Page 29 of Novel Problems

We sat in comfortable silence for a few moments as I tried to process the events of the last hour. There’d been a lot of new information to absorb in the middle of the night, and I still couldn’t get my head around it all.

Hannah finished the last of her hot chocolate, looked at her watch, and sighed. “I’d better get back to signing.”

Pushing the thoughts swirling in my head aside, I focused on the tired-looking woman in front of me. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep, and come back during the day to sign once you’ve had some rest?”

Hannah shook her head. “There’s no way I’m going to go back to sleep now.” She smiled at me sheepishly. “I ate an enormous handful of coffee beans, and now I’m completely wired. I think I just need to push through at this point.” The coffee beans, along with her general anxiety about the whole situation, explained her jiggling leg and tapping fingers.

“Are you sure?”

Hannah nodded.

“Well, at least let me get you set up on one of the tables at the front. It’ll be a lot more comfortable than hunching over boxes on the floor.”

Ten minutes later, we’d carried the boxes of books to the front of the café, and Hannah was sitting in a chair with a few pens and a glass of water on the table in front of her, the boxes stacked up on her left side.

She smiled up at me. “Thank you. This is great. I’m so sorry I woke you. You should go back to sleep now, or you’ll be exhausted.”

But the idea of leaving Hannah alone didn’t sit right with me. “I’ll just get all the boxes opened up so they’re ready for you.”

“I really think you should go to bed…”

I ignored Hannah and started opening the boxes and unpacking them. I placed a pile of books on Hannah’s left and then collected the ones she’d signed and placed them into one of the empty boxes. I kept shooting glances at Hannah, her head bent over the books and frowning in concentration, as she carefully signed one after another. Most people, faced with such a mountain of books to sign in the middle of the night, would rush through them, placing a slapdash signature on the book, but Hannah took her responsibilities seriously. A lock of her wavy brown hair fell forward over her face, and I fought the urge to tuck it back behind her ear.

Warmth spread through my body.Even at 4 a.m., I find this woman attractive.I went to chastise myself for the thought, and then it struck me. Hannah wasn’t an employee anymore. The only reason she’d been working here was because of our misunderstanding, which had now been resolved. Which meant there was no power imbalance anymore. Which meant that she was no longer offlimits.

But shewasthe brilliant, bestselling author of my favorite books. The author I’d gushed over in front of Hannah and assumed was a man. Heat shot up my face at the memory.

Thankfully, Hannah was oblivious to my embarrassment, still focused on the pile ofThe Realm of Furiesin front of her. I busied myself packing up another box of signed books, deciding now was not the time to work through my feelings for Hannah.

“Shit!” Hannah exclaimed forty minutes later.

I turned to find her staring horrified at the book in front of her.

“I must have lost concentration. I accidentally drew a line down the page, and then when I startled, my pen went off to the right, so it kind of turned into a giant L.”

I walked behind her, bending over her shoulder to assess the situation, trying not to be too distracted by my proximity to her and her faint floral scent.

“Um, maybe you could turn it into a drawing of a book and writeHappy reading?”

Hannah laughed. “I don’t trust myself to start illustrating things. I’m terrible at drawing at the best of times, and 5 a.m. isnotthe best of times.”

“Here.” I grabbed an empty box and one of the spare pens from the desk and, crouching next to her, mirrored the L drawing on the box, showing her how I’d transform it into a book. “I’m sure you can do that.”

Hannah studied my basic drawing. “Yeah, okay. That doesn’t look too hard. I’ll give it a go. It can’t look worse than this.”

She painstakingly copied my drawing, glancing up and down and biting her lip. I tried not to stare at her lips too closely and failed miserably. They looked so soft.

Finally, she put her pen down. “There! What do you think?” She beamed up at me.

It certainly wasn’t the best book drawing I’d ever seen. But you could tell it was a book, or possibly a newspaper or magazine, which was at least something. “I think whoever gets that book will be thrilled by their one-of-a-kind, personally illustrated, signed copy.”

Hannah’s face brightened further. “I’m glad you think so! Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. Signing these damn books is hard enough without doing illustrations as well.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. It could be a fun challenge. You draw random squiggles, and I work out how to turn them into book-related drawings.”

Hannah laughed. “If it wasn’t five in the morning and I didn’t have all these books to get through, I’d totally be up for that game. Can we take a raincheck?”

“Of course.” I grinned. “Hey, before you start signing again, can I make you something? Tea, hot chocolate, coffee?”

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