The week between Christmas and New Year's crawled. Every shift at the library, Lena's eyes flicked to the door the moment the bell jingled. Every time, it wasn't him—just harried mothers with hyper kids, or retirees grabbing winter thrillers. By New Year's Eve, she had given up. Snowflakes stuck to the windows as she locked the front doors, flipped the sign to Closed. The clock above the front desk read 5:58 PM. No patron...

Lena tucked a strand of honey-brown hair behind her ear, shelving a stack of romance novels. She winced at the visual assault of tinsel, red bows, and twinkling lights covering every shelf of the small bookstore. The pristine holiday display clashed violently with the gray slush and gritty snow melting onto the mat from a dozen customers' boots—a mess she will have to take care of later. The bell above the door jingled, a...