“As I told you when we first spoke on the phone, when she went into the hospital, she had me cancel all her bookings through the end of June, but you’ll want to have a look at her book beyond that so you know what to expect.”

“Oh, I’m not keeping the place. I made arrangements to have the roof fixed yesterday, and if there’s enough time before I have to go back to work I’m going to get some of the exterior brick repointed. Then I’m putting the place on the market.” So the bookings, along with the peeling wallpaper and stained ceilings, were going to be someone else’s problem.

“Well, see, she really wanted you to have it,” Jason said. “That’s why she kept your room.”

Dammit. Eve had visited all the rooms except for the one Jason was referring to. She had gotten as far as the closed door before she turned tail—her old room was another thing that lived in her vault. She wasn’t even sure why, just that the mere idea of her old room freaked her out. “I appreciate that. But my life is in Toronto. I have a job there.” And she had an even bigger job prospect there. “I have…” Plants. I have a sensitive palm tree that needs me. I am very important and in demand in the botanical community.

“You’re a librarian, right? Lucille was so proud of you. She always said how you two were so much alike.”

“I don’t know about that.” They were both spinsters; she’d give him that.

There was also the shield thing.

And the fairy-tale thing. She’d just been thinking about what a big influence Lucille had had on her.

Crap. She might as well just start calling herself Lucille Junior.

Well, whatever. She was proud to be Lucille Junior. But that didn’t mean she had to live Lucille’s life. Lucille had been a devoted Moonflower Bayer. Eve was a city girl. She liked Toronto. If her landlord would just let her put in the Little Free Library she’d been lobbying for, she would like Toronto even more. Anyway, the point was, she could be Lucille Junior, urban edition. Which she would be as soon as she got rid of the inn.

Jason moved his hand like he was going to touch her arm. She pulled away before he could make contact. What was happening here?

“I wonder if you could get a part-time job at the library here. Maybe you’d enjoy that. It’s not like you would personally have to run the inn. You could hire the manager Lucille always refused to.”

Huh? “But I’m not going to open the inn.” Had he not heard her the first time? “I’m just here long enough to get the place sold.”

“Well, see, that’s the thing.”