“I have to hand it to you, Sophie. When I heard about that tree crashing through your roof on Friday, I thought we were sunk.” Alanda had stopped in that day in time to see all the people who’d shown up to lend a hand.

“I would’ve been in trouble if it hadn’t been for so many helpful people.”

The mayor gave a satisfied smile. “I told you you’d love living in Piper’s Cove. When there’s a need, people ’round here step up to the plate. Makes my job a little easier.”

“You should be very proud of your town.”

The woman gave her a pointed look. “Our town.”

Alanda had half an hour to spare so she carried boxes of books to the correct rooms, then helped Sophie move the podium and large wooden table into the main room. When the mayor left, Sophie set up chairs, then unboxed Nathaniel’s new release, arranging the books just so on the book-signing table.

At that point Haley had to go to work, and shortly after that Anna had to pick up her granddaughter. The woman returned half an hour later with the baby carrier in tow. But little Lilly was fussy, hardly allowing Anna to work. The crying put everyone on edge, and after an hour Sophie wished Anna would just take the baby and go.

It was about that time that Aiden dropped his phone from atop the ladder. It hit the edge of a shelf and clattered to the floor. With nerves already strung out from the baby’s screaming, she was surprised when he only pressed his lips together.

Sophie picked up the phone, wincing at the cracked black screen. “Oh no.”

“Great.” Aiden took it and pressed the power button. “It’s not coming on.”

“Why don’t you take it down to the phone store?”

“Later.” He pocketed the phone. “I’m almost finished here.”

The baby wailed on.

He gave Sophie a pained look, and she could hardly blame him. The noise was on her last nerve too.

She went into the back room where Anna was bouncing the unhappy baby. “Can I take her outside for some fresh air?”

“Sure, honey. She’s cutting a tooth. But she loves the ducks. Don’t you, sweet thing? Go see the duckies with Sophie now. Grammy’ll be right here.”

But Lilly didn’t seem to care about the duckies today. When that failed to distract her, Sophie walked her up and down the boardwalk, trying to interest her in everything from airplanes to waving flags to a caterpillar crawling on one of the pilings. While the baby wailed pitifully Sophie fretted about everything she should be doing back at the shop.

They were down to just Anna, two of her staff, plus Aiden, and Sophie still had so many books to shelve. At least Aiden was almost finished with the ceiling.