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

by Laurie Gilmore

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

Ugh, he was charming. Charming enough, in fact, that his exploits with female tourists were practically legendary. So why he kept hanging around her bookstore was still a mystery to Hazel.

His gaze flicked from her face to the shelves behind her and back again. This was a typical Noah visit. He came in every other week for a book but never seemed to know what he was looking for.

By the time the house was visible, his thoughts had circled back around to Hazel and that book she had been reading and if she liked guys with boats. Because he happened to be a guy with a boat. Maybe he should ask her out after all.

‘Another clue!’ she said, dropping her voice like it was a secret. He wanted to have secrets with Hazel Kelly.

‘Haze, if you weren’t kinda drunk I woulda kept on kissing you.’

Hazel was doubled over in giggles and Noah would let Mac make fun of him all day just to keep listening to that sound.

Activity and noise and lights and bodies swirled around her, but Noah only saw her. It was as though everything else was blurred but Hazel was crystal clear.

Hazel Kelly was the only thing he’d felt like learning about in years.

Noah felt an absurd flair of pride that Hazel had ordered them. Like he had personally invented fish tacos.

‘Me too.’ His voice was low and rough like those two words meant so much more than he spoke out loud. Like maybe he meant, me too, you’re my favorite person, too. Me too, I have all my favorite days with you.

She brought him back to life, reconstructed him into a better version than the original. And he felt alive. He was alive. He was real.