BooksBarbecue
Back This Is All Your Fault
Chapters (47)
  1. Copyright Notice
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. TUESDAY EVENING
  5. PROLOGUE
  6. WEDNESDAY MORNING
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. MIDDAY
  21. 14
  22. 15
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. EVENING
  34. 26
  35. 27
  36. 28
  37. 29
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. SUNDAY
  41. EPILOGUE
  42. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  43. GoFish: Questions for the Author
  44. Excerpt: Travelers Along the Way
  45. CHAPTER ONE
  46. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  47. Newsletter Sign-up

But Imogen must have understood. “She’s right. Didn’t you say the bookstore is being sold?”

“Yes, that’s what Eli read in the email.” Daniella was well and truly put out by this point. Her entire posture looked like one giant eye roll waiting to happen.

It was impressive, honestly.

But that didn’t stop Rinn. “That can’t be right, either.”

“Oh my God, Olivera. Stop trying to make up problems that you’re the chosen savior for. The bookstore is closing. Count your blessings in the gratitude journal you clearly keep. Nobody is going to jail right now. Sometimes that’s all you get in this life.” And with that Daniella linked her arm around Eli and pulled him away from the cash register.

“But,” said Rinn, looking to Imogen, the only audience that she had left, “he can’t sell the bookstore.”

“And yet, it looks like he’s gonna. The man wins again.” Imogen retreated back to the bookshelves—toward the art history section—without another word.

But Rinn’s mind was calculating. The store actually couldn’t be sold. That’s why the store hadn’t been sold all those years. It didn’t matter that the land was valuable. It didn’t matter how badly Archer Hunt Junior wanted to. The store literally could not be sold. Legally.

Unless, of course, Wild Nights Bookstore and Emporium was unsustainable as a bookstore. Rinn Olivera gasped out loud, though there was nobody left at the cash register to hear her.

MIDDAY

12:00 p.m.—4:59 p.m.

14

Madmen, Lovers, and Drunkards

12:01 P.M.

Rinn

A lull fell over Wild Nights Bookstore and Emporium. The customers had all gone quietly back to whatever they had been doing before the news had exploded across the store that Wild Nights was closing.

For a moment, Rinn stood dumbstruck. She couldn’t believe it.

Could Archer Hunt Junior be intentionally sabotaging the store?

There was no other reason he wouldn’t be mad at Eli. No other reason he’d said to simply log the Jordans as inventory. And he could profit so much more easily off the land than doing the work to run an independent bookstore.

No, it couldn’t be. There had to be some other explanation. Some other more viable reasoning.

It was just that Rinn was having a hard time coming up with any better reasoning or any better explanation. In a few weeks there would be no grumpy Jo and no roller girl and no casually bumping into AJ. There would be no Wild Nights. And Archer Hunt Junior would somehow profit off the rising property values in the neighborhood. Rinn couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. But instead of explaining away her reservations, Rinn’s mind filled with questions.

What other explanation was there?

Why else would Archer Hunt Junior be totally cool with nine thousand dollars of petty cash going toward fake Air Jordans?