the way outside. She expected him to turn toward the Riverwalk but he went in the opposite direction. As she didn’t have a particular destination in mind, she went along without saying anything.
“How are things with you?” she asked.
“Good. The book is progressing. Today was all about murder and gross bodies.”
She laughed. “So an easy day.”
“Yeah. None of that hard emotional stuff or dealing with Mandy’s life. Give me a good dismemberment scene and I’m a happy guy.”
“You’re a weird guy.”
“Maybe, but I’m okay with that.”
He surprised her by taking her hand in his. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d walked down a street, holding a guy’s hand. Probably when she was with Turner, she thought wistfully. So many years ago. She didn’t miss him at all, but sometimes the what-ifs of the situation were difficult to handle.
“Pallas wants to talk about me becoming a partner in the business,” she said.
“That’s great. Do you want to be a partner?”
“Very much. I like the business and I have some ideas about how we could grow things. It’s a lot of responsibility and I’d have to buy in with a lump sum or over time. I have some savings, but I doubt it’s close to enough, so I guess it will be over time.”
“I have money.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you have more than all of us, but that isn’t relevant to the conversation.”
“I could—”
“No.”
“But I don’t need it for—”
She glared at him. “No. Jasper, stop. There’s no way you can just give me money to buy into Pallas’s business without making things weird between us. Not only would it change things, it would completely freak me out. So just no.”
He studied her for several seconds. “Fine. I will respect your wishes on this topic.”
“Thank you.”
“Even though you’re wrong.”
She made a low noise in her throat. “Boys are stupid.”
“Liar. You can’t get enough of me. Now no more talk of business.” He pointed across the street. “See that building there? We’re going inside. It’s a magical place, so there will be no fighting.”
Across the street was a very unassuming structure. It was plain with big windows and large glass doors. The sign out front read Happily Inc Public Library.
“I don’t understand. It’s just the library.”
“Not just the library,” he told her. “When I was a kid, my dad worked a lot of hours. Our house got lonely so I would spend afternoons in the library, reading everything I could. The librarians watched out for me, made recommendations.” He smiled. “Brought me cookies. Come on.”
He tugged her along as he crossed the street. They went inside.
She looked around and saw thousands of books in rows of shelves. There were posters on the wall and signs pointing to various sections. It was, well, a library. But when she turned to Jasper, she realized he saw something completely different. His gaze was slightly unfocused as if instead of books, he saw journeys and possibilities.
He winked at her. “Let’s go explore. I want to start in travel. It’s over here.”
He went directly to the travel section. This was not his first time here, she thought, wondering if the seeds of his writing career had been sown long before he’d realized.
He showed her an old book on Egypt, pointing out the sketched pictures and the original binding. There were coffee table-sized books of maps and books with shiny new photographs of different parts of the world.
At the end of the aisle, they went in different directions. She found herself in front of cookbooks from around the world. One published in the 1950s showed a sketch of a woman wearing high heels, pearls and an apron, as if that was the expectation.
“I would so fail at that,” she murmured softly, flipping through the pages and finding an entire section of gelatin mold recipes.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned and saw Jasper standing very close. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips—a sweet kiss that unexpectedly made her eyes burn.
“Score!” he whispered. “I always wanted to kiss a girl in the library. It’s been a fantasy of mine since I was fifteen and had a thing for a girl named Bambi.”
“Seriously? Bambi?”
“I swear. She was so hot and she never noticed me.”
“That’s her loss.”
“I like to think so.”
Then he was gone, continuing his library exploration. Renee hugged the cookbook to her chest. Jasper was surprising in so many ways. She’d thought he would be brooding and quiet and a little scary, albeit good