“You can’t do that. You’re the only one who knows anything about these books. I can’t answer any of the questions anyone asks me. I only recommend books you’ve told me about or the ones I’ve read. The back covers only help so much.”
“You seem to be doing fine without me,” I said.
“Not really. I’m afraid that I’ve sent the wrong types of books with a few people. I tell them to come over here and ask you, but…”
“They won’t.”
“Nope, and they won’t let me come over to ask you while they are there either.”
“Are people afraid of me? Do I smell? Am I too fat? I don’t understand.”
“You’re none of those. People are just scared in general. The virus has killed so many. You can’t blame the citizens of Valeterra for fearing anything new. They’ll come around, I promise. Give them time.”
“I don’t know how much more time I can give them. Mr. Nichols seems annoyed with me. I don’t know how much longer he will be willing to let me stay if I don’t make any headway here, and I’m not looking forward to bouncing all over Valeterra in search of a place to call home. And…”
I started to bring up the mark but stopped myself in time. I probably should tell someone about it, but it felt too personal…like it was something I should only discuss with my mate.
“And I’m growing to like it here,” I said, knowing I hadn’t covered my tracks well, despite the truth in my words.
She looked at me for a long time, then down at my covered hands. Right when I thought she was about to ask me something, the bell over her door chimed. I ate the rest of my meal in silence.
21.
~~Valerie~~
An hour later, my door opened. Of course, I was in the stock room when it did, so I had to holler out my greeting to the new customer, which I didn’t feel made a good first impression.
Cursing to myself for having such horrible luck, I sat the stack of books that I’d been shifting around onto a rolling cart and started back to the storefront.
“Ms. Stutts?” a man asked from just outside the stock room door.
“Yes, sorry. I was reorganizing. What can I do for you?” I asked, trying to dust my hands off as I entered the store area.
I stopped short at the sight of the two large men standing in front of the checkout counter. I back stepped slightly before stomping down on the urge to run from them. They didn’t look like they were there to hurt me. I hoped I wasn’t insulting them by reacting the way I was. That didn’t stop me from mentally making out an escape plan.
“Mr. Nichols sent us, Ma’am,” the man not leaning on the checkout counter said, putting up his hands in an ‘I’m harmless, I promise’ gesture. His voice told me that he was the man who had called out to me. He wore black work boots, jeans, and a black t-shirt with a single pocket on the left breast. The man beside him looked damn near the same, except his boots were brown, his jeans were a bit more faded, and his shirt was dark gray with no pockets.
“Mr. Nichols?” I asked. “Why?” I was utterly confused.
Black boots reached into the pocket of his T-shirt, pulled out a business card, and handed it to me. I took the card from him and read: Charter Brothers Furniture.
Furniture? What?
“I don’t understand,” I said, looking at the men then down to the card.
“Mr. Nichols told us you needed some things rearranged and more tables and chairs for the kids. He sent us to help you make the changes and to bring in what you needed.”
I stared at the man for a long time before remembering what I had talked to my neighbor about the night before. Right then, it occurred to me that I didn’t know the man’s name. My neighbor must have told Jackson about my idea for the kids. I hadn’t even had time to mention the idea to Azure or any of the other children to see if coming here was something they’d be interested in doing. Hell, for that matter, I didn’t even know if the people at the orphanage were going to allow her to come.
Although, if those men were there, then Mr. Nichols must have in turn talked to someone and made the arrangements. I would have to thank him, but man, I hated that he was investing more money into the place.
I would also have to have a talk with my neighbor about telling other people our conversations. I was sure everyone I’d spoken to since I’d arrived had relayed our conversation to everyone they knew, but to take a tentative idea like that and run with it without consulting me was a little rude.
“All right then,” I said long after the silence had gotten awkward. “Here’s what I was thinking.” I pointed to a section of the store between the front seating area and the used bookstore that would be the easiest to rearrange and began mapping out my idea.
The three of us got to work. I wanted to keep the small sitting area in front for other readers but thought I could condense a few of the paperback fiction shelves for the time being. I wasn’t selling enough books to need five or more copies of any one book. The excess could go to the stock room. That would allow me to move one row of shelves to the back room. Then I thought we would move a few shelves over and shorten the gap between shelves.
Again, I didn’t have enough business as of yet to need room for a large number of people to fit between them. The two men did most of the work. They were stronger and faster, but that didn’t seem to be why they kept taking things from me, trying to get me to take a seat behind the register, and so on. I think they saw me as fragile—something that both made me feel special and something that annoyed me.
Eventually, I let them at it and took a seat to watch them. While I did, I sent a few quick messages to my sister describing a couple of hunky men I’d seen working in a bookstore I’d visited. I hated the roundabout way I had to tell her things, but I was glad for something to tell her. She wanted pictures, but there was no way I could sneak any.
22.
~~~Valerie~~~
“What’re they doing?” Azure asked when she came into the bookstore a little after three that afternoon.
I’d given up quickly on helping the men. I just gave orders from behind the checkout counter, and they did the work.
“Making room for bigger tables,” I said, coming around the counter to greet her. I motioned for her to take a seat with me at one of the smaller tables in the front of the store while the men finished what they were doing.
“Why?” She sat her schoolbooks down without taking her eyes off the two men.
“I told the man who lives across the street from me that you might be coming here in the afternoons to study if the orphanage agreed. I thought it might be a good idea if some of the other kids do as well to take some of the load off the orphanage for a few hours each day. But I told him that before I took the idea to the orphanage, I wanted to see how you felt about it and to see if you wanted some of your friends to join you first.”
At the blank look on her face, I knew I’d said something wrong, maybe even done something bad.
“Azure, I’m sorry. I was going to talk to you before I did anything, I promise, but apparently, my neighbor spoke with Mr. Nichols about it, and he must have liked the idea because he sent these men over this afternoon to rearrange the store and deliver more tables and chairs. I bet he told the people at the orphanage. He didn’t come to me with any of this, so I didn’t know they were coming. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen this way. Please, don’t be angry with me.”
The last thing I needed was to lose the few friends I’d made in Greenleaf and the one person who wanted to shop in my store.
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s a good idea. The orphanage is overflowing, and most parents have to pull double duty because they’ve lost a mate. I… I just don’t have a best friend anymore, or any friends, for that matter, to invite. Jessy died last year. She was my best friend. I haven’t made any other friends since.”
“Are the kids at the orphanage mean to you?” I asked, worried that the kids were bullying her or ostracizing her socially for s
ome reason.
“No. I just don’t have much in common with any of the other kids other than the fact that we’ve all lost someone.”
“Well, maybe this,” I said, motioning to the men setting up the first table, “will help in that department. How many children in this area are your age?”
“About thirty or so between thirteen and seventeen. Most are males, which is very much annoying. Teenage male shifters and weres can be aggravating because they’re learning to shift and are showing off by changing forms all the time,” Azure added, seeing my confused look.
“I can imagine that. Teenage boys can be annoying in general. As a matter of fact, grown men can be as well,” I said as Jackson entered the store. He moved to stand to the right of the chair I sat in and surveyed the room. He acted as if he hadn’t seen us sitting there, which pissed me off.
To break the silence filling the room, I looked his way and said, “I’m going to have to talk to my neighbor about telling other people about the conversations I have with him. I would have preferred to speak with Azure about all of this first, then come to you myself with this plan.”
Jackson looked down at me with a slightly confused frown on his face before looking to Azure, but still, he said nothing.
“But thank you for what you’ve done. Those men are doing a great job helping me rearrange the place and set up the new seating area. The tables are beautiful and huge. If any kids come, they’ll have plenty of room to work. Speaking of, Azure, did you have any homework that you need to do?”
“Not really. I did most of it during my free period. I just need to read a few pages for History class.”
“Okay. The men shouldn’t be too much longer. When they’ve finished, do you mind reading the pages to me? I haven’t been over to the school or the town library yet to see if I can borrow a few books about Valeterra. I know very little about this world,” I said absentmindedly rubbing my hand.
“No, I don’t mind,” she said, looking up at Jackson. Her expression was one of confusion, so I looked up at him to see that he was looking down at the hand I was touching. I jerked my hands apart and stood.
“Would either of you like something to drink?” I asked.
“Water, please,” Azure said.
“Mr. Nichols?”
He only shook his head.
“Okay then. I’ll be right back.”
I went over to the men to see if they were thirsty. Out of habit, I placed my unmarked hand on the shoulder of the man nearest me. When I did, I heard a low growl come from the direction of Jackson and Azure. The man I touched quickly stepped away from me. I turned to look at Jackson, but he had his back to me, facing Azure, and he was pretending to cough.
Neither man wanted anything to drink. More importantly, both looked as if they wanted me to go away, so I headed to the kitchen area of the stock room. I came back out less than a minute later to see that Jackson had moved over to the men, who were cleaning the tables. I saw his mouth moving, but couldn’t hear a word he said.
Walking up to him, I handed him a bottle of water, and said, “For your cough.”
He took the drink from me. Our fingers brushed when he did, and I felt an overwhelming pull in his direction as if our fingers were magnets wanting desperately to connect. The exchange took no more than a second, but I continued to feel his touch on my fingers long after I’d pulled away. My face flushed with embarrassment and lust, and I knew every shifter in the building knew the man turned me on in a big way. I couldn’t look at Jackson or the men as I turned and walked to Azure.
Without a word, I handed her the bottle and sat, trying not to watch Jackson and the men.
“Is Mr. Nichols your mate?” Azure asked, looking from the man in question to my hand, which made me involuntarily start rubbing the mark covered by the gloves I wore.
I looked over to see that Jackson had turned to look in our direction. Freaking supernaturals and their abilities. He probably heard her question. He was watching me massage my palm. His expression was blank. I tried to catch sight of his hands, but one was in his pants’ pocket and the other held the bottle of water. He wasn’t wearing gloves, so I assumed that he must not have the mark.
“No,” I whispered to Azure, but didn’t take my eyes off Jackson, then for the first time, I saw something other than indifference flash in his eyes. A wave of anger so intense I nearly wet myself flowed off him and silenced everyone in the room.
My initial reaction was to be scared, but I remembered that he didn’t have any reason to be mad. He had made no move toward me, showed no emotion toward me, nothing. Why would I assume we were mates? If he wanted me telling people we were, he needed to speak up.
I turned to Azure and said, “He doesn’t act as if he has the mark or as if he wants me as a mate. If I understand this mating thing correctly, my mate would be actively seeking me out. No, I think this is a bad joke. If it isn’t a joke, it’s obvious my mate doesn’t want me. I wonder if Stephanie will send me back to my world once she finds out that I’m not wanted.”
Those thoughts were not things I should have probably confided to a teenager, but I wanted to make a point to the man standing behind me. I was terrified of the implications of a mating and of how quickly it had come about, but I was also angry that he was ignoring it and me.
I looked back over my shoulder at Jackson in time to see that he had withdrawn his hand from his pocket and was running the tips of his fingers over his palm. He wasn’t looking at me, though. He had returned his focus to his conversation with the two men.
Seeing him do that, I thought, Okay, maybe… The thought never formed entirely in my head because at that moment, the workmen announced that they were leaving, and Azure rose to go to one of the big tables to spread out her things.
I followed the girl to the table, and Jackson followed the men to the door. I assumed he intended to leave with them, but he didn’t. A few minutes later, when Azure had started reading from her history book, he took a seat across from me. Azure’s voice was a little shaky for a few lines as she cut her eyes between the two of us, but the shaking evened out when she realized we were going to ignore each other.
She wasn’t the only one nervous by his presence. I found myself moving and shifting, not knowing where to put my hands and not being able to get comfortable. Having him so near had me on edge and turned on—both emotions were so contradictory that I couldn’t settle or focus on what Azure was saying.
More and more, I found myself looking over at his hands, trying to see if the mark was there. As if he knew what I was doing, he purposefully kept his hands out of sight.
Once she’d finished, it was time for me to close the store. Azure packed her things with a promise to come back tomorrow, and Jackson followed her out with only a nod in my direction. His not talking to me was infuriating.
I got dinner to go that night and didn’t go out onto the balcony to talk to my neighbor. I wasn’t actually mad at him for telling Jackson about my idea, but I was mad in general and didn’t want to take it out on him.
23.
~~~Valerie~~~
The next day, I was still in a mood, but I was polite to everyone at the bakery even though I got my breakfast to go. However, I did vow not to eat alone anymore after that day. I wasn’t going to make a good impression on the town if I kept hiding in the bookstore. I felt Jackson’s eyes boring into me while I waited in line for my food and as I walked out of the building, but I didn’t turn to look at him.
Anne came into the bookstore while I was finishing my omelet to see the new set up for the kids. She promised to help me watch over them as much as she could between customers each afternoon.
I was startled when the bell over the front door rang around noon. A gentleman in a gray suit stuck his head in, saw me rearranging a shelf, and entered. Nervously, I greeted him and asked if I could help him find anything.
“I’m just looking, if that’s okay,” he said, looking at the shelves of books and not at me.<
br />
“Be my guest. If you need assistance, just call for me. My name is Valerie or Ms. Stutts if you prefer,” I said, mentally thanking God for finally sending me a customer.
He nodded but said nothing more.
I took a seat behind the register to wait. I couldn’t see the entire store from that spot, but I could see enough. Not that it mattered in that instance—my customer didn’t leave my line of sight.
The man spent nearly a half an hour walking the store. Occasionally, he would pick a book up and read the back, but he only tucked one under his arm. The longer he looked, the more I felt that he was doing more than looking for a new book. He was examining the store, checking me out, getting a feel of the place. I guess most people who would venture into the store over the next few weeks would be more interested in me than the books themselves. I was okay with that as long as they eventually bought a something.
“Will this be all for you?” I asked when he laid the book down on the counter twenty minutes later.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, looking at me fully for the first time. I smiled brightly and entered the book, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, into the register. He was polite and patient while I double-checked my math and the coins for his change.
Before I could thank him for coming in, he asked, “The children who will be coming here in the afternoons will be at those tables, correct?” He pointed to the two large tables that were clearly visible from the front of the store and front door.
“Yes, Sir,” I said. “Although, I only have one child coming that I know. Azure. Do you know her? She’s a lovely girl. Very reserved, though. She says she’s been having trouble making new friends since her best friend died last year. Maybe if others come in the afternoons, she’ll discover she has more in common with her peers than she knows.”
Marked (Valeterra Series Book 1) Page 9