Page 1 of Library or Lattes?

1

OCTOBER in Oak Falls meant the sky got dark around five thirty.

It meant that Harvest Festival was just around the corner and that there was a chill in the air. The kind of chill that smelled like damp earth and yesterday’s woodsmoke. A scent that crept through the doorframes and window cracks of our old cottage. I’d always loved this time of year, tucked up on the couch with Mom’s quilts, trying not to fall asleep in front of the crackling fire.

Peace.

But not for long. Because Lennie didn’t even knock.

I’d been watching a TikTok of some influencer livestreaming in Tokyo when someone barged through the door wearing a Pennywise mask and scaring the crap out of me. I mean, I should have been used to it. When it came to Lennie, Pop and I had an open-door policy (which she one hundred percent abused).

She didn’t even take the mask off, just stood there in silence, staring.

“Lennie, you’re freaking me out here. Take it off,” I told her.

She pulled it off and dumped it on the kitchen table along with her coat, revealing bright blue, non-terrifying pajamas, which totally complemented my outfit of fluffy socks, shorts, and Mom’s old Knicks T-shirt. Much better than a child-killing clown, anyway.

“Free house again?” Lennie grinned and her dark eyes lit up.

“Pop’s at your second home, fixing a leak,” I said.

Lennie opened a bag of the weird blue candy that made up half her diet. “School?”

“Okay sorry, your third home. The library.”

“Weird. Jo never mentioned a leak when I was there earlier. Oh, but she did tell me about this new series she’s ordering in. Serious spice, apparently.” She wriggled her eyebrows and I laughed.

“You’re such a pervert.”

“I know. And one of these days I’m going to make you a pervert too. I’m making you read it after me.”

“Force-reading. That sounds fun …”

“The funnest.”

Lennie looked over the back of the sofa and around the open-plan kitchen/living room. “Willa, come on. It’s time for a party here. Your pop is out fixing stuff way too much not to take advantage.”

Lennie’s mouth was so full of candy, I had to seriously concentrate to make out what she was saying. She was a tiny little human, with almost-black hair that sat long, shiny, and straight over her shoulders. She always reminded me of something you’d find in a fairy-tale forest. Small, delicate features, bony elbows, and the perfect scowl. “If I was ever going to give in and have a party here, it would have happened already,” I said. I stretched out and took a normal amount of candy from the bag, scrunching up my face at the sourness. “And are we even party-having kind of people?”

“Well, yeah, you’re right. You’re not. I can just imagine you leaving your own party because someone mentioned that their grandma lived alone, and you thought they might be lonely.”

Lennie knew I’d never have a party here. If I asked Pop, he’d be cool with it, but at Krista’s parties something always got broken, and Pop didn’t have his own car dealership like Mr. Goldberg, so we couldn’t just fix everything all the time. My eyes fell on the damp patch on the ceiling that Pop was constantly complaining about.

“I kind of have news …” Lennie hugged her knees and looked at me.

My stomach dropped—was it something bad? Then I saw the twinkle in my best friend’s eyes. “Tell me!”

She was grinning stupidly now. “So, I saw her at the bookstore again.”

“Sara?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“And?” I nudged her.

“She said hi.”

I squealed. Lennie had been low-key obsessed with this girl Sara for ages. She found out that Sara went to Main Street Books every Friday. So now, I guess, so did Lennie.