The Bookish Life of Nina Hill(87)

“Are you sure?” Liz looked worried. “I mean, I get that the universe whirls in mysterious yada yada, but wouldn’t you rather travel the world?”

“No, I’d rather stay home and read.”

“What about investing in real estate?” asked Meffo.

“In this market, are you mad?” replied Nina.

“What about your photography?” asked Liz.

“I’ll buy a nicer camera, but I’m not quitting my day job.” Nina grew exasperated. “What is with everyone? I don’t want to travel, I don’t want to buy a house, I want to run a bookstore, and this is the bookstore I want to run.” She turned to Tom. “You believe me, don’t you?”

Tom nodded. “Baby, you do you.”

“Well, I don’t know . . .” Mr. Meffo was frowning. “Puff and Pout signed a lease.”

“They just got you guys high without warning you! I think a strongly worded conversation should encourage them to back off.”

Liz looked around. “It’s going to take a while to reorganize all this.”

Nina felt triumphant. “That’s OK, Tom and I are going on a road trip, anyway.”

“We are?” asked Tom.

“Yes,” crowed Nina. “To Mexico. I just decided. I like being spontaneous!”

“Oh my God,” said Liz, who was clearly losing her buzz. “You’re like a character in a book.”

“Lizzy Bennet? Katniss Everdeen?”

“No, the stubborn guy in Green Eggs and Ham. After all the irritating and obsessive planning, it turns out you like to wing it after all.” She adopted a singsong tone. “I do! I like being flexible! And I will do it on a train, and I will do it in the rain.” She turned to Tom. “I guess that makes you Sam-I-Am.”

He shrugged. “I’ll take that. Persistent and loyal are pretty good character traits.”

Nina laughed out loud. She’d found her purpose—not reading as many good books as possible, but helping other people do so. She was going to make Knight’s a huge success; she was going to add a big, shiny coffee machine, and put her photos on the wall, and get a store dog and call it Admiral Frontispiece . . . or maybe it was just the muffins kicking in.

“Come on,” she said to Tom, jumping up. “Let’s go!”

So, dear reader, that’s precisely what they did. And once they’d finished doing that, they lived happily ever after.