David calls again, but I reject his call. I wish he’d stop. I’m in a good mood and feel so close to finding out who Max is. I can’t have anything or anyone get in the way of that.

Half an hour later, I’m standing in front of the bookstore. It was my first thought when I tried to make my ‘plan of attack’ for finding Ethan Delphy. If he’s so famous and lives here, the booksellers must know where I can find him.

I walk over to the romance shelf but can’t find any of his books.

“Excuse me,” I say to the bookseller. “Do you have, by any chance, Ethan Delphy’s books?”

I don’t want to come on too strong, so I’ll just act interested in getting his autograph or something after buying the novels. I don’t know yet. I haven’t thought this part through.

The woman grins. “Ethan’s, of course,” she says and walks over to the bestseller section. “All three of them and we’re counting down the days to his fourth.”

She’s visibly excited. “He’s a big celebrity around here. And not just here, obviously. But we’re extra overjoyed because he’s one of our own.”

Extra overjoyed, oh my. The woman is in her sixties, so she must’ve known him since he was a child. No wonder she’s so starry-eyed and proud like a mamma bear. Carmel is the size of a block in New York. I exaggerate, but it’s small, nonetheless. They all must know each other.

“He’s such a nice, humble young man. He didn’t let all the success go to his head.”

I do my best to keep a straight face and stay within my ‘fan’ act.

I buy all three books.

“You can pre-order a copy of his new novel now if you want,” says the woman.

I obviously plan on reading it way before June 17, but this will show my interest.

“Yes, of course, I’ll do that.”

She takes my details and when we get to the mailing address, I pause. I don’t have an address. “Can I just pick it up when it’s available?”

Not that I’ll still be here on June 17, I mean… I don’t know, but I don’t think so. What would I do in Carmel for two weeks? I don’t have money to last me that long in California, that’s for sure. I barely have enough for four to five nights at the inn and if I add food and so on, it’s less. Maybe I should’ve planned this better.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were a tourist. It’s just that I never saw you before. That changes things. Did you know Ethan’s going to be doing a book launch event in our bookstore?”

“Is he, really?”

I knew it was in Carmel but didn’t know it was this particular bookstore. Although, now that I think about it, there are only two in town, so I had a fifty-fifty chance.