Page 39 of The Bookbinder's Guide to Love

Wes looked over at Sera, smiling as she talked to another one of her customers under a sign that said Words Are Magic. Was he doing this for himself? Yes. He had always put himself first and he wasn’t really sure what he could give her. He hadn’t seen it from this point of view until Oz brought it up.

Wes had painted himself in some kind of noble light, like he was finally opening himself up and getting closure with Grandpa, but what was in it for Sera? He was helping her with the journal making, but did she have another reason for asking for his help?

Had she originally agreed to his idea with an ulterior motive, to get back at him or to seek something from his family? Or was it simply that she wanted to talk about the friend she’d lost?

Definitely the second—she wasn’t trying to get back at him.

Oz stood silently next to him, but Wes didn’t know the answer so just shrugged. His brother stayed a few more minutes, chatting about nothing in particular, and then left. Sera drifted over to him after.

“Why was he here?” she asked.

“Curiosity.” Wes really hoped she’d let that be enough, but he knew her by now, or was starting to. She couldn’t let a one-word answer lie.

“About?”

He knew she wasn’t flirting with him, that it was just the way she talked and her innate curiosity, but after a lifetime of functional conversations where he limited himself, this felt intimate. “You and me.”

“I don’t understand,” she said.

“Neither do I.” Oz had shown up because Wes was staying in Birch Lake, the one place neither of them had ever wanted to be. After Wes’s falling-out with Grandpa, he’d crashed with Oz for a few days and vowed never to come back.

So his brother was curious about the reason for the change of heart. Oz had one small conversation with Sera and had seemed to find an answer to a question only he knew.

But one conversation with Sera was all it seemed to take for the Sitwell men to be intrigued by her. First Grandpa, then himself and now Oz.

Sera had upended everything Wes believed about himself and was making him question it all.

Ten

The day of the funeral was clear, crisp and sunny. Sera stood outside the church in her long red wool coat, which she’d worn because Ford had complimented her on it. She thought it was too loud, and he said she should take more chances.

Be bolder.

His advice had usually fallen on deaf ears, but today she thought he’d appreciate the coat. She knew he was gone and that whatever lingered of his spirit was in her heart and in her mind. But somehow, she hoped her gesture would reach him. Poppy slid her arm through Sera’s left one and Liberty took her right.

“I’m not sure what will happen when I enter a church, being a Wiccan and all. So if I combust, take my dust back to my mother.”

Sera laughed as she knew Liberty intended, but then turned and kissed her friend on the cheek. “I’m putting some of your dust into a special journal.”

“Good. I’ll be back to haunt you both,” Liberty said.

“I haven’t been to church in years. I’m not even sure I remember what to do,” Sera said.

“Well, I’m Anglican, so I sure don’t know, and Liberty will be with us in spirit if things go poorly,” Poppy said. “So we’ll have to wing it.”

Winging it was pretty much the story of her life. It was sweet that neither of her friends pointed out that she was hesitating. Sera knew once she went in the church and saw Ford in his coffin, it would be final.

The last few days had been weird because she hadn’t seen Ford as she usually did and yesterday afternoon she’d had a cry in the back room until Wes came in. He’d noticed her teary eyes and offered her a handkerchief that he’d found in Ford’s stuff. Then he’d started talking about a video he’d watched that morning on faster binding techniques. Comforting her. She wasn’t spiritual, not really, but it had been impossible not to link Wes’s actions with Ford’s otherworldly handiwork.

She took a deep breath.

“I’m ready.”

“I’m not. Seriously, now I think I should have worn my robes instead of the see-through blouse,” Liberty said. “What if that pisses off the Catholic God even more?”

“What if it makes him smile?” Sera said. “Sister Edward said God is what we need them to be.”

“And today you need smiles,” Poppy said.

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