“I could help too,” Daisy pipes in, and I almost forgot she was witnessing this entire scene. “I know I only have secondhand knowledge about the store, but I’m great at retail, and now that I’m here, I want to be there for you. For Gran.”

Alone in my apartment, at the Book Nook, not picking up my camera and doing the one thing that made me feel at peace with the world, I’ve felt really lonely. Right now, though, I feel anything but. My vision blurs with unshed tears. The gratitude I have for the two women in my living room is overwhelming. I beat back the urge to cry as the familiar sting behind my sinuses builds to a full-out burn.

“I do not appreciate you both being all supportive and caring.” I fan my face, refusing to let a single tear fall because thugs don’t cry.

“You know there’s nothing I love more than tears of happiness.” Elsie reminds me of a fact I know all too well. She might be the best gift giver in the entire world. After Gran died, she reached out to my mom, the Dirty Birds, and some sources she still hasn’t revealed. She collected pictures and stories and made me the most beautiful scrapbook. I cried for hours. And she’d never looked so pleased with herself.

“I have ulterior motives,” Daisy says. “I’m really hoping I’ll get some personalized Jasper Williams swag. Oh!” She claps her hands together, her eyes tripling in size. “What if you two end up falling in love and getting married? This would be like watching his books in real time.”

“I’m going to need you to relax.” I grab Daisy’s still-clapping hands and pull her back down to the couch. “That’s not going to happen for many reasons. One being we have so little in common that he’s having to challenge me to read a book. Another being he doesn’t live here. Logistically, it could never work.”

Daisy and Elsie look at each other and I know they’ve read too many books with happily ever afters to listen to me. They’re lost in a fantasy of this turning into some grand adventure romance when I know it will most likely resemble some horror tragedy. I also know telling them this is a waste of breath.

I do it anyway.

“Seriously, you two, stop looking at each other like that. Jasper is a very nice guy, I’ll give him that, but that’s all this is. I’m helping him out, he feels the need to do something for me in return. It’s just . . .” I close my eyes and fall back into my couch, my fears about this whole arrangement rearing their nasty heads again. “I’m worried.”