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looked around the quiet store. “Thanks for covering for me this morning. Is there anything happening around here that I need to know about?”
    “We got a box of ARC’s and promotional swag in. I put it on your desk.”
    “Okay, good. When does Hannah come in next? She’ll want those ARC’s so she can start reading them.” Hannah was another employee at Raider Readers and she worked as their blog mistress. She read the Advanced Reader Copies of books that were coming out and posted reviews as well as giveaways, release dates, and other pertinent information on the blog for the bookstore.
    “She’s supposed to be in tomorrow afternoon.”
    “Good. She can go through them then.” There was a customer in the New Fiction section and the monitors showed someone else upstairs in the Science Fiction section. “It looks like you have everything under control here.” At Alix’s nod, she said, “I’m going to go catch up on some paperwork in my office. Holler if you need me.”
     

C hapter 6
    “Colton! I come bearing food. Can I interest you in some pizza?” Penelope yelled down the hall as she set the pizzas on the table. She didn’t hear a response so she walked down the hall to Colton’s room, to see how the unpacking was going.
    She found him sitting on the floor, surrounded by a meager pile of boxes, looking at a photo album. His face wasn’t visible, but his posture seemed sad. Slumped over the photo album, his fingers lingered lightly over a photo of a couple. That had to be a picture of his parents.
    His bare feet toes were peeking out from under his folded legs. Tilting her head, she looked again at those bare toes. Why was that so attractive to her? Especially in light of the sadness that permeated the room as he looked at his parents. She knew they’d died in a plane crash through her friendship with Cassie. How hard would that have been for him to lose both parents so young?
    As she leaned against the doorframe, observing him, Colton suddenly jumped up and began searching through the few boxes in the room.
    “Son of a bitch!” The muscles in his back became tighter and tighter as he dug more frantically. Whatever he’d just discovered was missing, he wasn’t happy about it.
    She needed to give him his privacy.
    As she started to slip away, he suddenly looked up at her. She was struck by the stark anger and pain shining from his eyes at that first glance, but he quickly covered it up when he realized she was standing there.
    “I didn’t hear you come in,” he said quietly.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I brought pizza. I knew you’d be busy unpacking today and thought you could use some sustenance.” She decided not to mention whatever he was looking for. It wasn’t any of her business, but she couldn’t ignore the lack of stuff. She looked quizzically around the room and the obvious lack of boxes and furniture. “Um, Colton, where’s all your stuff?”
    He gave a self-deprecating chuckle as his eyes hardened. “Obviously, you should never trust a soon-to-be ex-wife to pack up your house and put it into storage for you. This is all there is.” He looked around the bare room. “I need to go shopping.” He scowled at the thought.
    She smiled. “I can tell you’re thrilled about the idea. First, pizza. We can figure out what you need over lunch.”
    They headed into the kitchen  and settled into chairs at the breakfast bar. Penelope gestured toward his plate. “I hope you don’t mind veggie pizza. I’m a vegetarian.”
    “Naw, this is great. I love any pizza from One Guy. Thanks for picking it up, but I thought you were going to be working all day.”
    “Ah, no, that’s the beauty of being the boss. I can leave when things get slow. They can call me back in if they need me, but I think you’re going to need me more today.” She leaned over the counter and grabbed a pad and pencil. “We have some power shopping to get done. Let’s make a list.”
    “Thanks,