Page 256 of Safe With You

“And?”

Marcus looked at me from across the table. “She gets that from her mama.”

Renee’s head turned. “Excuse me?”

He took another bite of food. “You heard me.”

“See?” Luna pointed toward her father. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

I laughed. “So the bookstore was inevitable.”

Luna looked at me. “Apparently.”

“It was,” Renee said. “She always had a book with her. And if she read something she liked, everybody in the house had to hear about it.”

Luna covered her face with one hand. “Oh my God.”

“You were sharing,” Marcus said.

“Exactly.”

“You were interrupting.”

“I was a child.”

“And now you own a bookstore,” Marcus said. “So I guess it worked out.”

Luna dropped her hand and looked at him. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“You’re welcome.”

I watched the smile that stayed on her face afterward, and Chapter & Charm made even more sense now.

I’d always known the store mattered to her. You could see it in the way she talked about it, the care she took with every display and event, how easily she remembered what somebody bought the last time they came in.

But sitting there, I realized the bookstore didn’t create that part of her.

She built the bookstore around something that had been there all along.

“I can see it,” I said.

Luna looked at me. “See what?”

“You doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“Finding somebody just to tell them what happened in your book.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t do that anymore.”

“You told me about a book last week.”

“That was different.”

“How?”

“I was recommending it.”