Page 44 of Keeping Secrets

By the time she had finished shelving the new books, she had gathered a stack of seven that she wanted to check out and take home. It would go nicely with the tower of nine that she already had next to her bed.

She was much happier at the front desk than in the basement. She enjoyed chatting with patrons (most of the time) and scanning their books. When things slowed down and she had nothing else to do, she opened up one of the cookbooks that she had pulled from the library shelves. She was still looking for inspiration for the event that she had agreed to cater for Sunday and Guillermo. She wanted to make something truly astonishing, but she wasn’t sure what.

She was quick to close the book when the library door opened. When she looked up to see Travis walking toward her, her heart sped.

"Hey," he greeted her.

He wore the boyish smile that she had missed. He still wasn’t back to who he had been in Rocky Hill, or even a few months before… and maybe he never would be. Maybe that was a part of growing up. She certainly wasn’t the same person she had been at any point in her past.

But whoever he was now, she wanted to get to know him better.

"Hey," she echoed.

"The library closes in a few minutes, right?”

“Yeah, it’s about time to lock up.”

“Cool.” His smile turned shy, which only made his handsome face more endearing. “I was wondering if you wanted to get some dinner with me."

She felt her cheeks color, and she looked down at the decades-old cookbook that she had been perusing. With effort, she looked back up into his eyes.

"I’d like that,” she said quietly, “but I have an hour of cleanup and closing stuff to do. And after that, there’s a book club meeting."

"Well, I can’t compete with book club," he teased.

"It’s my first one, and I promised Ali that I would come. And it was a really good book."

"How about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow’s good."

"Pick you up at six?"

She smiled at him, not even caring that her cheeks were flaming. "Sure. Sounds good."

"Okay." He took a few steps backward, like he was reluctant to take his eyes off of her. And then he grinned, winked, and walked out of the library.

As soon as the library door closed behind him, a chorus of ooohs sounded behind her. She spun around to see Ali, Maria, and Melissa all watching her from behind one of the shelves.

"Were you spying on me?" she exclaimed.

"We were trying to do our jobs," Melissa said, "but we didn’t want to interrupt whatever that was."

"He is cute," Maria added.

Keely covered her pink cheeks with both hands and looked away.

"Come on," Ali said, "let’s lock up and get ready for book club."

They went through their usual closing tasks and then pulled together a circle of chairs in the anteroom that was mostly used for afternoon art projects for kids. They unlocked the doors again a few minutes before book club was due to start, and locals poured through with snacks and drinks. While food and liquids weren’t allowed in the library, an exception was made for the anteroom. There were no library books in there, just work space and art supplies.

The book club was composed of women of every age and even a few men. The book of the week had been Women’s Fiction, whatever that meant, and Keely was surprised to find that the men had enjoyed it just as much as the women.

"I lost my wife a few years ago," one of the older men said, “so I could really identify with what Emma was going through."

"My heart just broke for her," someone else put in.

“I was really impressed with the depth of the characters,” another man said. “The women, the kids, even the dog. Did anyone else notice how the dog kept escaping but kept coming back, and then came back for good once it was rescued by its family? It was like it paralleled Lani’s narrative.”

---