Page 63 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

‘Someone has been highlighting lines and then putting them back on the shelf.’ She slid the book across the desk and Annie looked down at the page. It was the line about eating berries, the one she’d followed by accident.

‘Wait, is this why we found you drunk in a blueberry field?’

Hazel shrugged. ‘Yes.’

Annie’s eyes lit up. ‘I know who’s doing it!’

‘You do?’

‘It’s so obvious!’ She slammed the book shut. ‘It must be Noah!’

‘Noah? No, that can’t be right. He’s been helping me follow them. He seemed just as surprised as I was about them.’

‘He’s been helping you follow them?’

‘Well, he was here when I found the first one ... and I don’t know, he seemed interested ... and then I don’t know, we started having fun...’ Hazel sighed. This was why she hadn’t brought any of this up. Because it all sounded completely insane.

‘Hazel, come on,’ Annie said, like the whole thing couldn’t be more obvious. ‘Then it’s definitely him. He’s been hanging out around here for months now. He’s clearly into you and look, he figured out a sneaky way to spend time with you!’

Wait. Could that be true? Did Noah set up this whole thing to hang out with her? And sneakily made it sound so nefarious.

Hazel’s heartbeat had ramped up over the course of this conversation and now she felt dizzy. Could Annie be right? And did she want her to be? Devising a sneaky, scavenger hunt did not sound casual at all. But the more time she spent with Noah the more she liked him and...

She shook her head. She was getting way off track here.

‘Annie, have you gone down a romcom rabbit hole already?’ Her friend had a tendency to binge-watch seasonal romantic comedies from September through to the new year.

Annie huffed. ‘My viewing habits have nothing to do with what is very obviously going on here.’

‘And that is... ’

‘And that is that the sexy fisherman, who has had the hots for you for months, has been leaving you little love notes so you guys can go on dates together.’

Hazel frowned. That couldn’t possibly be right.

‘But Noah doesn’t do relationships, remember? This feels very relationship-y.’

‘There’s a first time for everything.’

Noah had said those exact words to her at the carnival.A first time for everything.Was Hazel about to be the woman who got the infamously promiscuous Noah to settle down? Did she want to be? Wasn’t she trying toun-settleherself?

She groaned and leaned her forehead on the desk.

‘Or...’ Annie paused, thinking. ‘It could just be some sociopath who likes to highlight books and then leave them on the shelf.’

Hazel groaned louder.

‘Haze.’

‘What?’

‘Are you coming to the town meeting tonight?’

‘I guess so,’ she mumbled.

‘Great.’ Annie got up and patted her head. ‘I’ll see you then. Love you.’

‘Love you, too.’ Hazel gave her a little wave and went back to staring at the next month’s book orders she’d been attempting to work on for the past hour.