“Very well, Frau Wolff.” She gave Susanne a stiff nod. Her brown eyes, which shone so warmly whenever she interacted with customers or with Uncle Norbert, were now shuttered.

Susanne steeled herself. She had never shied away from doing whatever was necessary to get the job done, and she wouldn’t start now. If that meant hurting Frau Lamm’s feelings, so be it.

Anja went back to her magazine and tried to find new products that could be of interest to their customers, but even reviews of the newest Diamine inks couldn’t capture her attention now.

She turned the page with a little too much force, nearly tearing the glossy paper. Her body vibrated with tension. How the heck had her wonderful, fun workplace become this stiff, no-first-names-please situation? The nerve of this woman!

Susanne—Frau Wolff—had been nitpicking all day long, running her critical gaze over every centimeter of the store and documenting any perceived issue. Anja wasn’t surprised to see her use some app on her smartphone instead of pen and paper.

Not that she had anything against phones and other digital devices. She owned one too, but for her, it was strictly a tool of communication, or she used it to quickly look things up online. If she needed to capture important thoughts, however, she used her traveler’s notebook. At least that never ran out of battery, and the slower writing speed helped her think more clearly. How could Nobby invite a person like his niece, who clearly didn’t get the appeal of a fine ream of paper or a leather-bound notebook, to work at Paper Love?

Granted, Susanne’s long fingers looked pretty elegant tapping the screen of her smartphone, but that wasn’t the point. Just because she was easy on the eyes didn’t give her the right to look down on them. Every little thing about the way they ran the store seemed to be wrong in her opinion. Anja hated this new atmosphere and feeling as if she constantly had to justify herself. Did Nobby know what his niece was doing?

Maybe she should let him know. He’d been locked away in his office all morning, so he probably had no clue that his niece was basically trying to take over before he had even decided to retire.

But before she could head into the office to talk to him, Susanne apparently had the same idea. Gripping her cell phone as if it were a box full of discriminating evidence, she strode past Anja’s position behind the cash register and stepped into the back rooms. With a cool glance over her shoulder, she pulled the door closed behind her.

Oh, come on! They rarely closed that door. What was she telling Nobby that Anja wasn’t allowed to hear?