Chapter 83: The Red Porche
Rosalie:
By Monday afternoon, I had officially run out of things to clean.
If someone had asked me to point out even a single dusty corner inside the bookstore, I genuinely wouldn’t have been able to. Every shelf had been wiped down several times over. Every book had been dusted, rearranged, and returned to its proper place. The wooden floors shone beneath the warm afternoon sunlight filtering through the front glass wall. The reading corner upstairs looked so inviting that I had almost curled up there with a novel myself. Even the old brass bell hanging above the entrance had been polished until it gleamed.
During the past week I had poured every spare moment into transforming this forgotten bookstore into something warm and welcoming. I had rearranged the genres to make browsing easier, created recommendation shelves, handwritten little review cards for some of my favorite books, and even moved several pieces of furniture around until the entire place felt brighter and more spacious.
Since I had almost no budget, I had worked with what nature gave me. Fresh ivy and flowering vines from my small garden now curled elegantly around the reception desk and several bookshelves, adding just enough life to soften the old wooden interior. It wasn’t extravagant. It wasn’t expensive. But it finally felt alive. And now... there was absolutely nothing left to do except wait for the second part of my plan.
Unfortunately, waiting turned out to be the hardest task of all.
Ever since lunch, I had found myself wandering back toward the front of the bookstore every few minutes, pretending to straighten books near the entrance while secretly peeking through the enormous floor-to-ceiling glass wall overlooking the main street.
Every passing car made my heart jump before immediately settling again. Every unfamiliar engine made me glance outside in hope. At one point I actually found myself cleaning the spotless glass entrance for what had to be the twelfth time that day.
Even I had to admit it was becoming ridiculous.
A few minutes later I adjusted the flowering vines wrapped around the reception desk despite knowing perfectly well that they hadn’t moved since morning. Then I rearranged the stack of bookmarks sitting beside the register. Then I checked whether the display novels near the entrance were perfectly aligned.
Grandma Maggie had watched me with an amused smile before quietly disappearing upstairs, wisely pretending not to notice that I was behaving like an anxious child waiting for an important guest.
The truth was... I was nervous. Everything I had worked toward this past week depended on today going well. If my idea succeeded, this little bookstore might finally have a future. If it failed... I wasn’t sure what Plan B even looked like.
Then I heard it.
A deep, refined engine unlike anything else driving through main street. Instinctively, I looked through the front glass and noticed as a brilliant red Porsche turned slowly onto my street.
I had never seen that car before. Not once. Yet before my eyes even properly focused on it, the familiar warmth of the mate bond gently stirred inside my chest.
Eiden.
A smile immediately threatened to spread across my lips.
He hadn’t even stepped out of the car yet, and somehow my body already knew he had arrived.
Realizing I had once again drifted toward the entrance like a complete stalker, I immediately spun around and hurried back behind the reception counter, trying my absolute best to appear busy. I grabbed a notebook lying nearby and opened it at random, pretending to study inventory records despite the fact that the page was blank. My heart, however, continued beating noticeably faster with every passing second.
The Porsche rolled to a smooth stop directly outside the bookstore.
It wasn’t only me who noticed. Almost everyone on the street did. People slowed down. Some stopped walking altogether, while several turned around after already passing by.
Expensive sports cars weren’t exactly common in Shadow Creek, and a bright red Porsche certainly wasn’t something the townspeople saw every day. Curious glances quickly became open stares as the driver’s door swung open.
Then...
Eiden stepped out.
The effect was immediate. Several people visibly gasped. A young woman walking past nearly walked straight into a streetlamp because she had stopped looking where she was going. An elderly man lowered his newspaper. Two teenage girls standing outside a nearby café immediately began whispering excitedly while pulling out their phones.
Even from inside the bookstore, I could hear someone outside saying in disbelief,
"Isn’t that Alpha Thorn?"
Though Eiden always dressed well, today he had clearly decided to make my ridiculous marketing scheme even more effective than I had dared hope.
His blue silk shirt matched the exact shade of his eyes, making them seem even brighter beneath the late afternoon sunlight. The top two buttons had been left casually undone, revealing just enough of his collarbone and well-defined chest to make more than one passerby openly stare. Black tailored trousers completed the outfit perfectly, while his long silver hair had been gathered into a neat man bun with several loose strands framing his face in a way that somehow made him look both elegant and effortlessly attractive at the same time. Dark sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose until he reached the bookstore entrance. Only then did he remove them with one smooth movement before slipping them into his shirt pocket.
The little brass bell chimed softly as he stepped inside.
Our eyes met instantly.
A warm smile appeared on his face. Then... he winked. Just once. It was such a tiny gesture that no one outside could possibly have noticed.
But I did.
Heat rushed to my cheeks before I could stop it. At the same time, through the glass behind him, I saw exactly what I had been hoping for. People weren’t leaving. They were gathering.
One person stopped. Then three.,Then six. Within barely two minutes, well over a dozen curious townspeople had gathered outside the bookstore windows, pretending to glance casually inside while very obviously trying to confirm whether the famous Alpha healer had really entered the nearly forgotten bookstore.
It was working.
Moon Goddess...
It was actually working.
The realization almost made me laugh aloud. I had spent days worrying whether anyone would even notice. Instead, the bookstore had suddenly become the busiest spot on the entire street.
Before I could become too distracted watching my carefully laid plan unfold, Eiden slowly approached the reception counter with the same relaxed confidence he always carried.
Stopping in front of me, he smiled politely, as though we weren’t secretly working together at all.
"Good afternoon, Miss Hale."
His respectful tone almost made me forget he was deliberately playing along.
"Good afternoon, Alpha Thorn," I answered just as professionally, struggling to suppress the smile threatening to betray me.
He glanced briefly around the beautifully organized bookstore before returning his attention to me.
"I was wondering..." His smile widened ever so slightly. "...whether your bookstore has anything to offer a thirsty customer to drink?"
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