"Please, please, pretty please?" Suzy looks up at me with her big brown puppy eyes, melting my already soft heart. "I'll be good for ten years!"
I smile down at the small girl clinging to my waist, and pick her up, setting her on my hip. "Only ten?" I tease, touching foreheads with her. She giggles and I laugh with her. She grabs me around the neck, her small hands surprisingly strong. "Ouch, Suzy, please don't do that."
She lets go and latches onto my shoulders instead, which isn't much better but I choose to let it go. "Please bring me back a book," she implores, giving me her puppy eyes again.
Those eyes will be the death of me yet.
I set her down on the bed she shares with Mia- the "middle sister"- and smooth my skirt. "We'll see," I tell her, though I fully intend to fulfill her request. Who could say no to those eyes? And that angelic little face?
Stop it, Fawn, I tell myself sternly. If you give in to her puppy eyes every time you'll spoil her rotten.
But if you don't spoil her, another voice reminds me, the boys will.
I hold back a chuckle at the vision of Suzy surrounded by my chaotic guy friends. Oh, they're angels with her, but nothing can stop the fact that they're head over heels for her. In all the right ways. And that usually means that they can't say no to her adorable pleading.
But then again, if even I, her sister and current guardian, can't say no to her, why would I expect a bunch of teenage and young adult males to say no?
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I turn to Sophie, the oldest of my younger sisters. "You're in charge, okay?" I tell her. "I don't expect you to scold the others or anything, but if something happens just remember to tell me, okay?"
Sophie nods solemnly. She's only eight, but unless the guys want three little girls running around the bookshop and apothecary, I have no choice but to leave them in her care. She's more than capable of watching them, but it always leaves me feeling irresponsible to leave a six and four year old in the care of an eight year old.
"Okay." I give her a hug, and turn to all three girls. "I'll be back at sunset, okay? No going outside unless Ivory comes over."
Three small girls nod vigorously at me, making me chuckle as I leave our small house. Scratch that thought about Suzy being hard to say no to. They're all hard to say no to.
The walk to town isn't far, but it takes me a good fifteen minutes to reach the outskirts. Just as I'm about to enter the main street, a wagon rattles by, kicking up a dust storm worthy of stampeding horses. Scrunching my face against the onslaught of dirt, I hold my breath and scuttle towards the bookshop halfway down the street.
The bookshop is the one place I can truly relax. Atticus and Theo- the owners, and two of my best friends- use their bookshop magic to play neverending music at just the right volume, and through the same magic (and a little elbow grease) keep the place tidy and welcoming.
The bell attached to the door jingles brightly as I push open the door, alerting Theo to my presence. "Hey, Fawn!" he greets me cheerily, looking up from the stack of books he's sorting. "What're you doing here so early?"
I hold up a thick, blue-bound volume. "I came to return this before heading to the apothecary. Last time I brought a book Sandy threatened to make me dice all the onions in his stock for him if I ever brought another one."
Theo laughs, a friendly chuckle that never fails to light up the room. "That Sandy," he remarks, taking the book and adding it to one of the many piles of books scattered around the spacious counter. "We'll just have to teach him the magic of books."
"I've been trying to tell him that there are informational books he could learn a lot from, but he just took that as an insult to his skills."
From somewhere in the room comes Atticus's deep-throated bark of a laugh. "It doesn't surprise me," he calls from his hiding place among the many tall bookshelves. "Sandy has a good head on his shoulders, but when it comes to his work, that same head becomes thick as my sister's potato soup."
"Speaking of Charlotte, how is she?" Theo asks, resuming the book sorting.
I can almost see Atticus shrugging as he replies. "She hasn't written since she ran off to the capital to ingrain herself to 'high society'." He says the last two words mockingly, making his opinion of high society perfectly clear.
"Well, probably that means she's just busy having a good time," Theo says, sliding a stack of books off the counter and carrying them to one of the shelves.
"Hopefully," Atticus says, but he doesn't sound too convinced.
While the guys are talking, I glance idly out the window at a passing carriage- and see a very familiar figure hurrying towards the bookshop. "Oh, oh, here comes trouble."
Atticus follows my gaze, and a smirk pulls one corner of his mouth up. "Let me guess: you didn't actually have time to stop here."
My cheeks heat up. "Umm..."
Atticus laughs and gives me a gentle shove towards the door. "Just go before he gets here, you know how he is when you're late to work."
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A/N: hey yall!! i'm so excited to publish chapter one!! i hope you like it <3 please vote for this chapter, i'm hoping to get 2-5 votes before chapter two is posted but since not many people see my books at this point almost anything would mean the world to me <3 love y'all!!
<3 Austyn
