“And that pissed you off.”
“Wouldn’t it piss you off?” Billy retorted.
“I’m not you, kid. Now about that DVD—”
“I returned it.”
Luke just gave him a look, the same one Billy had given him, that said,
You’re so lame.
Only Luke’s held years of experience at dealing with cons.
“Maybe you meant to return it,” Algee said. “Maybe you should check your backpack just in case it’s still in there after all.”
Billy stubbornly stuck out his chin. “Why should I?”
“Because you really don’t want to piss me off,” Luke said.
“You don’t scare me.”
“I’m not even trying,” Luke retorted. “Not yet, anyway.”
“You never even asked me how I liked it.”
“Did you like it?”
“It sucked.”
“Fine. Then you should be glad to get rid of it. Hand it over.”
Billy bent down and yanked open his backpack, dug around a minute, and then pulled out a DVD. “Here.”
Luke frowned down at it. “That isn’t the
Monty Python
DVD.”
“I
told
you I returned it. Did you even bother going to the rental place and seeing if they have it?”
No. Luke hadn’t. But he didn’t have to tell the kid that.
Billy read the answer on his face. “You already figured I was guilty,” the kid said.
That accusation really struck home for Luke. How many times had the same thing happened to him growing up? People figuring he was guilty just because of his past.
“Stay here,” Luke growled. “I’ll be right back.”
Luke was not in a good mood when he walked into the video rental store, and he was sure Mabel behind the counter picked up on that fact.
Ignoring her, he headed right for the shelf where he’d first found the
Monty Python
DVD. Sure enough, there it was.
He grabbed it and marched toward the front. “I got this letter saying a DVD I rented had never been returned, yet here it is, right on your shelves.”
“Maybe we have more than one copy,” Mabel said.
“Check it out on that computer of yours.”
It took her forever.
“Well . . . ?” Luke was losing what little patience he had left.
“It appears we do only have one copy,” Mabel reluctantly admitted.
“And it appears this is it, right?”
Mabel opened up the plastic container to verify his claim. “Yes, it does appear that way.”
“Then it
appears
you made a mistake.”
“The computer did.”
“Fix it.”
She did, issuing a credit to his credit card account.
Luke handed her the letter. “And write on there that this was an error and that the DVD was returned.”
She did in a nearly illegible scrawl.
“Good. Thank you.” Five minutes later he was back in Cosmic Comics. “Where’s the kid?”
Algee pointed to the back of the store.
Billy ignored him as he approached, keeping his attention focused on the comic book he was studying.
“I was wrong. You were right. You did return it. I apologize,” Luke said gruffly.
Billy remained silent.
“You hear me?” Luke’s voice rose. “I said I was sorry, and I don’t say that very often.”
Still no response.
Only then did Luke notice the white wires going down from Billy’s ears to the iPod hanging from his belt.
“Yo.” Luke poked Billy’s shoulder with his index finger.
Billy turned. “What?”
“I’ve been standing here apologizing to you for the past ten minutes, and you didn’t even hear me.”
“Yeah, I did. I didn’t have it turned on.” Billy pointed to his iPod.
Luke had to laugh. “You’re evil, kid.”
“Yeah, I know.” Billy grinned. “Sweet, huh?”
“Yeah,” Luke had to admit as he exchanged a high-five with the mayor’s son. “Sweet.”
“I’m telling you, I saw them in that awful comic book store,” Mabel was telling Edith as she checked out the video of
Pride and Prejudice
with Colin Firth, a favorite of Edith’s. “Luke Maguire and the mayor’s son. Who knows what they sell in there?”
“They sell comic books,” Edith said.
“Can’t the town council do something about that?”
“No.”
“You can’t be saying you approve of that sort of thing.”
“What sort of thing?”
“Well, comic books. He could be selling pornography for all we know.”
“Oh, we’d know. We send in people to check things out.”
“People?”
“The mayor’s brother.”
Mabel’s carefully plucked and penciled eyebrows rose. “Phil the dentist reads comic books?”
“He’s posing as a fan to keep an eye on the situation.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing, Mabel.” Edith patted her hand. “Your town council is hard at work for you and has everything under control.”
“You don’t have Luke Maguire under control.”
“No. I fear that is an impossible task. But we’re still working on it.”
“It looks like he has a thing for the librarian.”
Edith nodded. “I understand he’s been spotted kissing her once or twice.”
“Twice? I only know about the one time at the Wiener Races.”
“Yes, that was quite a . . . situation. Nothing Mr. Darcy would have done, making a scene like that.”
“Who’s Mr. Darcy? Does he work at the funeral home?”
“No, he’s the hero in
Pride and Prejudice
.” Edith tapped the video box.
“Oh. I never saw the movie.”
“What about reading the book?”
“They made it into a book, too?”
“Never mind.”
“Wait!” Mabel grabbed Edith’s wrist to stop her from leaving. “What about the second kiss you were talking about?”
“Mrs. Selznick was taking her dog Terminator for a walk and claims she might have seen them on Julia’s front porch.”
“Them?”
“Julia and Luke.”
“What were they doing?”
“Well, it was getting dark by then so she couldn’t be sure, but it looked like they might have been kissing. Don’t say you heard it from me, however.”
“I won’t. When did this happen?”
“A few days ago.” Edith shook her head. “I thought Julia had more sense than that.”
“Who’s Julia? Is she in
Pride and Prejudice,
too?”
“No, Julia is the librarian,” Edith said impatiently.
“Oh. Right. I knew that. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up, though.”
“Just remember, you didn’t hear any of this from me.”
“Got it.”
Julia loved the holidays. She loved decorating the library with snowflakes and putting up the Christmas tree with book-shaped ornaments made by Friends of the Library.
And it wasn’t just the festivities at work that warmed her heart. She loved the traditional lighting of the town Christmas tree in the town square and all the thousands of tiny white twinkling lights adorning the bare trees around the park and along Main Street. Serenity Falls was definitely in a festive mood this time of year.
She couldn’t believe that the past two weeks had gone by so quickly. Now that the llamas were no longer in her backyard, her mom was spending more time on the road going to visit them. Angel and Skye had started their yoga and belly-dancing classes at Julia’s house during the day, and those seemed to be going well.
Thanksgiving had gone smoothly. Toni hadn’t bitten anyone, and the tofurkey had been . . . interesting.
Meanwhile, Luke hadn’t contacted her once. He’d kissed her until her kneecaps melted and then disappeared.
Well, not disappeared. She knew he was at Maguire’s. It wasn’t as if he’d skipped town or anything.
He just hadn’t seen her. Or kissed her.
Why not?
A gutsy woman would go over there and find out, not sit here at the library’s reference desk, pushing around papers.
It wasn’t as if Julia didn’t have things to do. She did. Three issues of
Booklist
sat there waiting for her to go through them and make selection choices. And she had to check her e-mail to see if there had been any responses to the post she’d put on the Fiction-L listserv asking for read-alike recommendations for a reader who liked the
Mrs. Pollifax
mystery series. She also had to check on the status of those READ posters she’d ordered from the American Library Association online store. Plus there was a presentation on holiday quilting tomorrow night that she was supposed to get organized with additional reading material and handouts for those attending. And the holiday cookbook bookcart needed refilling.
But she couldn’t seem to concentrate on any of that.
If she wasn’t going to think about work, she should at least be thinking about Christmas lists and things she still had to do. There were holiday cards to address and mail. Cookies to mix and bake. Presents to buy and wrap.
Yet here she sat, restlessly pushing her rolling chair back and forth, staring out the window and thinking about Luke.
Her plan to punish herself with carrot sticks and bok choy every time he came to mind had worn thin when she’d gotten so badly in the hole that she had to abandon the idea or risk eating the two dreaded veggies every hour of every day for the next six months. That’s how often she’d thought of him lately.
The man was clearly a bad influence on her. He distracted her. He tempted her. He got to her. He didn’t like gabby women.
What was that about?
Who cared?
She did . . . and that was a problem.
Two weeks. Luke hated the fact that he knew exactly how many days it had been since he’d kissed Julia. He hated the fact that he hadn’t kissed her again since then. Or gotten her between the sheets.
He especially hated that he was getting twinges of something stupid like noble regrets. What ever happened to bedding a woman and then forgetting about her? Getting horizontal, vertical, just doing it again and again . . . What was wrong with the two of them having a good time and then moving on?
“You’ve been cleaning that same glass for ten minutes now,” Adele noted wryly.
“It was really dirty.”
“Apparently.”
He frowned at her. “Don’t you have something important to do in the kitchen?”
“More important than harassing you? Not at the moment, no.”
“And that’s another thing. I thought you said a new menu was going to increase business.”
“That’s right.”
“Then why is the place empty?”
“Maybe because it’s only eleven in the morning and we don’t open until noon.”
“Oh. Right.”
“That’s okay.” She patted his arm as if he were Billy’s age. “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you’ve been cleaning a lot of glasses and spending a lot of time doing it. Isn’t that right, Tyler?”
“Leave me out of this,” Tyler said from the other side of the room where he was eating a meal Adele had prepared for him. “Have you figured out what you want to do about that mural idea I suggested for the side wall in the back room?”
“Go ahead with it,” Luke said absently, his gaze on the front window where he watched the people walking by. No sign of a belly-dancing librarian though.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Because it’s gonna cost you more money.”
“How much?”
Tyler named a figure that made Luke choke.
“Just seeing if you were still paying attention,” Tyler noted with a rare smile that was there and gone.
“Very funny,” Luke growled. “I’m surrounded by a pair of comedians today.”
“Not just today, but every day. Lucky you.” Adele actually pinched his cheek before heading back to the kitchen.
“Yeah, lucky you,” Tyler said.
Luke glared at him. “You pinch my cheek and you’re a dead man.”
“Same here,” Tyler returned dryly. “So what did you want on this mural of yours?”
“A naked woman would be fine by me,” he mockingly replied.
“Okay. Speaking of women . . .”
“Don’t even bring up the librarian’s name,” Luke warned him.
“I wasn’t going to. I was going to ask you about her mom, but never mind.”
“No, go ahead. I don’t mind handing out advice to other guys on how to please the ladies.”
“Like you’re an expert,” Tyler scoffed.
“Well, I don’t like to brag but . . .”
“You’re having regrets.”
“What?” Luke almost choked again. Did the guy have ESP or something?
“Me, too.”
“You? What have
you
got to have regrets about?”
“Tons. How about you?”
“Ditto.”
“Well, then.”
“Yeah.” Luke looked away. “Well then . . .”
“She’s better off without me,” Tyler abruptly stated.
“Who is?”
“Julia’s mother.”
“Why? She doesn’t seem the type who’d be upset by your career choices or uh . . . unusual lifestyle. I mean it’s not as if she’s Suzie Homemaker herself.”
“She’s an angel.”
“That’s her name, yeah.”
“No, I mean she’s an
angel
. She sees the good in everyone. People like us, you and me, we don’t. We know better.”
“Yeah, we do,” Luke said slowly, wondering what was going on with Tyler. What had gone on in his past?
“Glad you agree with me.”
“You married?” Luke asked.
“Not anymore.”
“You got a last name?”
“Yeah.”
“Mind telling me what it is?”
“Yeah.”
Tyler had insisted on being paid in cash, and Luke had had no problem with that. He knew cash left no paper trails. And he’d suspected that’s why Tyler had wanted things that way.