answer was immediate. Annie was never far from her phone.

How’s Mac?

How would I know?