She disappeared into the bathroom, which gave Anja a chance to fan her overheated cheeks. Why the heck was she blushing just because of some mustard?

When Susanne returned a short while later, Anja resisted the urge to check out her chest to see if the stain was gone. She left her in charge and went to the office.

The door was open so Nobby would hear the bell whenever a customer entered the store, and he looked up as she approached. He greeted her with a smile, but it wasn’t quite one of the full-out, warm Nobby smiles she had grown used to. “How was lunch? Did you get a veggie Currywurst, or did you not make it past the cheesecake in the café down the street?”

Why was he still trying to make everything appear normal? He needed his energy to fight against his business going down, not to mislead his employee. Besides, she considered herself much more than an employee. Nobby was more like an uncle than an employer to her, and she had thought he considered her family too.

“Oh, Nobby.” She crossed the room and perched on the edge of the desk as she had so many times before. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

His weak smile instantly fell. “Susanne told you about…?” He gestured at the business ledgers he’d been brooding over.

She nodded. “Why didn’t you? Why let me find out this way?”

“I’m sorry. I thought I’d be able to turn things around and you’d never have to find out. I didn’t want you to have to live with that constant, nagging worry.”

“I don’t need you to protect me. I’m thirty-six. I’m no longer the wet-behind-the-ears girl you first hired. I could have helped. Maybe together, we could have found a way to save Paper Love.”

“We still can. At least that’s what I’m hoping.”

“If your niece doesn’t fire me first.”

Nobby shook his head so vehemently that his leftover flyaway hair bounced from left to right. “No one is firing you.”

Anja looked him in the eyes. Her throat ached, and she had to swallow twice before she could speak. “If that’s what you have to do to save Paper Love, then do it.”

“No!” He glanced away, and she had a feeling his beard hid a hint of a blush. “I…I always thought… I always imagined you taking over as the new owner once I retire.”

It was a wonderful dream, but that’s all it was: a dream. “You know I don’t have the money to buy the store from you.” Even if she worked until she was ninety years old and saved every last cent she made, she would never be able to afford a building in this part of the city—or any building anywhere in Freiburg for that matter.