The Cinnamon Bun Book Store (Dream Harbor, #2)

by Laurie Gilmore

It was a slow day, bright and sunny, the type of day people wanted to be running around outside, not browsing the shelves of a bookstore. Not that Hazel understood that line of reasoning. She always wanted to be browsing the shelves of a bookstore.

Hazel was literally surrounded by amazing stories, books filled with love and adventure and life, but Hazel herself was stuck.

‘Come with me, lass, if you want an adventure.’

Her heart was racing, and only partially because she’d been caught reading smut during work hours. The

The blueberries popped tart and bright in her mouth. They tasted like summer and new beginnings.

‘Hazel hates sunshine. She’s like a vampire.’ ‘I am not! I just prefer to be inside. I’m an inside cat.’

‘That’s all you can do. Try your best.’

‘I always bring a book, just in case.’

He was summer and she was fall. He was adventure and she was comfort. But right now, on the cusp between the two seasons, in this liminal space they’d carved out for themselves, they fit just right.

Fierce sea birds swooped from the sky, but he held them back. Anything to protect the princess.

‘You’re all I think about. All I want. Me and you until the end.’

He realized he loved her and that he probably had all along. But it had snuck up on him somehow even though she’d been perfect from the start.