“The real question is, though,” Annie looked at her wife, whose facial expressions she knew so well that the next one was easy to predict, “will you be able to do it with a smile on your face?”

Sure enough, there it was. Teeth sunk into bottom lip, the left side of her top lip lifted. It was Jane’s standard expression when she felt she had to do something that went against her nature and she was thinking of ways to get out of it. “You won’t be there to see,” Jane quipped.

“How about we start tomorrow?” Annie knew better than to give Jane more time to get used to the idea, even though she would protest.

“Tomorrow? But—” Jane fell silent.

“Do you have a pressing engagement tomorrow at two in the afternoon?” Annie asked, a grin plastered on her face. Jane was so married to her schedule, they both knew exactly what she would be doing at that time of day. Twenty minutes of meditation, followed by forty minutes of reading. Annie had gotten used to Jane’s rigid schedule long ago. Obviously, it helped her perform—she’d written no less than nine novels the year before, and in the process had kept their finances from falling into the red. Which didn’t mean that sometimes Jane needed to be pressed to take a load off.

“Well, no, but…” Jane wasn’t in a very argumentative mood.

“Tell you what. How about we give it a go tomorrow and if it’s horrible and you don’t like it and people have bugged you and taken away all your energy, we’ll find a different solution?”

“I guess we can give it a go.”

“Thank you, honey. I really appreciate it.” Annie blew her a kiss across the table.

Chapter Four

It wasn’t that minding the shop was like a punishment for Jane. She loved books and Annie’s wish to start a book shop of her own was one of the things that had drawn Jane to her when they had met twenty years ago. The mere thought of it had made Jane’s heart beat faster. What aspiring writer doesn’t feel a thrill every time they walk past a book shop? To be with someone who owned one had definitely been part of the attraction. It wasn’t the books that posed a problem for Jane. It was the people who came in to look at the books and bought them and expected some sort of small talk in return for setting foot in Annie’s Book Shop and buying its wares.