“I would pull you out,” he assured her.
“Not if you were stuck, too. We would be trapped here all night, until my staff came in tomorrow morning.”
“We would think of something. I could write a note and attach it to Pearl’s collar and send her out to flag down a passerby. She’s a genius. I’m sure she would find someone quickly.”
She had to smile at the whimsical picture he painted.
“Why don’t we save Pearl all that trouble and sit in the office, where we’re almost guaranteed not to get stuck?”
She led the way. It did look less cluttered in here than when she first arrived, as she had already started packing away some of the extraneous items. Mugs, half-empty candy containers, scratch pads.
She didn’t want to throw anything away that might be a cherished belonging of her grandmother’s so she had boxed it all up and put it in the storage area of the bookshop. As soonas she could manage it, Emma planned to bring down her grandmother for an afternoon to sort through things.
Yet, one more thing on her list. Emma sighed, feeling overwhelmed all over again.
She could do this. She was a strong, smart woman who was willing to work as hard as necessary to prove herself.
Chapter Eight
Bryce
Bryce still wasn’t sure what he was doing here as he followed Emma to the back of the store, where she let him through a small doorway into a cramped office.
He couldn’t seem to stay away from her. He had tried. For two weeks, he had purposely not stopped in at the bookstore. Cowardly on his part, he knew, but he didn’t seem to have much willpower when it came to Emma Lucas.
Despite his best efforts, thoughts of her intruded during the oddest moments. First thing in the morning while he was shaving, while he was driving to a jobsite that passed by the high school, when he heard a certain song on the radio that reminded him of her.
It wasn’t anything new, really. He had certainly thought often of Emma over the years. Working for her mother made it impossible for him to completely work the fierce crush he used to have on her out of his system.
For the first few years he worked at Lucas Construction, Rosie seemed to go out of her way not to talk about her daughter. The subject was obviously painful for her.
She had told him Emma was pregnant, though. And that she had broken off with the baby’s father.
After Rosie and Emma started to work on healing their relationship when Olive was born, his boss had talked about her daughter and granddaughter often, usually with a mix of admiration and worry in her voice.
What had once been a childhood crush, a desperate effortto get her to notice him by whatever means possible, had begun to feel... deeper.
It was ridiculous, he knew. Emma didn’t even know him. Not really. She knew the troublemaking, wisecracking kid he had once been but Bryce had tried to leave that persona behind a long time ago.
Now, as he followed her to the office, he reminded himself of all the reasons he had to keep his feelings to himself. If he ever told her how often he thought about a woman he hadn’t seen in a decade, she would probably want to get a restraining order against him.
His dog trotted along behind them, sniffing eagerly at the pizza box Emma set on the desk after she cleared away a stack of papers.
“Settle down, Pearl. You’ve already had dinner,” he said.
The dog sighed and plopped down in the doorway. Emma opened the pizza box and handed him one of the paper plates she dug out of a cabinet in the small corner of the office that appeared to also serve as the employee break area.
“Would you like something to drink? We keep some soda in the employee fridge, or I have tea.”
“I’ll grab some water. Would you like one?”
At her nod, he went to the watercooler and poured two cups for them then returned to set one beside her.
“I haven’t had pizza from this place yet. Is it decent?” she asked.
“I think you will be pleasantly surprised, as long as you like wood fired.”
“Who doesn’t?”