All we can do is wake up. Be better. Admit when we’re wrong, try to fix our mistakes, and smash all the invisible walls we can.

Who knew that would start with smashing a department store window?

Sometimes doing the wrong thing can point you in the right direction.

Sometimes being a little bad can turn out good.

And sometimes the places we think are portals to hell are actually just things we fear.

“Ugh. I’m not sure if this is the best idea.…” Mom frets near the old printing press in the Nook, brushing the front of her dress for the umpteenth time. “Maybe I should change. Or just leave town forever. Maybe I should just do that?”

“No,” Evie says from behind her paperback, perched on our non-squeaky stool behind the bookshop register. “That color looks good on you. It’s too brisk outside for the other dress. You’re just nervous, which is understandable. But it’s just a date.”

“Not even a date,” I assure her. “A double date isn’t a date.”

“Oh, it’s definitely a date,” Lucky says as he leans against the printing press, flipping the page of a book about ironwork in Victorian England. He looks up to see us all staring at him. “Hey. I’m just telling it like it is. It’s a real date. Drew is ridiculously nervous too, if that helps. He’s been pacing around the blacksmith studio chanting positive affirmations, driving me up the wall.”

Mom clutches her stomach. “I’m going to be sick. I can’t do this.”

“Sure you can,” he assures her. “My parents will be there to hold up the conversation.”

The double date was Evie’s idea, and the only way my mom would agree to go. Funny that a woman who’s spent the last few years right-swiping anonymous strangers would be terrified. But she deleted her online dating apps, and right now, I’ve never seen her so nervous.

“It’s going to be fine,” I tell Mom. “All we’re going to think about is what a fun, easy-breezy time you’re going to have at the fall Renaissance Faire—”

“Revolutionary,” Lucky corrects. “This is Beauty.”

“At the Rev Faire,” I say. “A fun, easy-breezy time, laughing at people dressed in Revolutionary War costumes mingling with people dressed in Renaissance costumes, eating giant turkey legs, and cheering on jousting contests. It’s all perfectly weird and wacky, and you’re just … reconnecting with an old friend.”

“Who may or may not still be madly in love with you after all these years,” Evie says.