Page 55 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

She already had three subscribers, herself, Meddy and their mom. Their dad was afraid of the internet or she’d have four.

She needed to post a sign in the Huckleberry Bookshop once it opened to ask people to subscribe—and maybe spam all the guys on the team and tell them to as well.

“Chad! It’s live!” she called through her open office doorway, causing the man to stop.

He peeked around the corner. “Say what?”

“We’re famous!” She swiveled her computer monitor to face him. He came in, hunching slightly to get a better angle on the screen.

“Look at that,” he said. “Let me subscribe.”

She waited while he played with his phone, then hit Refresh on her browser. She squealed. “Four!”

“You playing golf, cutie?” He perched on the edge of her desk, his mind clearly elsewhere. Or maybe this was small beans and boring to someone with his level of fame.

“Sorry. Just a little excited.” She put her computer to sleep and turned to face him more fully, but he was back on his phone.

With a jolt Athena came crashing down to earth, realizing that the last time they’d spoken she’d shut him down. She’d called him out on the walls he erected to keep her out, and told him he wasn’t real enough to be her boyfriend. And now she was acting like they were buddies.

And maybe they sort of were, even though they didn’t have what it took to start a solid relationship.

Chad pocketed his phone and looked at her as if he couldn’t quite figure her out.

“Still friends?” she asked quietly, her heart racing in her chest.

He stood. “No.”

“Oh.”

At the door, he turned. “I’ll never settle for that. You know I want more.”

She shivered, knowing he was a man who was used to getting what he wanted.

“Chad, I told you I need—”

“Something real. That you need to know me.”

“Yes!”

“Maybe some guys don’t talk with words, Tina.”

“Seriously! My name is Athena!”

“Maybe you already know me. Ever consider that?” He vanished out the door, and she sighed, his words running circles in her tired mind.

She went back to work, her thoughts everywhere but on her dietary plans and tracking sugar levels for her diabetic player. Unable to focus, she finally closed the document and checked her watch. Time to go home to the store.

Athena gently rubbed her eyes, unable to wait to take out her contact lenses and give her eyes a break. She was crazy. She was working too hard and was going to wake up in her fifties and realize it was too late to have the dreams she’d assumed were hers. Dreams like finding love and having a family.

She hit the lights and locked her office, bumping into Chad at a hallway junction. He waved his phone. “Two hundred and thirty-five.”

“What?”

“Subscribers.”

“What? No! Already?” She grabbed her own phone, checking for herself. There’d only been the four of them when they’d been chatting twenty minutes ago. She looked at the screen, blinked, read it again. “Two hundred and forty-four!”

That was a dizzying number of subscribers in such a short period of time. Far too many to all be family and friends.

---