“Not killing her?” Laurie inserted with a grin.
“For the information.”
“That was generous of her.” Laurie took a bite out of the peanut butter cookies Patty had brought for them.
“She just couldn’t resist your awesome powers of persuasion,” Julia noted.
Patty grinned and preened at the compliment. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Julia spent the rest of the afternoon at the reference desk. She liked helping people find what they were looking for, and she liked the fact that a library was designed to make finding information easier. No putting a purple book on the shelf by the window just because it looked pretty there. No sticking another tome on the bottom because it had bad energy.
No, in a library, there was a logical plan. Call her weird, but Julia loved the Dewey Decimal System. At one time she’d considered becoming a cataloger before deciding she preferred working with the public.
Because the Serenity Falls Public Library wasn’t large enough to have a separate readers’ advisory librarian to deal with fiction requests, Julia handled those as well. Which is how she came to be speaking to Mabel about a mystery she was looking for, one she’d seen in a book display the library had a few weeks ago.
“It has a red cover.” Mabel fingered the her pink curls as if doing so might prompt her memory. “I do remember that much. And the title had something to do with a place.”
Julia was able to track it down eventually, thanks to a list of book titles she put on the weekly bookcart display for the past six months. She was in charge of both the fiction and nonfiction new books displays, as well as those spotlight displays she did on topics ranging from animal care to Hollywood bios to natural disasters to scrapbooking.
Book list handouts were also her responsibility, and she had a dozen of them currently on display. After helping Mabel, she refilled the flyers for an upcoming library program—“Origami with Joy”—and added more “True Stories of Survival” handouts.
During a brief mid-afternoon lull, Frasier stopped by for a chat. “Walt informs me that the folks who decide this best small town matter look at the local library as part of the package. And they look pretty closely, including investigating how many books we order each year. I’d like to see you up the orders this month to help those figures out some. I’m not suggesting we go over our budget, just that we order now instead of waiting.”
Julia nodded her understanding.
Frasier started to walk away but then turned back to her. “By the way, interesting race the other day. Glad to see you did your bit to make the day memorable.” He flashed her a surprising smile, which left her wondering if he’d been mocking her or not.
And that got Julia thinking about Luke again. She’d been doing so well, too, ever since she’d come up with the idea of punishing herself every time he came to mind—one carrot stick for every “Luke thought.” So far this afternoon the score was Luke and the carrot sticks two, Julia zip.
She could do better . . . and she would. Or she’d add brussels sprouts to the mix.
Wait, she was one of the few people on the planet who actually
liked
brussels sprouts. So she’d have to come up with something else.
What vegetable did she really dislike? The only one she could think of was bok choy. She wrinkled her nose. Yes, that should do it. Thoughts of Luke were bound to disappear now thanks to that adjustment.
Maybe all it took were a few adjustments, and Julia would get the rest of her life back to normal.
The pessimist in her thought that would be about as likely as the Village Hall Tower clock being accurate again for the first time in sixty years.
Just think bok choy, she reminded herself. Bok choy. Not bad boy. Simple.
“So you’re kissing librarians now.” Algee issued the statement and then took a huge bite of the famous Maguire’s burger.
“Only one,” Luke drawled. “I hear the others are married. I don’t have many rules, but I don’t poach on other men’s property.”
“You do know that she was seeing the banker before he got his trophy wife.”
“Who was?”
“The librarian you kissed. She and RJ were an”—Algee paused to do hand quotes—“item.” He reached for a few sweet potato fries and then looked up. “Hey, speak of the devil. There he is now.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed as he watched RJ approach.
“I need to speak to you, Maguire.”
“Go ahead, Brandt.” He could use surnames as well as the next guy.
“In private.”
“Algee is a bud. You can talk in front of him.”
Algee scooted his chair closer so he could drape one his of huge arms across Luke’s shoulders. “Call me Big Al. We’re buds,” he told RJ.
“Fine. I’ll be blunt then. Stay away from Julia.”
“Ah. I heard the two of you used to be an”—Luke paused to use the same hand quotes Algee had—“item.”
“Is that why you were trying to humiliate her in front of the entire town?”
“PDAs are frowned upon around here,” Algee told Luke.
“PDAs?”
“Public displays of affection.”
“There was nothing affectionate about what he did,” RJ said.
“True,” Luke agreed. “Nothing lukewarm like affection. Listen, Brandt, does your wife know you’re in here, warning me off your old girlfriend?”
There was a pause, long enough to make the warning hairs on the back of Luke’s neck stand up, but it was too late.
“I am
not
old, and I was
never
his girlfriend,” Julia said in an icy voice from behind him.
Chapter Nine
Damn
. This was why Luke usually sat at a table in a corner, so no one could sneak up on him.
But he’d forgotten that when he’d joined Algee at his table.
Big mistake.
Julia had a way of sneaking up on him when he least expected it. Like when he was in bed at night, unable to sleep. She’d come to him then, a man’s X-rated fantasy woman. But she’d also come to him when he was going through the piles of paperwork required to keep a place like Maguire’s going. He’d remember her smile, or the sound of her laughter. And he wasn’t happy about that. It smacked of being sappy.
“RJ and I went out on a few dates,” Julia was saying, “but that’s it. Not that it’s any of your business.”
Damn, he got hot and hard when she put on that Miss Prim persona. He wondered if she was wearing her daisy underwear today under those nifty jeans. She really did have great legs. Long and curvy. Just the way he liked his women and their legs.
“I do not appreciate being the topic of conversation over a few brewskis,” Julia added.
“Brewskis?” Luke repeated.
She waved her hand at the beers on the table. “Alcoholic beverages.”
Luke couldn’t resist teasing her as he stood to face her. “So it’s okay if you’re the topic of conversation, as long as we don’t drink when we talk about you?”
She narrowed her eyes at him in a gesture intended to warn him off. It had the opposite affect on him, however.
“You know what I mean.” Her voice was as sharp as a barbed wire fence intended to keep out intruders.
But Luke was an expert at getting past outer defenses. “I know exactly what you mean.” He leaned a little closer with every word he spoke, until his lips hovered just above hers.
He kept his gaze focused on her eyes, even though he was tempted by her mouth. He wanted to see the attraction she felt for him. He wanted to know he wasn’t the only one in this mess.
She allowed him just a brief glimpse before shoving him back into his chair. The only reason Luke let her get away with it was because he liked the feel of her hands on his body and because she then turned her ire to RJ.
“I expected better of you, RJ.”
“I was trying to protect you from this scumbag.” RJ jerked a thumb in Luke’s direction.
“I can protect myself,” Julia said.
“I can attest to that,” Algee added. “She has a mean sucker-punch.”
Luke shot him a dirty look.
Undeterred, Algee added, “So you don’t have to worry about the librarian.”
“I do have a name, and it’s not ‘librarian,’ ” Julia stated. “How would you like it if I called you the Comic Book Guy?”
Algee shrugged. “Doesn’t bother me a bit. I’ve been called much worse.”
“We’re straying from the subject here,” RJ said. “Julia, I need to speak to you privately.”
“How do you think your wife is going to like that?” Luke said.
The banker ignored his question and instead cupped Julia’s elbow with his hand. “Come along. Let’s get out of here.”
“Want me to punch him for you?” Luke asked hopefully.
Julia glared at him. “Don’t you dare.”
“A little advice—you might not want to dare a guy like Luke,” Algee said. “Just trying to be helpful here.”
“You.” She pointed to Luke. “Stay here. I’ll speak with you later.” She turned and left with RJ.
“Doncha just love bossy women?” Algee noted before munching on a crisp dill pickle.
Love?
That four-letter word was definitely
not
in Luke’s vocabulary.
“Let’s go over to the Serenity Cafe and talk over a cup of coffee.” RJ voiced it as an order, not a suggestion. A polite order.
“I’m paying for my own coffee,” Julia stated. Actually, she could really use a slice of pie about now. Her mother had made her try one of the pumpkin-applesauce-bran muffins she’d baked this morning, and her stomach was still in cement shock.
Julia noticed the curious looks she was getting from the other customers as well as the waitress, who was Alice’s squeaky-clean eighteen-year-old niece.
After ordering a slice of today’s special, strawberry-rhubarb pie, and coffee, Julia made sure that no part of her body came in contact with any part of RJ’s. A little tough to do given the tight space under the booths here at the cafe, but Julia worked hard and was successful.
She wasn’t avoiding the contact because of any lingering feelings she had for RJ but because she didn’t want to “set tongues wagging,” as Edith would put it.
Of course, if gossip was a real concern to Julia, she should never have returned Luke’s kiss at the Wiener Races the other day.
He’d taken her by surprise, that was her excuse. A feeble one, granted.
If RJ had tried to kiss her, even if he had taken her by surprise, she would have pushed him away, no problem.
Everything about Luke was a problem.
“Just tell me one thing,” RJ said. “Why did you let Luke kiss you in front of the entire town?”
“You mean it’s okay if he kisses me in private?”
He gave her a reprimanding look. “You know what I mean.”
It did not escape her notice that he’d used the same words she’d used with Luke a few moments ago. “I really don’t think this is an appropriate topic of conversation between the two of us.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re married now, and who I kiss is none of your business.”
“He’s bad news. I realize you’re new in town—”
“I’ve lived her more than three years now,” she interrupted him to point out.
He waved her words away. “Still new in town. So you might not realize what kind of trouble he is.”
“I’ve heard the gossip going around.”
“But you don’t believe it?”
She shrugged.
“You should.” His expression was stern.
“What does everyone have against Luke? I mean, he’s been gone for a long time.”
“Stole his diploma and left.”
“He was just a kid then.”
“He was never just a kid. He was always trouble. In school and out. Picked up for various acts of vandalism.”
“Charged with them or just picked up?”
“Does that really matter?”
“Was he the only wild teenager in town?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“So he was different.” She knew only too well that meant you stood out like a sore thumb.
Julia stood out—in a different way than the rest of her family.
They studied Zen koans; she studied math. They explored auras and chakras; she explored the local library of whatever town they were living in at the time.
Her mother and sister explored and experimented their way through life with no thought whatsoever to the consequences of their actions. They accused her of being rational and hard-headed, as if these were the deadliest of sins, while warning her about being too judgmental of others.
It wasn’t as they said . . . that she belittled their beliefs. She’d been raised with certain truths—and they were good truths to have. Be kind to others; be good to animals and the earth; do no harm.
But she was also a firm believer in common sense—a trait that was definitely lacking elsewhere in her family tree.
She’d been so involved in her own thoughts that she’d lost track of what RJ was saying. “No one has any idea what Luke has been doing for the past twelve years. There are rumors that he was in the state penitentiary, so I had the sheriff check and he couldn’t confirm that.”
“You had the sheriff digging into Luke’s past? That’s a huge invasion of privacy.”
“He refused to do much, but regardless, security is more important than privacy.”
“Easy to say when it’s not your privacy that’s being messed with,” Julia said. “And I fail to see how Luke could be a security risk of any kind.”
“Has he checked out any suspicious material from the library?”
“Do you have a warrant?” she shot back.
RJ blinked at her. “Of course not.”
“Then drop this.”
“I just asked you a simple question.”
“No, you were snooping around, looking for trouble where none exists.”
“I was not snooping around. You make it sound as if I were pawing through the loser’s garbage or something. And those rumors about Mabel doing that behind Maguire’s have nothing to do with me.”