Page 1 of I Met Him At The Library

Chapter 1

Ryan

“Go over there and strike up a conversation with her already,” Betsy huffed.

Shit. She caught me staring again. Glancing at Betsy, her glasses were perched low on her thin nose as she peered over them and flashed a small knowing smile. The seventy-something year old woman was a busybody who knew everything about everyone in this town. Her dark blue eyes didn’t miss a thing.

“I was only curious about what she’s working on. She’s been in here almost every single day for weeks,” I said, turning away from her before my inability to keep my facial expressions neutral gave me away.

I was talking about Emily, the woman I’d been crushing on. I moved here a few years ago and only saw her a few times around town. I found her incredibly attractive but never interacted with her, mainly because I was intimidated as hell. A few weeks ago, she walked into the library, and I took a chance. I introduced myself, and she did the same. We exchanged some small talk before she requested one of the study rooms.

Every weekday morning since then, she walked in and nodded a hello before setting her laptop up in one of the two private study rooms we had available. There she would work for hours on end, eating a sandwich around lunch, before she packed up for the night and left. During those hours, I found myself conveniently creating tasks within the library where I could sneak a glance in her direction. More times than not, I ended up working an extra hour or so in the early morning or evening to catch up on the things I’d pushed aside in favor of watching her.

“Emily’s always been a quiet one - a fantastic student. She didn’t interact with many people. Well, except for Meghan and Poppy. She mostly stayed out of drama, not to say there wasn’t a little bit of drama and some gossip,” Betsy said, thinking she was being sly in pulling me into the town gossip.

Betsy was a retired school teacher. Over the last five years, she informed me how every single person, with the exception of those who were her age or older, did in school. She could go on for ages spreading gossip and sharing stories if I let her. In the last few weeks she liked to tell me little tidbits about Emily more than anyone else, but I wanted to find out everything from the woman herself.

“Well, I have these books to put away,” I said, hoping to avoid any additional rumors.

Betsy huffed as I began pushing the rickety metal cart toward the science fiction section. My eyes traveled through the glass walls of the semi-private room where Emily was sitting, leaned back in her chair, her eyes on the computer screen. Her fingers braided a small section of her auburn hair. She was beautiful, and I wished I was bold enough to strike up a deeper conversation with her.

Emily was a soft type of woman, with thick thighs and hips, and a slightly rounded stomach. She had pink round cheeks and kissable heart shaped lips, but none of those were what initially drew me to her. When her clear brilliant hazel eyes met mine for the first time, I fell into infatuation with her. You could spend hours trying to pick all the colors in her eyes and never find them all.

Bang! The cart jolted as it collided with a shelf. My cheeks flushed, and I quickly steered the cart, disappearing down an empty aisle.

Great! Just great, Ryan. Not paying attention to where you’re walking and breaking the most important rule in the library. No disturbing noises.

Stopping in the section I needed, I tried to brush off the embarrassment of my mishap. There wasn’t a chance in hell Betsy didn’t see me crash the cart while I was staring at Emily. The last thing I needed was the entire town knowing I had a thing for her. The other older women might team up with Betsy to play matchmaker.

I already made the mistake of bringing up Emily to Trey and Levi, two of my three best friends. Both of them went to school with her and teased me relentlessly about my crush. We were all in our thirties. Was it necessary to act like we were still in high school? Thankfully, Preston had my back and would tell Trey and Levi to back off whenever they gave me too much shit.

Levi had said Emily was sweet, but she mostly kept to herself, she only dated a couple of guys they knew of. One was her highschool sweetheart who moved away after highschool and never returned, followed by some other guy who also no longer lived here. Most recently was someone who moved here when the town started attracting more tourists. He later moved away a couple years ago after a few of the new bed-and-breakfasts were finished being built and his job here was finished. Other than that, she was described as being a bit introverted.

I wasn’t a bad looking guy, but I was slightly awkward. I wasn’t great in social situations, and, like Emily, I often kept to myself. However, Trey, Levi, and Preston didn’t allow me to stick to myself and accepted me into their circle within weeks of me arriving in town. I was grateful for it, or I think I might have been miserable in this town after only a few months.

Most people think men didn’t gossip, and for the most part we didn’t, but those three filled me in on the ups and downs of this town real fast. They were my survival guide because the people here could come up with some truly inventive stories.

Maple Creek was small with only a couple thousand people who lived here year round. We had a lot of tourists who would travel through during the spring, summer, and fall. Some of them owned vacation homes here and would rent them out.

Like any small town, we had our quirks. There were three sides to this town. You had those, like me, who simply enjoyed the peace of a small town and mostly kept to themselves. The outcasts were an eclectic bunch who liked to get to know everyone in town. Finally there were the legacy families and those who kissed their asses.

The legacy families had ancestry dating back to the town’s founding. There were five - the Hills, Bakers, Thompsons, Evans, and Andersons. The Anderson’s weren’t so bad and evidently started distancing themselves from the other families years ago. Levi was pretty close to Dylan Anderson, and claimed he was a great guy. He started dating Rachel down at The Orchard Inn, a bed-and-breakfast place her brother, Jason, owned. Of course they had an apple orchard that opened every fall.

The rest of the families were all extremely active in the church, politics, and owned local businesses which were started all the way back in the early eighteen hundreds when the town was founded. They also happened to be the families I was warned about first.

When I moved here, Betsy was the library director, except she was looking to limit her responsibilities. Somehow, she convinced me to go from a part time librarian and tech support to full time library director. Ruby, her sister, would come in for a few hours in the evening to volunteer, and then we had Trudy and Sadie who came in to volunteer on weekends and nights, respectively.

Betsy trained me on everything there was to learn about running a library. It didn’t pay super well, but it was a lot more peaceful than my previous roles in IT, which was the whole reason I moved to Maple Creek.

I burnt out badly working for a tech company in Chicago and ended up quitting. I sold my condo and moved two hundred miles outside of the city. Family, friends, and professional acquaintances all told me I’d regret my decision, but I never did. Who could regret peacefulness, full night sleeps, and a town filled with quirky people who kept life interesting?

After finishing placing the books on the shelves, I checked the time on my silenced phone to see I had several missed messages from the guys. However, it was the time that had me widening my eyes, I ignored the messages and shoved my phone back in my pocket. It was after five and Emily would be leaving soon.

Leaving the aisle, I glanced toward the private room where she was closing her laptop. Hurrying, the cart squeaked as I steered it back to the front desk. Betsy looked up from the computer and smirked at me. She knew exactly what I was doing, but I didn’t care.

Parking the cart near the book returns, I loaded the few books in the return before moving to the ones needing to be checked into the system. As I sat at the computer with the books to check in, Emily appeared in the hall leading to the front door.

“Have a wonderful evening,” I said quietly.

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