Paper Love

by Jae

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  www.ylva-publishing.com

  Other Books by Jae

  Happily Ever After

  Standalone Romances:

  Just for Show

  Perfect Rhythm

  Falling Hard

  Heart Trouble

  Under a Falling Star

  Something in the Wine

  Shaken to the Core

  The Hollywood Series:

  Departure from the Script

  Damage Control

  Just Physical

  Portland Police Bureau Series:

  Conflict of Interest

  Next of Kin

  The Vampire Diet Series:

  Good Enough to Eat

  The Oregon Series:

  Backwards to Oregon

  Beyond the Trail

  Hidden Truths

  The Shape-Shifter Series:

  Second Nature

  Natural Family Disasters

  Manhattan Moon

  True Nature

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  About Jae

  Other Books from Ylva Publishing

  Under a Falling Star

  Popcorn Love

  A Work in Progress

  Falling into Place

  Acknowledgments

  My sincere thanks go to my awesome team of beta readers for their feedback and support: Anne-France, Christiane, Claire, Danielle, Erin, Louisa, Melanie, and Trish.

  A big thank-you to my editor, Miranda Miller from Editing Realm, for making this book better and for her attention to detail.

  I’d also like to thank my womb mate, just for being herself.

  Author’s Note

  Paper Love is truly a love story in so many ways: not only is it a romance novel, but it also combines many of my favorite things. Inspired by my love for notebooks and fountain pens, the book is set in a stationery store, and one of the characters is just as much of a stationery geek as I am.

  The book is also set in Freiburg, the city where I live. So far, all of my novels have taken place in the US, so I decided to pick a city in Germany as the setting for my eighteenth novel. I’m excited to introduce you to some of the things that make Freiburg so special to me.

  I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it.

  Happy reading!

  Jae

  Chapter 1

  Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask, Susanne mentally chanted.

  But, of course, her mother asked before the last of the fireworks had even faded away from the night sky over Berlin-Charlottenburg, as Susanne had known she would. It had been a yearly tradition since Susanne and her sister had been kids. “So what are your resolutions for the new year?” Their mother leaned against the railing of her balcony overlooking the courtyard and glanced from Susanne to her sister and back.

  Susanne nudged Franziska. Come on, Sis. Help me out here.

  But all Franzi did was nudge her back.

  “Why do I always have to go first?” Susanne grumbled.

  “Because you’re the oldest,” Franzi said.

  A snort escaped Susanne. “Yeah, by a full seven minutes.”

  “Oh, now suddenly those seven minutes don’t matter? You usually hold them over me any chance you get.”

  “Girls,” their mother drawled. “No arguing on New Year’s Eve.”

  “We’re not arguing,” Susanne said. “We’re just—”

  “You still haven’t answered my question.”

  Damn. She had hoped her mother would let herself be distracted. No such luck. Lying to her was out; she would find out sooner or later, and Susanne didn’t want to face her mother’s disappointment when she realized she had been lied to on top of everything else.

  The smoke that hung over the courtyard was so thick that Susanne could barely make out the familiar contours of the one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old buildings on the other side. But for her, there was no hiding behind the gray haze.

  Oh, come on. Since when are you such a chickenshit? Normally, she didn’t lack in confidence. Just a couple of days ago, she had marched into her boss’s office and had tossed her resignation letter on his desk without hesitation. But telling her mother was different.

  Franzi stepped next to her until their arms brushed, as if sensing that she needed the support.

  “I only have one resolution this year,” Susanne said.

  Her mother waved her fingers in a let’s-hear-it gesture.

  Susanne took a steadying breath. “I, um, I’m going to start looking for a new job tomorrow.”

  Her mother put down her glass of champagne, while Susanne white-knuckled her own. “Don’t tell me you got fired.”

  “No. I… I quit.”

  That might actually be worse in their mother’s eyes. Job-hopping was what their father had done, moving from business to business, from failure to failure.

  The firecrackers that had still been going off in the neighborhood stopped, and the silence was deafening.

  “Yeah, well, your boss was a chauvinistic pig.” Franzi tried a casual shrug but couldn’t quite pull it off. “I would have quit a long time ago. Plus maybe now you can find a job where you don’t have to travel so much and can stick closer to home most of the time.”

  Susanne gave her a grateful look but doubted their mother would see it that way. Would she think Susanne was like her father?

  “Well, that’s…” Her mother blindly reached for her glass and drained it in one big gulp. “…really good, actually.”

  Susanne shook her head as if something had stuck in her ears, affecting her hearing. Oookay. Who are you, and what have you done with my mother? “It is?” she asked with a tentative smile.

  “Yes. And you don’t even have to look for a new job. I already have one for you.”

  Uh-oh. Susanne traded glances with her sister. Why did she have the feeling she wouldn’t like whatever her mother was about to say?

  “Your uncle needs a little help with his business.”

  The tension in Susanne’s shoulders receded. “Oh, sure. I can sit down with Uncle Bernhard and give him a few pointers.”

  “Not Bernhard. It’s Uncle Norbert who needs your help.”

  “No problem. I can help him too. I admit I don’t know much about office supplies, but I guess general business principles still apply. I’ll call him tomorrow and—”

  “No. A call won’t cut it. He needs more substantial help, or he’ll be bankrupt before spring.”

  This was the first Susanne had heard of Uncle Norbert’s problems. Admittedly, she didn’t have much contact with him or any of the relatives on her father’s side. Much? Try almost none. “It’s that bad?”

  Her mother nodded. “Yes. And that’s why I need you to temporarily move to Freiburg.”

  Now Susanne was the one gulping down the rest of her champagne. “M-move to Freiburg?”

  “Yes. Don’t sound so appalled. It’s a charming little city.”

  “Yeah. With an emphasis on little. Mama, I’m used to Berlin, London, and Chicago. Freiburg is too small…too provincial. Whoever nicknamed it the metropoli
s of the Black Forest had a few too many.”

  Her sister grinned. “Who can blame them? The wine in the region is really good.”

  Susanne glared at her. “I’m not moving all the way across the country for the wine. If you like Freiburg that much, why don’t you go?”

  “I’m a dentist. Unless all Uncle Nobby’s store needs is a root canal, I’m not going to be much help. As a business consultant, you’re the perfect person for the job.”

  Thanks a lot, traitor.

  “That’s what I thought.” Their mother smiled brightly. “Plus you’re long overdue for a visit with your uncle anyway. I never understood why you never came with us.”

  “I told you I’m too—”

  “Too busy with your job, I know.” Her mother waved the objection away. “But now you don’t have a job. Everything will work out perfectly. You can look for another job and spend some time with Uncle Norbert while you help him out for a few months.”

  “A few months?” She’d been thinking a week or two at the most.

  “Just until Easter.”

  “Until Easter?” Susanne was starting to feel like a parrot constantly echoing the last thing her mother said, but her brain had problems processing this whole scheme. If she didn’t know any better, she’d think her mother had planned it all out before even knowing she had quit her job. “But that’s almost three months!”

  “Yes.” Her mother was still grinning as if she’d already solved Uncle Norbert’s problems single-handedly. “By then, it’ll be spring, and you’ll get to enjoy a bit of the sunniest city in Germany during your last couple of weeks there. Won’t that be nice?”

  Only years of experience in keeping a poker face during business negotiations kept Susanne from grimacing. Yeah. About as nice as the root canal Franzi just mentioned.

  “Uncle Norbert has a lot of friends in the Wiehre,” her mother continued. “He could help you find an apartment there. You liked that part of the city when we first took you there, remember?”

  “Mama, I was a kid. I liked to pretend I was a princess living in one of the Art Nouveau mansions, waiting for a prince to come along and rescue me.” She huffed at her younger self. “I haven’t needed rescuing or wanted a prince—or any man—since I was six.”

  Her sister winked at her. “I hear the women in Freiburg are quite beautiful too.”

  “I’m not moving there for a woman either.”

  Their mother put down her empty champagne glass, stepped closer, and put both hands on Susanne’s shoulders. From only centimeters away, she sent Susanne one of her famous gazes—the one that had gotten them to eat whatever was on their plates when they’d been kids, even if it was spinach. “He’s family, Susanne.”

  No one said her name quite like her mother. Susanne winced. “I know. It’s just…”

  “If you refuse to help him, he’ll lose the store. It would break his heart. That store is his pride and joy, and it was your grandfather’s before him.”

  Oh hell. Susanne rubbed her face. How could she say no now? “Only until the end of March, then I’m gone. Make sure Uncle Norbert knows that.”

  Beaming, her mother squeezed her shoulders and then let go. “I will. Don’t you worry. It’ll all work out great, and I’ll help cover the moving costs and the rent.”

  Susanne blew out a breath and tried to stay positive. Yeah, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. After all, it was kind of what she’d done for her old company—travel somewhere, get the job done, and get the hell out of there as soon as the problem was solved.

  Easy as pie, right? Or rather easy as Black Forest cake, in this case. It wasn’t as if there was anything in that backwoods city that would make her want to stay.

  Chapter 2

  “Sunniest city in Germany, my ass!” Susanne mumbled as she got off the streetcar and snapped open her umbrella to ward off the lightly falling rain. She hadn’t even seen the sun since she’d arrived in Freiburg on Friday afternoon. The cobblestones of the Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse, Freiburg’s main shopping street, were slick beneath her favorite suede ankle boots, and a dusting of snow covered the forested hill rising up directly behind the Old Town.

  A street performer playing the accordion didn’t seem to mind the weather, and neither did the group of tourists being led through the city by a young man in a medieval costume.

  Susanne looked around to get her bearings, but a mob of people getting out of another streetcar blocked her view. Someone popping open an umbrella showered her with droplets of water. She gritted her teeth and counted to ten in German, in English, and then in her admittedly rusty French.

  Why the hell had she thought taking public transportation was a good idea?

  But it wasn’t as if she had a choice. Freiburg’s city center was a car-free zone, and even around the edges of the pedestrian area, finding a parking spot was about as likely as winning the lottery, so she had left her beloved BMW in her apartment building’s parking garage. She would have to ask Uncle Norbert about parking options and getting a special permit so she could take her car to work.

  Once the crowd in front of her cleared, she glanced around and checked her phone to see in which direction she was supposed to be heading. A bronze equestrian statue marked the middle of the busy intersection where all the streetcar lines crossed. According to Google Maps, she had to double back a little. She turned and headed toward the tower gate through which her streetcar had just passed on its way into the city center. Its green copper roof and two corner turrets rose high up over the surrounding buildings. The sidewalks and the streetcar tracks ran under its two arches. Her last visit to Freiburg had been more than twenty years ago, but if she remembered correctly, the gate had been left over from the medieval city fortifications. Now, instead of armed guards, a big McDonald’s sign had been placed above the right arch.

  Shaking her head, Susanne crossed the street so she could pass through the arch.

  A streetcar wildly rang its bell to hurry her along.

  Susanne clutched her chest and leaped onto the sidewalk. She hadn’t seen the damn thing because the umbrella had blocked her view. “Don’t you worry. It’ll all work out great,” she mimicked her mother. “Yeah, but not if I get killed on my first day at work.”

  A guy pushing a bicycle gave her a curious look, but she ignored him and marched on.

  A familiar green-and-white logo greeted her on the other side of the gate.

  At least Freiburg had a Starbucks. Mollified, she headed toward it. No way would she survive this day without caffeine.

  But the long line in front of the counter convinced her otherwise. Her uncle’s store opened at ten, and if she wanted to be taken seriously by his staff, she couldn’t be late.

  If he even had any staff.

  Following the map on her phone, she turned left onto Gerberau, a smaller cobblestone street. It was picturesque, she had to admit. Cute little stores, cafés, a bakery, an Indian restaurant, and a chocolate shop lined the street. She passed a Turkish restaurant that an artist had decorated with a mural of the gate she’d just passed through and a bearded monk tapping beer. To her right flowed a Bächle, one of the narrow canals that lined the streets in the Old Town.

  Finally, she caught sight of Paper Love, her uncle’s store. Two carousels offering greeting cards had been pushed beneath a blue awning to protect them from the rain.

  She headed toward the white-framed glass door with its brass handle, but before she had taken even two steps, an irresistible aroma teased her nose.

  Susanne looked around.

  Ooh! Right across the street was a little coffee shop. Almost without a conscious decision, she detoured, stepped over the gently gurgling Bächle, and walked across a mosaic embedded into the cobblestone sidewalk.

  Two minutes later, she held the tallest coffee the shop sold in her hand. She took the first sip right then and there. Ah. Liquid manna. Now she was ready to face the disaster that was her uncle’s store.

  With renewed determination, s
he strode toward Paper Love.

  “Watch your step!” the woman from the coffee shop called after her.

  Susanne tried to slide to a stop, but it was too late. Instead of the cobblestones, her foot hit only air—and then crashed down into the clear water of the Bächle.

  The very cold water of the Bächle.

  Coffee splashed over her hand, soaking the sleeve of her wool coat and the right leg of her slacks.

  “Ouch! Goddammit!” She withdrew her foot from the shallow canal and blew on her scalded fingers, all the while trying not to drop the coffee or her umbrella.

  “Are you okay?” the coffee shop woman asked.

  “Yeah. Just peachy.” If she gritted her teeth any harder, she would have to call her sister for dental repairs. She stared down at the sodden mess that was her left suede ankle boot.

  Her stay in Freiburg was definitely not off to a good start.

  Cursing, she crossed the street and shoved open the door to the stationery store with too much force.

  The bell above the door jingled frantically.

  She closed her umbrella and rammed it into the stand by the door, then used her now-free hand to tug on her coffee-stained slacks. She grimaced. So much for dressing for success to make a good impression on her first day.

  She let the door close behind her and paused to take in her temporary place of work.

  The left side of the store was dominated by a well-lit glass case that held gleaming fountain pens. A locked display case for pens? Wasn’t that a little over the top? She’d only ever seen them in jewelry stores. Not that she’d spent much time in jewelry stores since she didn’t wear much jewelry and none of her relationships had ever made it to the point where she would have wanted to buy a ring.

  A floor-to-ceiling shelf along the right wall was filled with notebooks, school supplies, and writing pads of all colors and sizes. Large reels of colorful paper and racks of glittery cardstock hung behind the cash register, which was located on a counter at the other end of the room. One corner of the store held pencils, erasers, highlighters, bottles of ink, quills, nibs, and items that Susanne didn’t recognize.

  Who the hell needed all this stuff in the age of smartphones? No wonder her uncle was close to bankruptcy.