The next day when she returned to Oklahoma, she hadn't seen Jenkins at all. Her personal clippings book remained silent and from her phone it seemed like the main clippings book was as well. This was not unusual. During her time with Flynn, there had been stretches of months sometimes with no urgent cases. The two of them always found things to do, however. The appointment book, the general list, working with her gift and for Flynn lectures and presentations. Not to mention general Library work, sword fighting lessons with Cal and a hundred and one other little things. In this case, Cassandra was filling her time helping the Stones.

The day went by, the only word from the Library being some teasing texts from Ezekiel about why she was helping Jacob soon eclipsed by boastful texts about how well his treasure hunt was going.

Meanwhile, Cassandra found herself that day out of Jacob's office and walking the store, visualizing better placement of items. Jacob had no way of knowing that while she looked simply lost in thought, her brain was supplying her with marketing data, sales and store flow. Over the past five years, she and Flynn had worked extensively with her gift, now she could use it without getting overwhelmed and she had strict control over the thought transference aspect. She only used that in dire emergencies and only with other Library staff who knew what was going on. She'd never used her gift before for a retail application and it was actually fun juggling what ifs.

Jacob was impressed with her knowledge but it was she who was impressed when he sketched out her ideas on paper.

"You're really talented!" she exclaimed as they poured over the diagram in his office.

"Yeah, well . . . ." he came very close to blushing, then shrugged it off. "It's a hobby."

"Right," Cassandra sensed his discomfort, though she couldn't figure out for the life of her why he would be. "Anyway, what do you think?"

He nodded. "It helped to have a visual of what you were saying. I like it, some of it reminds me of how it looked when I was a kid."

"I did take some cues from the photos," Cassandra pointed to a few hung on the walls. "I thought about how it would work today. Oddly enough, most of it did."

He grinned at her. "Nice. Funny ain't it?"

"What?"

"Well usually in these kinds of things, the modern way of doin' stuff is better. And I was following stuff I learned in an online course on store flow. But I think I cluttered it up tryin' everything and anything in here. Turns out, old way's best."

She chuckled. "Well, not entirely. Old way with a new spin. You weren't completely off track either. But nostalgia sells and in any era simplicity is the key."

"That's Cassandra Cillian for keep it simple stupid, ain't it?"

She laughed, "I didn't say that. But maybe."

"It's okay, Cassie, I like you because you've told it to me straight from the start."

"Well, I've hoped I had better news, but I'm really hoping all of this will help."

"Which reminds me, I asked my granddad and in turns out, the old shop opened this month in 1918. The lady at the historical society said it looks like it was around the 15th."

"So in two weeks give or take."

"Can you stay that long?"

Cassandra sighed. "Probably not. But if we can throw this together in a week . . . ."

"That's a tall order, Cassie."

"We can do this, Jacob. I know we can. The people who come in here seem to love you and this store. We can get as many of them to help as we can. Just a bit of faith and some elbow grease and we can do this."

"Alright," Jacob's tone was skeptical. "Wish we had a magic wand."

Cassandra laughed, but it sounded a little forced to Jacob's ears, which was weird. "Yeah, if only."

"Are you okay?" he asked as the tone changed.

"Hmm, oh I'm fine, I just am on my to do list. I need to make a phone call."

"Alright, well I gotta get back up front, let me know what you need me to do."

Soon as he was gone, she dialed Ezekiel. "Hey, put off the treasure hunt for a bit. I need a whole bunch of favors. . . .yes the next three pizzas worth."

Thanks to Ezekiel's "connections," she had ads going out in both the weekly local paper and in the Sunday and next Wednesday's editions of the daily paper in the larger nearby town. The neighboring town was big enough to have a television station and she'd made some inquiries there, hoping that they would do a local interest story. The news producer seemed interested, so she kept her fingers crossed. The store's website was nice, but long neglected, so she had Ezekiel doing an overhaul as well as updating their sporadic social media postings. She'd also emailed information to a host of parenting blogs, the local chamber of commerce and any and every travel and tourism site or listing she could find.

She and Jacob had talked to his few staff members and Mabel knew the members of a local band. She was talking to them about playing for store credit. Cassandra had gone over to the public library and managed to sweet talk the children's librarian into doing some things with the kids. It also turned out that the library had a list of high school students who needed service hours that could help with setup and face painting. Cassandra nearly hugged her, she hadn't thought of the area high school at all. But then again, she'd only spent two years in high school before she'd dropped out.

There really was only so much room in the budget so Cassandra was relying heavily on the hopes that Jacob and his family and staff had enough connections in town to get people to volunteer their services or take store credit or take it as free advertising.

The Library had a decorations room, so if push came to shove, Cassandra was going to raid it.

There was a lot to be done so she and Jacob were working all day, between planning for the event, reorganizing the store and in Jacob's case, waiting on customers.

Before either of them knew it, it was five o'clock.

"Hey," he said poking his head in the office. "It's five o'clock. It's Wednesday so we close in an hour."

"Oh," Cassandra said. "Wow, time flew by."

Jacob shuffled his feet. "I was wonderin', if you don't have plans tonight. . . ."

Cassandra chuckled. "I don't," which was the complete truth. All she would be doing tonight was eating leftover takeout from Monday night and flipping through tv stations.

He was adorably awkward about it, rubbing the back of his neck before nervously running a hand through his hair. "My . . .kid's grandparents invited us over for dinner tonight and they'd like to have you over. If you don't mind?"

Cassandra had met the grandmother Jane when the girls had come in. The kids hadn't come to the store today at all and she did miss them.

"Sure, sounds fun," then a huge problem dawned on her. Last night, Jacob had intended on walking her to her car but Mabel had needed his help and she'd slipped away. How the heck was she gonna deal with this tonight? Tomorrow she was gonna have to figure out where to rent a car and go from there. Ah, rentals! Perfect. "Oh, gosh, you might be able to solve my problem anyway."

"Problem?"

"Yeah, I rented a car this trip because my car had to have some work done. Of course, don't you know it, today, the darn rental wouldn't start. The rental place gave me a ride here this morning and they were gonna deliver me a new rental in the morning. Of course, I totally lost track of time and I'm not sure I can get a ride back to the hotel. Would it be too much trouble for you to take me? I know it's 20 minutes and you got the kids."

"Nah, it'll be fine, by the time dinner's over it'll only take 15," he winked at her.

"Then that's all settled then," Cassandra looked at her phone. "I'm gonna see if the office is open over at the rental agency to see how the whole car situation is going and let you get the closing stuff done."

Cassandra had, as soon as Jacob assumed she was in a hotel, researched a hotel location just in case it was needed. There was a Holiday Inn Express in the next town perfect for her cover. She opened the Back Door app that Ezekiel had recently developed and entered in the coordinates for the front office (intending on telling Jacob she had a package to pick up at the front desk).

Then she looked up car rental agencies. There was a branch of a national chain in the neighboring town, not far from the hotel, she reserved a car for a week, she'd pick it up in the morning.

She sighed to herself, so much effort for someone she'd never seen again. Part of her thought of coming clean, but it was always a tricky thing. Even when people were directly affected by magic didn't quite know who she was or what she did. Heck, magic could be happening to them and they still tried to explain it as something else, modern humans being as they are. How would Jacob Stone react to a magic door? Or even the reason why she'd posed as a bookkeeper in the first place?

No, it was far easier for him to believe she was a state employee. Especially since said employee had yet to show. And when he or she did, well Cassandra would be long gone.

Even if it bothered her that eventually that truth would come out and Jacob and his daughters' lasting impression of her would be as a fraud.