“Oh, just looking at the pictures?”
The words spilled out, despite Emma’s best intentions to be civil. What waswrongwith her?
“I’m an audiobook listener. I go through two or three a week while I’m working or driving from job site to job site.”
“Listening to audiobooks still counts as reading,” Rosie said, a sliver of censure toward Emma threading through her voice.
“I agree,” Emma said. “But does The Rainy Day Bookshop sell audiobooks?”
“Not very many,” she admitted. “We have a few old CDs, but that’s it.”
“I’m actually here to buy something for... a friend. But I like to come in regularly and see what’s new and what looks good,” Bryce said. “If I find something that appeals to me, I’ll listen on audio. When I find a book I love, I like to buy a copy of the physical book here for my own collection or to donate to the town library. It needs all the help it can get.”
“I love books!” Olive announced, her features wide with delight. “Grandma Rosie said I can have one. Will you help me pick it?”
Emma thought at first her daughter was speaking to her but then realized her daughter’s grin was only aimed at Bryce.
He seemed disconcerted at her friendliness. “I don’t know much about kids’ books, I’m afraid. We didn’t have many at my house when I was growing up.”
Emma couldn’t even imagine that. Books had been an integral part of her childhood. Both her parents had been avid readers and she picked up her love of stories from them. During the long, hard years in Las Vegas, public libraries had saved her more times than she could count. They had been shelter, sanctuary, a place of safety and peace.
“You don’t need to bother Mr. Kendall,” Emma said.
“Come with me, darling,” her mother said, holding out her hand to Olive. “We’ll go look at the books. I’ll help you choose a good one.”
“Okay.” Olive stuck her hand in her grandmother’s, and the two of them headed for the children’s section. Emma was left with Bryce and her wholly unreasonable resentment toward him.
“Your mom tells me you’re going to be running the bookstore until Sylvia is back on her feet,” he said. Emma noticed again his long eyelashes fringing hazel eyes and his farmer’s tan, visible when his T-shirt sleeve rode up, exposing a strip of paler skin that contrasted with his darker forearms.
She was a sucker for sexy muscled forearms.
Emma swallowed a sigh, trying to tell herself it was only a reaction to the sheer scope of the challenge ahead of her, not any quiver of awareness.
“That’s right. The bookstore hasn’t exactly been profitable for a few years.” Or ever. “I’m hoping to use this summer as a chance to chart a different path. I would like to turn things around.”
He looked around. “You have your work cut out for you.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“Any initial ideas?”
She looked at the note on her phone, up to multiple screens of to-do items now. “Too many,” she admitted. “I don’t know where to start.”
He looked around. “What this place needs is something besides books to bring people in.”
“This is a bookstore, Bryce. It’s right there in the name.”
“Ha. Yeah, I’m aware. But you want to entice people into the store who might not necessarily be in the market for books. They walk in for something else, something irresistible, then see a cover that speaks to them. And before they know it, they have a whole stack of new titles in their basket and you have instant sales.”
Emma had been thinking along those exact same lines. For some reason, it irked her that she and Bryce were apparently on the same page. “I wrote down ‘What about a small coffee bar?’?” she admitted.
She wasn’t sure if that was a valid idea or simply a knee-jerk reaction, coming from someone who until recently had managed a coffeehouse.
“That would be perfect. Maybe you could even work out a cooperative arrangement with one of the local coffee places to provide staff and product. We have some great ones in town. And you could sell pastries from Coastal Crumb, the bakery down the street. Their cinnamon rolls are as addictive as your books.”
She could put the café setup near the display window facing Main Street, to bring in more foot traffic. They could start genre book clubs that could meet there over coffee and pastries.
The store could even host silent-reading book clubs, where people sat together, drank their coffee and enjoyed their latest read.