Between Now and Heartbreak - Dylan Allen Page 0,26
my shoulder, “Ah. There she is now. Elisabeth, this young man needs you to open up the microfilm room for him.”
My mood lifts immediately. Fortune has clearly had enough of me making me its fool.
I woke up the day after the incident at the registry office and I knew I needed to talk to her again.
Even if just for closure.
I also need to know what happened between the time we last spoke and her getting engaged to Duke.
But getting to her proved as difficult getting records. I don’t have her phone number. I wasn’t going to waltz up to her father’s house or office and I never saw her anywhere else.
Out of the five thousand adults in this town, what are the odds that she would be the volunteer? Like my father used to say, “People with destiny’s don’t need to make plans. They need to be ready for their opportunity when it shows up.”
I plaster the most sedate, unaffected smile I can muster on my face. I don’t want her to see how fucking excited I am and bolt.
If I’m walking on sunshine, she looks like she’s just be struck by lightning,
She’s standing in the middle of the large corridor that leads from the reference rooms to the checkout desk. Her mouth is open and her eyes are wide with indecision.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The librarian sharp statement jolts her out of her stupor and she starts walking again.
“Oh, sorry, I just remembered something I forgot to do, but it can wait.” She smiles, and it reaches her eyes. But I know she doesn’t mean it.
“So sorry to have kept you waiting, I’ll take you back now,” she says in cheery, aloof voice that as toneless as automated recording.
She turns a genuine smile on the librarian and gives her mock frown of disapproval that’s halfway to being a smile while and shoos her away. “You go sit down before your feet swell up!”
The woman who was scolding me a minute ago blushes at being fussed at and does as she’s told. I want to tell Leah, I get it. When she smiles at me, I lose my good sense, too.
“Come on,” she doesn’t wait for me to respond before she turns and heads down the hallway she came from. I take my time catching up. Her ass looks amazing in the light pink pencil skirt that hugs from her waist to her right above
Her legs are a mile long and the sexy nude high heels she’s wearing set her hips to swaying.
She tenses slightly when I fall into step beside her but otherwise doesn’t acknowledge me.
“Aren’t you going to say hello?” I ask.
She glances at me, her eyes full of warning and mouths, “Wait,” before she looks straight ahead again. I glance around the library, but only see people reading, or at computers. A few of them glance up as we pass, but no one is paying attention to us.
“Wait for what?”
She shakes her head stiffly and we walk in silence until we reach the end of the hall.
“Here we are,” she announces with a too loud flourish and leans forward to unlock the door. I lean in, too and catch the light flowery scent of her perfume.
“I don’t think Leah would be happy right now, Beth,” I whisper next to her ear.
She lets out a small yelp and jerks away before she pushes the door open like the hounds of hell are nipping at her heels.
The lights come on automatically when she steps in side. I pull the keys she left dangling in the nob out before I follow her in and close the door behind me.
She’s turned to face me and her face has lost that guarded look. She looks like herself.
“I’m sorry about that. I just don’t want to give them something to gossip about.”
“Why is it gossip worthy for you to talk to a library visitor while you’re helping him?”
“It’s a very small town, everything is gossip worthy.” She says in a serious, clipped tone. Her eyes are trained on the door, her body tensed as if she’s waiting to make sure no one’s coming in behind us.
I hold up the keys and dangle them in front of me. “I locked it. And think me holding these is breaking some sort of ordinance. Leah made it clear that civilians aren’t to touch the key.” I stretch my arm toward her, the key dangle