Page 12 of With Stars in Her Eyes

“I’m pretty sure accidentally stealing a used book isn’t a felony, and are you implying that if you weren’t going to live someplace permanently, you wouldn’t avoid felonies?”

“Now, do I look like a criminal to you?” Thea smiled her biggest smile yet. All five dimples on full display. It was fatally angelic and made it absolutely clear that she had a superpower she could use for evil if she wanted to.

“You’re a little scary.”

“Little ol’ me would never hurt a fly.” Thea batted her eyelashes. Her eyeliner was as sharp and perfectly drawn as ever.

“Here you go pulling out the Southern charm whenever you want to again.”

“You think I’m charming?”

“I think… I think you might be trouble.”

“Maybe…”

“Also I already paid for the book myself. It was a used copy, and it was two dollars. Not a big deal. You could have called, and I would have told you that.” I had been trying to match Thea’s suggestive tone, but the words ended up not sounding anything like what I wanted them to. Why was I so rusty at this?

“Oh, okay then.” Thea shifted her weight, smile faltering slightly. “Now I just need to find…”

“Could I help you find something? Don’t want to take up too much of your time if you need to get back to Squid.” I tried again to make my voice sound flirty, but it might have just come across as strained and stressed.

God, I missed being a musician on tour. When I was Kestrel, I had no issues flirting with women. Why was it so much harder flirting as myself?

“I’m looking for the book club book for—”

“Oh, that’s right. Sam said you joined.”

“Wow, Sam’s quick. I just filled out the form like five minutes ago.”

“She—uh—gets alerts on her phone, I think.” After a great start with the whole hats-and-crime bit, I had officially made this conversation ten times more awkward than it should have been.

I had already spent a night sleeping next to this person and now somehow all it had taken was one conversation to feel like I had accidentally put the brakes on something.

Whyyyyy?

“Ah. Found it.” Thea snatched a book off the shelf near the door that had all the book club book selections on it.

“Oh… great. I could have— Wait, that’s not the one for this month.”

“I know.” She frowned. “I’m going to be out of town when the next two meetings happen but I wanted to get it because sometimes I’m slow at moving through books. I should be good for the June one though. First Thursday of the month, right?”

“Yeah. First Thursday.” I messed up scanning the book three times before the stupid scanner read the barcode properly. I dropped it in a bag and handed it to Thea. “Oh. Okay. Is that all you need today? I appreciate you stopping in.”

“No worries. Wouldn’t want to take up too much of your time.” Thea’s voice was a little clipped.

“ Oh .”

“Oh?” Thea asked.

“When you said you were a thief… I should have said—don’t worry I don’t think Sam will have the authorities throw the book at you.”

A beat passed.

Then a second one.

Thea suddenly chortled. “Ding. Ding. Ding. All right you win this round with the dad joke.” The corners of her mouth perked upward again.

I felt brighter. “I really am happy you joined the book club.”

“Really?” The word had a little too much feeling in it. That was my fault. “I was worried—I don’t know…”

“It’s probably obvious, but sometimes I suck at talking to people. Strangers especially aft—now. Now in this new role, I want to do better though. Hopefully by the June meeting I’ll have it down.”

Thea’s lips quirked to the side. “Looking forward to seeing you there.”

“Yay.” I gave a small, dorky cheerleader woo motion that might have come across as sarcastic rather than enthusiastic.

“Yay,” Thea echoed with slightly less awkwardness. “See you later, Courtney.”

As soon as she was out the door and around the corner, I lowered my forehead to rest on the counter again.

“Ahh… why…” Sam said, emerging from the hallway to the office looking either appalled or entertained or maybe both. “ Why did you shut her down when she was flirting?”

I spoke directly into the wooden countertop. “I was trying to flirt back.”

“Really? Because that’s not how it—”

“I know it’s not.”

“There, there, friend.” Sam patted her hand between my shoulder blades. “Don’t worry. We’ll fix it. Somehow.”

“I feel so comforted.”

“So you do like her? Even though she’s ‘terrifying’?”

“ Yes .” I groaned and lifted my face while making an exaggerated grimace.

Sam was smiling. “Then we’ll definitely fix it.”

“Maybe if I just keep reading romance novels, I’ll stop acting like such a socially awkward dork when I try to flirt as myself.”

“Oooooh… I didn’t even think of that. I guess all the other times I’ve seen you pick up women it’s been as Kestrel…” She hmmed for a moment, considering. “Interesting.”

“Interesting how?”

“Maybe it’s because you’re figuring out yourself as Courtney here.”

“I’ve always been Courtney when I’m here.”

“Yeah, but you’ve always used the Kestrel side of yourself as an excuse not to talk to people here, which totally made sense, and I’m not saying that was wrong… but now…”

“But now…?” I braced for the question I’d been avoiding.

“But now I’m just glad to have my best friend working with me every day and living around the corner.” Sam’s mouth shut again. All her unspoken questions were sitting behind her lips, and I knew her well enough to know how hard it was not to ask them. That had been a mutual agreement between us.

It was the question I could barely ask myself.

When are you going to start playing again?

In return, I knew not to ask for updates about Samantha’s own situation that was even more of a too-painful-to-talk-about subject, that she and her husband had been trying for a year to get pregnant while her entire staff seemed to have baby after baby. We’ve always understood each other.

Sam’s smile became a little forced, but the hug she wrapped me up in after was warm and comforting.

“Thanks, Sam.”

When she pulled away, Sam tossed me a book, and I managed to grab it out of the air before it flew into the sticker display. “Get to work on your book club reading, and maybe you can get over your pathetic yips about flirting.”

I gave my friend a salute, just like the one Thea had given Jeannie during the snowstorm, and then, since the store was in its typical Monday lull, I opened the book to the first chapter.