How Do They Know?(1)

My dad wanted my go home and rest and promised not to tell anyone about me being pregnant. I had already told my brother Avery, who is the second oldest, about me being pregnant. His girlfriend, Louann, and I are best friends, and they are set to have their first child in only a few short months. They have been super helpful whenever I needed anything; someday soon, I hope to be able to pay them back, even though they told me not to worry about it.

I had my dad drop me off at my bookstore, which is only a block away from our home. It used to be the house where we lived when I was firstborn. My dad had wanted to sell it, but since he put it in my name once I turned eighteen, he told me I could decide what I wanted to do with it. I could think of nothing better than turning it into a nice little bookstore. Unfortunately, I hadn't come up with a name yet, so I only had a sign that said 'Bookstore' in big, bold letters.

It was the only store here besides the bbq restaurant in the middle of town in this tiny little town. They had started setting up a Dollar Store on the outside of town, next to the gas station, but what town or city doesn't have a Dollar Store these days?

I am slowly working on repainting the place to, maybe a dark purple, but I had to renovate it a bit before I could. I had the walls knocked down inside, so I made it more spacious and had shelves put in for my hundreds of books. It used to be a two-bedroom, one bath, but I took out the bedrooms and kept the bathroom. Just updating the entire house took almost all of my earnings from various jobs.

I walked across the street to the post office to grab the books that came in. The box is pretty big and heavy and with me only being five feet tall, I am struggling to see where I am going. I stepped in a pothole in the road and started falling before I could hit the ground, I felt a hand grab my arm and hold me in place, but my books weren't so lucky. They hit the ground with such force the box broke open, and my books scattered in the puddles on the side of the road. Why did it always have to rain here?

The tall man released his grip and bent to pick up my books. I hurriedly started pulling them out of the puddles, not worrying about my clothes. The person I ordered from wrapped all of the books in plastic, but most had torn open when they fell. My heart dropped seeing the state that my books were in, and I could feel tears well up. Everything wasn't going my way today.

The man looked at me and then at the books in my hands, "I'm sorry. I should have offered to help when I saw you come out of the post office with that box. Someone as small as you shouldn't be carrying such a big box. I didn't think it would be so full of books." I finally got a good look at the man, and he was a giant compared to me. Most people tend to be bigger than I am, but this guy had to be over six feet tall, and he is handsome, with bright blue eyes and nice full lips curved in a timid smile.

When our eyes met, he stopped smiling and tilted his head, "Someone in your state shouldn't be carrying a heavy box like this anyway." He grabbed the books from my hands, put them back in the box that is busted open, and held them together. I pointed across the street to my store and unlocked the door so he could bring the books in.

I was sorting which books were salvageable and books that would have to be tossed out when it dawned on me. My eyes shot up to where he was standing and I asked, "What do you mean my state?"