Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89183 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Her exhaustion was the only thing that could explain it. Still, she couldn’t take her eyes off the man as he took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, glanced at his watch as though he really had better things to do, unfolded the paper, and held it toward the stream of incoming arrivals.
Josie Hartwell.
Her gasp was loud enough that several people looked her way. The Malcolm Sullivan lookalike was there to pick her up. How could this be? Where was Mari?
Josie fumbled for her phone in her carry-on bag and realized it was still on airplane mode, so if Mari had tried to get ahold of her, Josie wouldn’t have gotten her message. Of course, as soon as she took it off airplane mode, a series of text messages came flying in from Mari, who apologized profusely for being unable to pick her up. Her helper at the bookshop had called in sick, and she had a Mathilda Westcott fan group coming that afternoon, so she couldn’t close the store and come to the airport. Mari explained that her partner’s brother Malcolm would come get Josie, which she hoped would be okay because it was his houseboat that Josie would be staying in. Mari suggested that he could even help her get settled before bringing her by the bookstore.
Josie took a deep breath. She wouldn’t let herself treat this as a disaster. The name of Mari’s boyfriend’s brother was Malcolm. So this had to be Malcolm Sullivan standing there, looking impatient. She got the feeling he was usually the one being greeted at airports by drivers with signs, not being the driver.
Okay. Calm down. It was no big deal that Malcolm Sullivan was picking her up… and that she was also going to be staying on his houseboat! There was no way he’d remember her. Not a forgettable fifteen-year-old called Worm.
Planting a big smile on her face, she walked toward him. “Hi. I believe you’re here to pick me up in place of Mari Everett.”
He had been holding the sign with one hand and scrolling through his phone with the other. He glanced up at her as though annoyed that she’d interrupted his web browsing. She almost found herself apologizing for disturbing him, but since he was here to pick her up, she worked to keep the smile firmly planted on her face, her lips almost wobbling from how much she was trying to look happy.
There was no hint of recognition in his eyes. She’d been right. He didn’t remember her at all. Even though it felt weird that he didn’t seem to recognize her, she was grateful.
He shoved his phone into his pocket. “Yes, Mari called at the last second and asked me to give you a lift.” He looked at the two enormous suitcases behind her. “You don’t travel light, do you?”
Perhaps if he hadn’t seemed quite so grumpy, she would have explained that only one of the bags had clothes in it. The other was full of books. Even though she was here to work with a bookstore owner, and also knew that there were a zillion bookstores throughout London, she still carried certain books with her everywhere, the way a craftsman might carry their own tools to do a job. These books were all precious to her for one reason or another, and she knew better than anyone that they could help a person heal.
But at this very moment, she couldn’t find her voice. Not now that she’d heard his. It was lower than she remembered, because he was a man now rather than a boy on the verge of manhood. But she no longer had one single doubt that this was Malcolm Sullivan in the flesh, the foreign exchange student who’d rocked her world… and then broken her heart. All in a single night.
His eyes narrowed as he waited for her to speak, and she knew she was making a terrible first impression. Or rather, a terrible first impression fifteen years after they’d last seen each other.
“We know each other,” she blurted. Wait. Where had that come from? What was wrong with her jet-lagged brain?
He appeared astonished at this news.
Okay, so she no longer wore thick glasses, had grown several inches since high school, dressed better, and had changed her name from Josephine to Josie. So she could understand why he might not be able to connect her with that random girl he’d kissed back in Coeur d’Alene so many years ago.
And yet, she was so flabbergasted to come face to face with him again, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “We knew each other in high school. You were the foreign exchange student from England. You dated Brianna Sterling. The cheerleader. And at the prom, when I was a sophomore, we—”
Oh no. Really? She had almost brought up the kiss that had begun like heaven and ended like hell within the first sixty seconds of speaking with him?