His Plan: Book 2 in the Crossing Midian Series - A Small-Town Christian Romance

Chapter 11

When Lenore got to the bookstore the next morning, she opened the door to find Kathleen sitting on the floor in the middle of several boxes stacked waist high.

"What in the world is going on in here?" she asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind her. Lenore couldn't help but grin, thinking how cute her mom looked in a pair of old overalls and white sneakers. Kathleen usually let her hair hang down, but today she had pulled it up into a bun and her glasses were sitting precariously on her nose.

Kathleen looked up with a bright smile. She held up her arms, gesturing at all the boxes in excitement. "Look at all this!" she exclaimed. "Can you believe it? She called last night and said she had some children's books she wanted to donate. We agreed to meet this morning and when I got here, she had a truckload."

Lenore fell, rather clumsily, into the nearest chair. "Are you serious?" she asked when she finally regained her ability to speak. She pulled the closest box toward her and peered inside. "Who was she?"

"I don't know," Kathleen replied as she distractedly pulled out books from another box. "She said her name was Allison and that a library had unfortunately closed down and she had gotten the books from an auction."

Lenore's eyes were wide as she took in all the boxes and books that seemed to cover every available space in front of the counter. "Mom, this is enough for a huge start on the children's section."

Kathleen nodded. "I know!" she said, clapping her hands together. "I couldn't believe it when I saw how many there were. This is such a blessing!"

Lenore grabbed a ponytail holder from her purse and quickly pulled her hair up and out of her face. "Well, unless you want this blessing to get trampled on when people come in here, we better get started. We got a lot of work to do."

Kathleen sighed and allowed Lenore to help her to her feet. "I'm not even sure where to start. This is overwhelming."

Lenore bit her bottom lip as she thought about where to begin. She made her way around the maze of boxes to look into the freshly painted children's room and said, "At least we've already cleaned out the other room, but we definitely need to build those shelves soon."

Kathleen had gotten someone to paint it the same color blue as the front door, but each wall had smaller scenes of children's books in silhouette. Peter Pan, Wendy, and Tinker Bell flew around Big Ben in one spot, while Little Red Riding Hood followed the trail to grandmother's house in another.

Lenore turned back to the books. "Why don't we start with getting them all moved into the other room? Then we can sort through them and get them organized so it'll be easier once the shelves are done."

Kathleen agreed, but even with both women working, they barely got all the boxes carried into the room before the bookstore opened at ten.

With the last box put away, Lenore surveyed their progress. Thirty-two boxes now sat stacked along one wall. She did some quick calculating and smiled to herself. There had to be at least a thousand books here!

She walked back into the main room just as Kathleen sat down in one of the comfy chairs. Henry jumped up beside her and she absently stroked his fur.

"Are you okay?" Lenore asked.

Kathleen laughed. "Oh, I'm fine. I still just can't believe she gave them to us. What are the chances that we want to have a dedicated kids' section, and then this woman who we don't even know shows up out of nowhere with all those books?"

Lenore smiled at her mother as she flipped the sign in the window to open and headed to the coffeemaker to brew a pot. "You're the one always telling me that God works things out how you least expect it," she said over her shoulder.