Page 105 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

Hazel laughed to herself, tossing purse, phone, and coat onto the couch. Whatever was going on between her best friend and the bartender was not something she had time to dig into right now.

She looked up and found a precarious stack of books on her desk. What on earth was this? Alex would never leave books in here like this. Certainly not piled up all willy-nilly and about to tip over. Hazel frowned.

‘Hey, Alex,’ she called, sticking her head out of the office door. ‘What is this pile of books?’

‘Oh, those were dropped off for you this morning,’ Alex called back.

‘By who?’

‘Uh ... not really...’ Alex’s voice faded away. ‘Got a customer!’

Hmm. She popped back in the office and eyed the stack. They were a mix of genres and sizes all piled up in the center of her desk. She took the first one off the pile.

There was a dog-eared page.

Her heartbeat immediately ratcheted up.

She opened the book and found a highlighted line.

I met a girl this summer.

Innocuous. Innocent. And yet...

She grabbed the next book.

The kiss was incendiary. He could have sworn his entire body had gone up in flames.

A bit over the top but Hazel knew the feeling.

She grabbed another, working her way down the pile. Each book had a marked page and a highlighted line. Each book set her heart beating faster. This couldn’t be...

Attraction: noun: the action or power of evoking interest, pleasure, or liking for someone or something.

She put down the dictionary and took the next book. A picture book.

‘Will you be my best friend?’ the fox asked the rabbit.

‘But we’re so different,’ said the rabbit.

‘That’s why I like you.’

A scientific journal:

According to a team of scientists led by Dr. Monica Hunter at Yale, romantic love can be broken down into three categories: lust, attraction, and attachment.

The science-fiction novel that had been flying off the shelves:

She brought him back to life, reconstructed him into a better version than the original. And he felt alive. He was alive. He was real.

The latest in the fantasy series Noah had been reading on the boat:

Fierce sea birds swooped from the sky, but he held them back. Anything to protect the princess.

She couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her at that. The next book was small and worn; the perfect size to smuggle in a purse. She didn’t know when her hands had started to shake.

He dipped his head between her thighs and he found heaven.

Heat flared in Hazel’s cheeks as she hastily closed that one, not at all surprised to find a half-naked pirate on the front.