Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

by Jenny Bayliss

you never forget your first love. You leave a tiny piece of your heart with them, always, and hope that they keep it safe.

But life was like that, wasn’t it? A never-ending series of events, the ripples of which would either push you away from people or pull you toward them.

If she tried to speak, she might angry-cry, which was just the worst kind of cry because everyone assumed you were upset, when in fact you were so full of rage that if your tear ducts didn’t let out some pressure your head would explode.

“Keeping books is not hoarding!” Nory said fiercely, clutching an aged copy of Heidi to her chest. “It’s protecting history. The written word is the key to the secrets of this world and all the worlds that live in our minds.”

Some books wrote themselves into people’s hearts as children and lived there, all but forgotten, until a bookseller recognized the spark and reunited them. Other books held their words close, waiting on the shelf to ignite a passion in someone who hadn’t even known they were wanting, until a bookseller introduced them. Booksellers were matchmakers of sorts.