“Who were you talking to?”
“I don’t know.” Julia kept walking toward the town square, two blocks away. “He didn’t tell me his name.”
Pam, a runner, had no trouble keeping up even though she was wearing a Dorothy from
The Wizard of Oz
costume, complete with flashy red shoes that didn’t look that comfortable. But then Pam was like that. Petite and perky. Cute and cheerful. She even had T-shirts printed with both descriptions and wore them often. The only time Pam got crabby was when someone called her elfish, although the truth was that with her short dark hair, high cheekbones, and pointed chin, she did look like she should be wearing green and helping Santa. “What did he want?”
“Directions.”
“So did you tell him where to go?”
I wish
. Now that he was gone, Julia’s earlier aggravation with him returned, erasing her momentary lapse into sexual attraction.
“Well, did you?”
Julia nodded before changing the subject. “I’m beginning to think the selection process for choosing which library staff member has to attend this event in costume is flawed.”
“You think?”
Julia stopped in her tracks. “Really? They set me up?”
“Come on, what are the odds of your name being pulled three years in a row?”
“Last year Maudeen Entmann was supposed to go,” Julia reminded her.
“But she conveniently had to attend a wedding out of town so you took her place.”
“Only because I’m a kind person beneath my tough exterior.”
Pam laughed. “Tough?”
“Hey, I can be tough when I need to be. I’ll have you know I just saved a koi from certain death at the jaws of the mayor’s son.”
“Yeah, that’s you, defender of the underdog. Or underkoi.”
“Too bad I left my superhero costume at home.”
“The Bo Peep outfit is a nice cover. No one would guess that beneath all those ruffles lies the heart of a true superhero.”
Julia nodded. “That was my intention.”
Pam grinned. “It works for you.”
“I thought so. Now I just hope I don’t reveal anything tonight that I shouldn’t.” Julia tugged the material on the bodice.
“Just don’t lean over at the Stump the Librarian booth, and you’ll be fine.”
In the town square, crowds of people were milling about, already collecting in groups in front of the booths that offered everything from hot cider to apple-bobbing.
Julia tried to remember her friend’s advice during the next hour. Waiting at the library booth was a laptop computer provided by the library as well as a few reference books and a timer. She had ten minutes to get each answer. The questions came fast and furious.
“How many miles to the moon?”
“The moon is 238,851 miles from Earth.”
“When is Britney Spears’s birthday?”
“December 2.”
“How many times have the Steelers won the Super Bowl?”
“Four.”
“When did James Dean die?”
“September 30, 1955.”
“Can the blue-footed boobie fly?”
This last question came from Mr. Soames, who had to be in his mid-eighties. He’d asked the same question of her for the past three years. And just about every time he came into the library as well. She suspected he merely liked saying
boobie
.
“Yes, it’s a type of sea bird found in the Galapagos, and it can fly. The name actually originates from the Spaniards, who called the bird
bobo,
or Spanish for ‘clown’ because of its cross-eyed appearance.” All of which she’d told him before.
Mr. Soames got this grin on his face. Julia knew what was coming, but short of duct-taping the old guy’s mouth shut, she had no way of stopping it. “I bet it would fly better if it got some Viagra.”
Which made the kid in line behind him ask Julia how to spell “erectile dysfunction” and snicker with his buddies.
Ah, the joys of being a librarian.
Finally, there was a momentary lull. Julia took a quick bite of the toffee apple Susan from the AAUW booth had brought her earlier. Yummy. She only now realized that she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.
Mmmm
. The tart juice blended with the sweet caramel, thrilling her taste buds. She closed her eyes in ecstasy.
Julia opened them to find hottie biker-man standing in front of her booth. Blinking in surprise, she managed to quickly wipe the caramel from her chin with a paper napkin. If he mentioned Viagra, boobies, or erectile dysfunction, he was a dead man.
She could see him better in the well-lit area. He still looked tough and sexy in his white T-shirt, black jeans, and black leather jacket. But it was his face that held her attention now. There was a depth to his intensely blue eyes she hadn’t expected.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” The words were out before Julia could stop them. Damn. She thought she’d permanently cured herself of that trait. Since turning thirteen, she’d made a point of stopping to think before speaking, always making sure she said the right thing and avoided revealing anything too inflammatory or too intimate.
“I mean,” she immediately corrected herself, “I thought you would have left town by now.”
“So you’ve been thinking about me?”
He seemed entirely too pleased with the concept. Like she’d been sitting here mooning over him for hours. “Right. I’ve been waiting with baited breath.” The mocking words just came tumbling out. The man clearly had a bad effect on her.
He smiled as if he knew it, too.
That stiffened her resolve. “How may I help you?” There, that sounded very professional. Very Marian the Librarian.
He glanced up at the sign, reading the ten-minute guarantee before asking his question. “So what do you do for fun around here?”
Julia relaxed. Okay, this was a question she could handle. “As I mentioned earlier, Serenity Falls offers a wide variety of things to do.” She was about to list them when he interrupted her.
“Wrong answer. I asked what
you
do for fun.”
“Me? Well, I read a book.”
“Which wasn’t the original answer you gave me. So what do I get for stumping the librarian?”
“Your choice of a mug or a keychain with the library logo.” Julia refused to lose her cool and throw either one of them at him.
“The library has a logo?”
“Actually, it’s the town logo.”
“The town has a logo?”
“That’s right.” He made it sound like a criminal offense. “What’s wrong with that?”
“If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.”
Jerk. She must have been an idiot to think he was attractive. Okay, so he was an attractive jerk. “Which would you like, the mug or the keychain?”
“You’re not even offering a kiss for stumping the librarian?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Too bad.”
“You might want to take the keychain, because it’s smaller and won’t break when you pack it and leave.” She dangled it in front of him.
He captured her hand with his. “What makes you think I’m leaving?”
“The fact that you don’t seem to like it here.” She didn’t mention the fact that his touch was just as powerful as the rest of him.
“I like one or two things here just fine.” His rough-and-tumble sexy voice turned dangerously inviting.
He leaned forward, slowly, inexorably. Her right hand flew to her cleavage to prevent him from looking down her dress, before belatedly realizing that she was still holding the keychain . . . and that his hand was still clasped around hers. The backs of his fingers brushed against her chest, their heat blazing through the bare skin of her breasts.
And still he came closer. She tried to untangle her hand from his, her eyes from his, herself from him. But she couldn’t.
Not because he held her by force. But because of the force zinging between them.
For one spotlight moment, his mouth hovered against hers, barely touching her lips in an almost kiss that was even more enticing than the real thing.
Oh yes, there was some incredibly powerful zinging going on now.
The only thing strong enough to tear them apart was the bellowing sound of the mayor’s voice.
“Luke Maguire!” Walt Whitman—no relation to the poet—managed to instill those two words with an incredible amount of disapproval.
So hottie biker-man now had a name. And he had his hand back, because Julia yanked her fingers free.
Unfortunately, her hasty motion resulted in the library keychain sliding down her bodice.
Too bad. She wasn’t about to fish it out now.
“I’m surprised to see you here.” Walt added the words as if they’d prod Luke into speaking. It worked.
“Oh?” Luke raised one dark eyebrow, which made him look even more bad-boy sardonic. “And why’s that?”
“Well . . . I . . . That is . . .” The challenge caught the mayor off guard, which always made him sputter. “You didn’t show up for your own father’s funeral, so I didn’t expect you’d ever return home.”
“You better learn to expect the unexpected with me.” Luke turned and walked away.
“Was he bothering you?” Walt was obviously concerned.
“Not really, no.” Liar, liar. Luke had gotten to her, all right. Had he kissed her? Or seduced her? Her breast still zinged where he’d touched her. Unless that was the keychain she was feeling?
“He’s a bad seed, that one.”
Julia winced. She hated that phrase. And Walt certainly shouldn’t be casting stones, not when his son had just tried to turn one of the library director’s prized koi into sushi. But she knew from past experience that Walt believed his model son could do no wrong.
“Luke Maguire was a real hell-raiser, pardon my language, as a teenager. I can’t imaging what he’s doing back here. Unless he’s come to sell Maguire’s Pub. Which would be a blessing. He’s not the kind of business owner who would help us in our quest to get on the Top Ten Best Small Towns in America list. We really do have to focus our attention on our preparations, because we have some very stiff competition coming from other towns right here in Pennsylvania.”
Julia nodded, although her mind was still on Luke . . . and kissing and zinging.
“This is an extremely important matter for our entire town.”
She nodded again. “I’m not on the committee,” she reminded the mayor. At least this was one job she hadn’t gotten roped into. Instead, library director Frasier McGrady had that honor.
“You don’t have to be on the committee to care about the outcome of this matter. It has the potential to affect us all in a positive way. Every resident of Serenity Falls. As I said, we have stiff competition from other towns in our state. Northumberland has the Priestly House. He’s the guy who discovered oxygen, as you no doubt already know.” She did, but Walt loved proving how smart he was. “And Williamsport once had more millionaires than any other place at any other time. So they’ve got all those historic mansions on Millionaires’ Row. And don’t forget Mifflinburg. They’ve got their own buggy museum. All we’ve got is the Falls. And our town square, along with the downtown district.” He waved his hand at their surroundings.
The gazebo did look particularly charming this evening, festively decked out with gold and purple mums. Rows of pumpkins were lined up like jury members at the feet of hay bales placed around the town square. All courtesy of Greenley’s Garden Center.
“And I haven’t even mentioned Lewisburg.” Walt was clearly on a roll now. “They have woolly worms at their Fall Festival—worms that give a winter prognostication. We need a hook like that.”
A hook like woolly worms? Only in Serenity Falls . . .
“See if you can’t come up with something we could use to predict the future. Weatherwise, I mean. Look how well that Groundhog Day thing has gone for Punxsutawney—another Pennsylvania competitor. So please do some research on the Internet and find something we can use here.” Satisfied that he’d come up with a plan, Walt moved on to another booth.
Pam showed up as soon as he left and provided cover while Julia finally fished out the keychain. “I saw you with Luke Maguire earlier,” Pam noted. “He was the guy back at the library, the one asking for directions, right?”
Julia nodded.
Pam sighed. “You two looked . . . close.”
“I just met him tonight.”
“Yeah, well, you’ve heard that saying, that there are two types of men? The good guys and the ones your mother warns you about.”
The only type of men Julia’s mother had warned her about were wealthy industrialists who polluted the environment and took advantage of third-world countries. And Republicans.
“Well, Luke definitely falls under the mother warning category,” Pam continued. “When we were in high school, every mother in Serenity Falls was afraid of her daughter going out with him.”
“Why?”
“Because he was a rebel, constantly getting into trouble. He was always so intense. Skipping classes, drinking, smoking.”
“Are you talking about Luke Maguire?” They were joined by Edith Peterson, who taught history at the high school and had since the Ice Age, according to her students. The reality was that she was in her early sixties and had no intention of retiring. “I just heard he’s back in town. I had him in my class. He almost failed the course. Not because he was stupid, but because he didn’t apply himself. He was a very disruptive presence in school. Was a great runner, though. He won several awards at state track meets. Then at graduation he refused to wear the cap and gown to the ceremony so he was barred from the event.”
Pam nodded. “I’d almost forgotten about that.”
“He drove his motorcycle right past the front door, into the high school hallway, clear to the principal’s office to get his diploma and then he rode right out of town. No one has seen or heard from him since.”
“His dad was the nicest guy. He ran Maguire’s Pub,” Pam added.
Julia had met Tommy Maguire a number of times. Serenity Falls was a small town, where everyone knew everyone else—and most of their business. Secrets were very hard to keep, but Julia had managed so far.