Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84670 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
More than that, story time got kids excited about books. They showed up for the story, but they always walked out with a stack in their arms, ready to go on their own private adventures.
Not that I didn’t miss the irony. I’d never been a big reader growing up. In fact, I still wasn’t a big reader. Yeah, I usually had some crime thriller sitting on my nightstand, but it would take me a couple of months to read it. I averaged about six or seven books a year, a far smaller number than one might expect for a librarian. However, I didn’t need to be a total bookworm to understand the value of books or the absolute lifeline libraries provided for their communities.
“Rome!” Megan greeted me in an excited whisper as she walked into the library for her evening shift. I’d popped in to work the front desk while Lily was on her lunch break. Megan scurried over wearing a puffy pale pink coat. Her dark brown eyes sparkled with mischief. Her black hair was arranged in a wild explosion of thick curls that crowded close to her round, umber cheeks. “Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”
“What? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She groaned, her eyes flaring wide. “Don’t be ridiculous. You know what I’m talking about.”
“Oh, that romantasy book you were waiting on. Crown of Ice or Thorns of Glass…something like that, right? It came in. I set it aside for you.”
Megan straightened, the frustration disappearing from her pretty face in an instant. “Oh, really? That’s excellent. I—hey!” Her narrowed eyes zoomed in on me, and her expression turned even more mutinous. Choking noises escaped me despite my best efforts to remain quiet.
Oh my fucking gawd, it’s so easy to distract the bookworms.
On my left, Janice cleared her throat, and Megan and I fell silent as church mice. Janice was the oldest of the librarians on staff, and she adhered to the old-school policy that libraries should be as quiet as a tomb. It was one of the few things I struggled with while at the library—constantly being quiet. It was not my strong suit. Sometimes, I needed to make noise.
In those moments where I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I would sneak up to the children’s library, where Carol and Ben worked. They had no problem with my need to make noise. I was still quieter than most of their patrons.
Megan schooled her features to something a little more serious and leaned in close as she whispered, “Last week was your field trip, right? Did you see him? What happened?”
Without shifting my gaze away from Megan, I tipped my head toward Janice. “I’ll tell you later.”
Megan glared at me, looking as if she were debating whether to chuck aside her career as a librarian and become an assassin. Of course, I would be her very first target.
In the end, she walked away from violence. As she headed to the back room where we stored our things, Megan pointed at her eyes and then at me. She was keeping me in her sights until she got the full scoop about my field trip antics.
A short time later, Lily returned from her lunch break, freeing me from reception duties and allowing me to work on book returns for a while. I had no doubt that Megan would “assist” with the book returns so she could get all the dirt on my adventure at the museum.
I didn’t get that far.
The sliding doors opened, sending a cool breeze through the entrance to the library, along with the rich scent of flowers. Not the normal scent for early November, and it was enough to get me to turn to see who was walking in.
Liam fucking Rose.
And he was carrying a giant bouquet of roses, daisies, lilies, and alstroemeria wrapped in bright and cheery yellow paper.
A huge grin spread across my lips, and I returned to the reception counter. Lily squeaked, and I swore the middle-aged woman wiggled in her rolling seat. How could I not stand in front of the reception desk to give her a prime seat in this epic moment? I had to admit, this was a surprise. I hadn’t thought Liam would come through. And not in such a spectacular fashion. Flowers? Maybe the man had learned a thing or two without me around to help him.
Of course, the glare he directed at me was just icing on the cake. He was hating every second of this, which was exactly what I wanted. I leaned against the counter and tipped my head up, smiling at my would-be date, mentally listing all the ways in which I was going to torment him. Were five dates going to be enough? Was there a way that I might extend this into more?