Over My Read Body

Chapter One


As she looked around the first floor of her new house, Cassandra Hart could easily envision how it could be turned into a book store.

Most of her adult life, Cassie had dreamed of owning a Mystery Book Store and now because of the generosity of a dear friend, her dream was becoming a reality. After Anna’s tragic death at the Assisted Living Facility where she had been working, Cassie learned that she left her beloved beach house to her. It wasn’t a large house, but the two story home was more than enough for the quaint book store and for Cassie’s living quarters on the second floor. It would be perfect. Anna’s generosity also included a large sum of money that would pay for the remodeling and the inventory to stock the shelves with.

Cassie walked through the rooms on the first floor. The livingroom was a large open room with a cathedral ceiling. On the right hand side was a quaint fireplace where Cassie would set up a few small tables. She always wanted her book store to be a cozy place where her customers could enjoy a cup of coffee and sit and talk with each other after an evening book club session.

There was plenty of wall space and the room was large enough to add some shelves in the center of the room. The room extended back into a dining area which Cassie would use for more book cases.

To the left of the dining area, there was a small kitchen area with a breakfast bar and two stools. Cassie thought it would be a good idea to take out the bar and close the opening up to the kitchen and put up another wall there. More walls meant more book shelves and more books. She decided to keep the kitchen though, but she would get rid of the large appliances and just have maybe a toaster oven and a small refrigerator. She would need a few coffee makers for the different types of coffee she’d be serving. She could also fit a small table in it for eating her lunch during the hours she was open.

Across from the kitchen was a small laundry room. Cassie thought without the washer and dryer in there it might be a good place to store all the necessary records and book work that would eventually pile up in her office.

There was a door leading out of the laundry room into the garage where Cassie would keep her supplies and extra inventory. Mostly because it would be the easiest place for the UPS guy to drop off and pick up packages. Her car would only take up a small amount of space and the rest of the garage could be full of  metal shelves, totes and other things for storing her excess inventory and supplies.

Cassie walked back in through the laundry room and turned to her left into a bedroom. She stood looking at the room and the closet and bathroom that were off to the left. She would knock down the walls in here and get rid of the closet and bathroom to make the room larger. This would be the “Kid’s” room, where she would have all the mysteries for kids to buy. The old mysteries that she grew up with like the Bobbsey Twins plus the newer mystery series like the Boxcar Kids. She would make a small play area for the younger ones who couldn’t read yet so their older brothers and sisters could look around for awhile without them getting restless.

Going back into the dining room, Cassie looked at the bathroom off to the right. She would keep that bathroom, minus the tub, for her customer’s convenience. She could put in a changing table where the tub was for Mom’s with little ones still in diapers.

The bedroom off to the right of the bathroom would be where Cassie would put her old books. The rare ones she had been picking up at books sales, thrift shops and garage sales for years. Some of them were older mysteries, but most of them were just old classics written by authors such as Tolstoy, Faulkner, and Twain.

The last room to explore was off the end of the dining room. This would be a great place for the office, Cassie thought. Even though she planned on doing a lot of her book work upstairs in her personal living space, she still wanted a place downstairs where she could work when the store was open.

Cassie looked through the french doors at the end of the dining out onto the screened-in porch and slowly walked out there to take in the view.

It was a beautiful area with gardens and a gazebo. The well-kept yard felt good under Casie’s feet as she made her way to the steps that led down to the beach. She stood at the top of them for a few moments, taking it all in. This was her very own beach front house. Even walking through it, she still had a hard time believing it was really hers. The Gulf of Mexico was only a few yards from her and it looked wondrous as the sun sat on the horizon, moments away from setting.

Tears came to her eyes as she absorbed the beauty around her. She was so caught up in the magic of it all that she didn’t even jump as an arm came up from behind her and encircled her waist.


Cassie leaned into the body behind her as a kiss brushed her cheek and the familiar “Hey, Babe!” phrase was whispered in her ear.



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