A/N: Thanks to kate04us and milquetoast-on-acid over on Tumblr for their endless support of this story and a special thanks to kate04us for inspiring me to return to the Shandy fandom and providing me with inspiration to write this story. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Blackout in a Bookshop
Summer 1994
It was a fairly quiet evening at Donnelly's Bookshop where the storekeeper, Sharon Raydor, an almost 30-something year old woman was engrossed in a romance novel, even though her life was anything but romantic at the moment.
Suddenly the bell on the door rang and she immediately marked her page with a piece of paper and quickly closed the book.
"Welcome to Donnelly's," said Sharon cheerfully.
"Thank you," replied the man who Sharon had noticed was dressed in a police uniform.
"Can I help you find anything?" Sharon asked him as she came out from behind the counter.
"Actually yes. I'm looking for a book for my daughter. She's about to turn nine and she loves to read," the man told her.
"Oh, that's a lovely age. My daughter just turned nine too," said Sharon as she began to blush in his presence before the lights suddenly went out.
"Oh my! Let me get my flashlight and I'll check the breaker box," Sharon told him.
"I've got one on my belt here if you'd like to borrow it. Or we could go check it together," suggested the uniformed policeman.
"I'll take you up on borrowing your flashlight, but…and it's not that I don't appreciate the offer to help, but this is LA after all and even though you're dressed in an LAPD uniform, you could've easily stolen that and be some creep disguised as a cop," Sharon pointed out.
"So, you're gonna leave me in a bookstore full of inventory that I could possibly steal while you're gone checking the breaker box? Makes total sense," replied the man sarcastically.
"It's better than being raped or murdered in a back room," Sharon told him.
"Okay, you've got a point there. Would you like me to show you my badge? It's official and everything. Not one of those cheap plastic knockoffs," the man told Sharon as he pulled it and a flashlight off his utility belt and handed both to her.
Sharon switched on the flashlight and inspected the badge carefully. Not that she had any idea how to tell if it was a fake or not. This man didn't need to know that though.
So, she handed him back his badge and said, "Listen, you seem like a nice guy and maybe you really are a cop, but a woman alone can't take chances like that and can't always trust her gut. Especially if it's been wrong in the past," replied Sharon a little forlornly.
The man somehow knew not to pry further and simply accepted the woman's reasons and decided to change the subject completely by asking, "Maybe we should back up and introduce ourselves to each other first. What's your name?"
"Sharon Raydor, formerly Donnelly, my parents put me in charge of running this bookstore after they retired a few years ago. What about you? What's your name?" asked Sharon.
"Sergeant Andy Flynn. Been a cop for around 13 years now with the LAPD. Feel free to just call me Andy though," Andy told Sharon as he cast her a friendly smile.
"Okay, Andy. Thanks for letting me borrow the flashlight. I'm gonna go check the breaker box now to make sure nothing tripped and if that's the case, I'll bring back a box of candles to light up this place so you can take a look around. Try not to steal anything while I'm gone," Sharon joked with him as she headed for the back room.
Sharon returned a few minutes later with a box of candles and a lighter. She quickly began placing candles throughout the bookshop on various tables where there was room for them before lighting them and giving Andy his flashlight back.
"Well, Andy, you should be able to see our kids chapter book section along this wall now. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance to you," Sharon told him before going behind the counter to set the box on the wooden shelf under the register.
"Actually, you probably can. You see, I have shared custody of my two kids with my ex-wife. So, between work and the whole shared custody thing, I don't get a whole lot of time to be with them. So, if you could help me choose a book or two, that would be great," admitted Andy bashfully.
Sharon decided to have mercy on Andy and walked over to the children's chapter book section and asked, " What kinds of things is your daughter into?"
"Well, she loves little kids. She's always asking if she can babysit the neighbor kids and I always tell her she's too young for such a big responsibility. She fights with her little brother. I swear sometimes it's her favorite hobby. His too. She has a huge imagination and loves to read about adventure too," supplied Andy.
"Well, I think I can recommend a few books or series that might fit the bill," Sharon smiled cordially at Andy in the candlelight as she went to pull a few books off the shelves.
"You're a godsend, Sharon. Thank you," Andy told her earnestly as Sharon began removing a few different books off the shelf.
"The first is The Babysitters Club. It's about a group of teenage girls who babysit kids and run a babysitting service in their neighborhood of Stoneybrook. How do you think she'd like that one?" asked Sharon.
"I think Nicole would love that. I'll take it," Andy told Sharon as he extended his hand for the book.
"Will that be it or should I continue?" asked Sharon.
"Please continue," Andy told her.
"Well, the next one is called Beezus and Ramona and although it's not about a sister and brother, it is about two sisters who are constantly pestering each other. Much like I'd imagine your two children do," said Sharon.
"Oh yeah,"replied Andy.
"So, does that sound like something she might be interested in?" asked Sharon.
"Oh, definitely. I might wait on that one though and bring her back here another time for it. Thank you for the recommendation," Andy told Sharon appreciatively.
"Should I go over the last selection?" asked Sharon.
"Sure," replied Andy openly.
"The next book is Dinosaurs Before Dark. It's part of a series called The Magic Treehouse series about two kids who travel through a magic treehouse to all these different places and have adventures there. Does that sound like something she'd like?" asked Sharon.
"Oh, definitely! I'll take it," Andy told her as he extended his hand for the book.
"Good. Can I help you find anything else today before you check out?" asked Sharon.
" I think I'm gonna take a look at your Greek Mythology and Poetry sections for a bit and see if anything catches my eye," Andy told Sharon.
"Oh. For yourself?" asked Sharon, making conversation.
"Yeah. Why?" asked Andy.
"Oh, I guess I just didn't picture you as a Poetry or Greek Mythology buff," answered Sharon.
"I read quite a bit on those two subjects actually," Andy told her.
"That's great. I guess I just didn't picture a cop as a voracious reader, that's all. People surprise you everyday though," Sharon told him.
"Yeah, there aren't too many of us," Andy laughed off the acknowledgement of her slight snap judgment.
"Well, I'll leave you to continue your browsing. Let me know if I can be of any further help," said Sharon as she headed back to the counter to tidy up a few things.
It was about ten minutes later when Andy came to the counter to pay for the books Sharon had helped him choose and the ones he'd chosen himself.
In total, he had two of the three Sharon had recommended to him for Nicole's birthday present and had gotten both a book on Greek Mythology by an author he hadn't heard of before and a poetry book by W.B. Yeats.
"Oh, Yeats. What a wonderful selection. He's one of my favorites too," Sharon told him as she looked at the back of the book for the price since she couldn't use the register to scan the barcode because of the blackout.
"Mine too. What's your favorite poem of his?" asked Andy as Sharon wrote down the price and corrected her inventory sheet before moving onto doing the same things for the other books Andy had chosen to buy.
"Probably, When You Are Old," Sharon told him.
"That's a good one. Mine is probably, Where My Books Go," Andy told her.
"That's a great one too," said Sharon as she smiled at Andy in the candlelight as she finished up her calculations on a calculator.
"So, what do I owe you?" asked Andy once he saw Sharon stop calculating.
"Your total today is $35.25," Sharon told him.
"Alright, let me get that out for you," said Andy as he opened up his wallet after taking it out of his back pocket.
"If you don't have the change, don't worry about it," Sharon said to him kindly.
"All I've got is $20's in my wallet. How about I give you forty dollars for the books, and we'll chalk up the last almost five dollars as a tip for helping a clueless dad out with a birthday present for his daughter?" suggested Andy.
"Oh, I couldn't accept tips for simply doing my job," Sharon told him humbly.
"Yes, you can. I really do appreciate all the help. My daughter's gonna love her books," Andy told her, trying to convince Sharon to take the money.
"Well… maybe just this once," Sharon began unsurely as she sat his bag of books on the counter in front of him.
"I'll take that as a yes, then," Andy told her as he set the forty dollars on the counter and quickly grabbed his bag of books and left the bookstore before Sharon could even reply no.
Sharon smiled to herself at the man's kindness and put the money in a locked lockbox until the electricity came back on and she could properly put it in the cash register drawer.
Thanks for reading this story! Feel free to leave a review if you so feel inclined. I'd greatly appreciate any constructive feedback you could give me on this story as it helps me to become a better writer.