Natalie let out a sigh and started to straighten the table display. Though grateful for the flurry of sales, she reflected that getting a few bucks in the till should not have to be so hard. She glanced at Peach. “Hey, thanks for your help. They almost left empty-handed. That was some quick thinking.”

He went back to feeding some electrical wires through a long tube in the wall. “Glad to be of service.”

“If I could afford you, I’d add you to the staff.”

He glanced at her over his shoulder. “You’re the bookseller, not me.”

“My bookselling skills are rusty,” she admitted. “I need to up my game. I used to be pretty good at it, back when I worked here through high school and summers in college. Never thought I’d be at it again, though. Used to be, we could recommend a book, and the customer would buy it and go home happy. Nowadays, we recommend a book, and they might buy it, just not from us.”

“Because of online sales?”

“And digital downloads. And gigantic volume discounts from the big club stores. It’s hard to compete, day in and day out. And yet, here I am. Crazy, huh?”

He connected the wires to a wall outlet. “I’ve seen crazier.”

“You don’t have to buy the Stacy Kendall if you don’t want.”

“I want. It wasn’t a stunt, Natalie. I like reading and it sounds like a hell of a book. I read all the time growing up, and even more when I was in the service, overseas.”

“In that case, thank you, and you’re getting the employee discount.” She finished with the display on the main table, then put away the Mark Twain book.

She heard Peach’s phone ping. He glanced at a text message, and something about it made his ears turn bright red.

“You got a text from one of the book club women, didn’t you?” she asked.

The ears turned a deeper shade of red.

“Oh my God, I’m right.”

“Don’t you have bookkeeping to do? Or book shelving?” He turned his back and resumed working.

He probably got that a lot, she speculated. Women were drawn to guys who looked like that in a pair of jeans, and who were good at fixing things. And this one played in a band. The trifecta of attractiveness. She wondered how he would respond to the text. Sorry, I’m married?

She hoped he would. Please don’t be a cheater, she silently urged him. Don’t shatter my illusions about you.