Page 2 of The Romance Library

‘Oh my God!’ I leapt to my feet, grabbed a serviette and started rubbing it over her mouth, smearing her red lipstick across her cheeks in the process. ‘Shit! I mean, crap! I’m so sorry!’

Yep. This was definitely going to be the shortest job I’d ever had. And given my track record, that was saying something.

Forget lasting one shift. I wasn’t even going to last an hour.

As my heart thundered in my chest, Mrs Davis calmly pulled a crisp white handkerchief from her dress pocket and dabbed it over her damp face.

‘I really am so sorry! I didn’t mean to spray you, but I thought you said you had almost eighteen thousand books and I was shocked. I must’ve misheard.’

Mrs Davis probably meant that she had close to eighteen hundred, not thousand. Even that was a lot. But like I’d said earlier, this room and the hallway were full of books, so around two thousand was feasible.

‘No.’ Mrs Davis fixed her steely gaze on me. I should just get my coat and leave now. Save her the trouble of firing me on the spot. ‘You did not mishear. I have almost eighteen thousand paperbacks and hardbacks combined. And thousands more on my Kindle.’

Bloody hell.

‘That’s amazing!’ My eyes bulged. ‘I thought the two hundred books I used to have were a lot. I can’t imagine having over twenty thousand!’

‘You like reading?’

I sat up straighter. Instead of firing me, she’d asked a question. This was good. Maybe I’d make it to an hour after all and earn enough to cover my petrol.

‘Yeah.’ I sighed. ‘I used to read all the time.’

‘Used to?’

‘Long story.’

I didn’t want to talk about that now. It was still too difficult.

‘Come with me.’

After resting the hardback on the table beside her, Mrs Davis got up, then weaved effortlessly through the book stacks on the floor as I trailed cautiously behind her.

At the end of the hallway, she stopped at a door I assumed led to a basement. For a split second, I wondered whether she planned to lock me down there as punishment for spraying her face with tea. But then I reminded myself to trust my gut. If I’d done that when I’d first had doubts about my ex, I wouldn’t be working so hard now trying to make ends meet.

Anyway, I’d promised Marion I’d call when my shift was over, so if she didn’t hear from me, hopefully she’d send out a search party.

Mrs Davis flicked a light switch, gripped the banister and slowly made her way down the wooden steps. I took a deep breath and followed her lead. When I reached the bottom of the staircase, my jaw hit the floor.

OMG.

There were rows upon rows of bookcases. Tall ones, short ones, wide ones, slim ones. All filled with beautiful books. Unlike the shelves upstairs, they were all beautifully arranged by colour.

And in the corner there was even a rolling ladder!

I felt like Belle when she walked into the library in the Beast’s castle. This was every bookworm’s wet dream.

‘Bloody hell!’ I shouted. ‘You’ve got your own personal home library!’ My eyes widened as I took in all of the books neatly arranged on the shelves. ‘And you’ve got all my favourites! Lucy Score, Meghan Quinn, Christina Lauren, Kennedy Ryan, D. D. Desire, Sophie Kinsella, Kristen Bailey, Emily Henry, Sarah Adams, Abby Jimenez, Elsie Silver…’ I ran my hands across the spines excitedly.

She also had books from indie authors I loved, and loads of classics too.

‘I read at least two romance novels a day,’ Mrs Davis said like it was no big deal.

‘My friend Sarah would literally die if she saw your collection! Have you read all of these?’

‘Most of them. But I have more books than I could read in my lifetime. Especially at my age. And now I want them to go to a good home. I assume you came here by car?’

For a second I hoped she was going to suggest I take some home. Then I remembered we’d only just met. And given that I’d spat in her face five minutes ago, she wasn’t going to reward me with a load of free books. Obviously she wanted me to drop them somewhere.

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