-Oscar

* * *

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Five-star read.

More like this, please?

-Princess

* * *

Saw you at the bakery today. Your eyes looked sad.

Here’s a book you can’t help but laugh at.

-Oscar

He’d noticed me in town when I hadn’t even seen him. It made me think of all the times I saw him walking around town with Tucker in his arms, or just exploring when he didn’t know I’d seen him.

How many times had we stealthily noticed one another?

I started reading the novel he’d left me, and he was right—I couldn’t stop giggling. I was shushed a few times by others in the bookshop for my laughter being too loud, but I couldn’t help it. Sometimes, the best thing for a sad heart is a book that makes you laugh.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through the next few chapters without breaking into a giggling fest, so I stood to go back to Judy’s to read in my bedroom where I wouldn’t bother anyone.

As I walked through the space, I thought about the characters in the novel and kept giggling to myself. Then I passed Jackson’s corner, and he looked up at me.

I gave him half of a grin and held the book to my chest. “Thank you,” I mouthed.

He gave me the other half of my smile and nodded once before looking back down at his book. A half smile from Jackson Emery felt like so much more than the average person’s full-blown grin.

24

Jackson

Grace went against everything I’d been taught to believe about her. She was kind, gentle, and funny, the complete opposite of the snobby, rude, inconsiderate woman I had believed her to be.

That was hard for me to accept.

When you are taught to hate a stranger your whole life, it’s humbling to realize you wasted energy hating something that wasn’t even real.

Gracelyn Mae Harris was on a path of discovering who she was while I was on a path of erasing my judgmental thoughts about who I thought she was.

As she was learning about herself, I was learning about her, too.

She was weird, and spunky, and broken, yet somehow whole. I’d never come across a person who was so broken yet still whole.

The truth of the matter was that I liked her.

That was weird, too—for me to like a person. I didn’t know what that meant, mainly because I didn’t understand my messed-up feelings.

On the following days, I tried my best to shake off my thoughts of her. If I’d learned anything about feelings, it was that they made no sense whatsoever. So I kept busy in the shop. When my head was inside a car engine and music was blasting through my headphones, I was able to tune out the world around me.

I was able to get her eyes out of my mind for a small moment in time.

When I heard the bell above the front door ding, I took out my headphones and looked up at the front of the shop. A man in a suit stood there with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Tucker walked toward him, wagging his tail as he always did, to greet the stranger.

The guy pushed Tucker to the side with his leg and told him to go away.

My body tensed.

The dude was already on my bad side.

I walked over to him and cocked an eyebrow. “We’re closed.”

“What? Your sign says open,” he commented.

“Yeah. Then you shoved my dog. So, we’re closed. You can fuck off and take your car elsewhere.”

“I’m not here for my car. I’m here to talk about Grace,” he told me. “I’m her husband, Finn.”

“I don’t care,” I replied dryly.

“What?”

“I don’t care who you are. You pushed my dog, so you can still piss off.”

“Dude, that dog is hanging on by a thread. I probably did it a favor.”

“Are you trying to die today, or are you just fucking stupid? Leave.”

He didn’t.

“I need you to stay away from Grace,” he ordered me.

“I’m tired of people coming into my shop and telling me what to do.”

Finn looked like the type of asshole Grace would’ve married. He stood as if he came from money, wearing a suit that probably cost more than my whole wardrobe. If that princess were to ever fall for a man, it would be that knight in shining armor. He and I were different in almost every single way.

I couldn’t help but wonder how she found her way to me.

“Listen,” he started, “she and I are on the course of figuring things out between us.”

“You fucked her best friend. I think that case is closed.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t act like you understand the whole story when you only know a few chapters.”

“I don’t care about the story, and I don’t care about you.”

“You’re messing with her head, man. Her family is worried about her—I’m worried about her. She’s not acting like herself.”