Page 35 of I Met Him At The Library

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He sighed, then stared at me, his eyes filled with sadness, before saying, “The library is losing its funding.”

“What?” I shouted, and then covered my mouth while glancing out of the window into the main library.

While these rooms were more private and allowed for a little bit of noise, shouting could likely be heard outside of the room.

“The mayor wants to reallocate the funds for projects the church wants to start,” he explained, “By the end of next quarter we will have to shut our doors if we don’t come up with another way to pay for everything.”

“And if the library closes its doors, you lose your job,” I guessed, and he nodded.

Taking a minute to let it settle in, I sat back in my chair and sighed. If the library closed, the best case scenario - on a personal level - would be Ryan would need to accept a job in his field and have to commute quite a bit, leaving him burnt out and not having time to dedicate to the relationship we both wanted. Worst case scenario, he’d have to move back to the city and we’d be done before we even got started.

“Okay, so we need to find a way to make sure the library keeps its doors open. What do you have?” I asked, leaning forward and looking into Ryan’s eyes.

His eyes widened slightly and the corner of his mouth lifted. We might be a small town but once you had your group, we’d do anything to help each other out. This town needed the library and I’d do anything within my power to help save it.

“Well, Levi suggested getting in contact with authors in hopes they may help raise awareness via social media, or maybe they’d want to help. So I’m pulling information on our most checked out authors.”

Humming, I let my eyes drift as I tried to come up with a solution, before saying, “Let me contact a few people. We are going to need to do a lot more than reach out, but I need to see what is actually feasible in the time we have.”

“You want to help?” He asked quietly.

“Well, the way I figure it, I like having an office out of my home. Plus it would suck if the man I'm attached to suddenly lost his job,” I said conspiratorially with a smile on my face.

His eyebrows scrunched for a second before they lifted in understanding.

“Attached?” He questioned.

“Look, I’d like to take some exploratory time to determine if this is a relationship we would like to pursue, but I want to keep it as quiet as possible. Not because I’m ashamed, but …” I glanced down.

“You don’t want to run the risk of us not working out and the people in town choosing sides and one or both of us are made miserable because of it?”

Raising my eyes to him, a small smile spread across my face.

“Yes. I want to protect both of us.”

“That’s fair. Plus, if you help me with this whole library situation, we can use it as a cover for the time we spend together.”

My smile grew as I nodded in agreement. “That sounds like a good plan.”

“So, I shouldn’t kiss you right now where people can see us?” He questioned, and a blush rose to my cheeks.

Rolling my lips, I said, “No, and you probably shouldn’t make comments that make me blush either.”

Standing from the table, he spoke low, “I couldn’t possibly stop. You’re incredibly sexy when you blush.”

With that, he turned from the table, stepped toward the door, and opened it. He walked through and closed the door gently behind him. I watched as he strode across the library, back to where he had appeared from, and it wasn’t until he turned and looked back at me when my eyes moved away from the curve of his ass in his jeans.

My eyes shot back to my laptop as I tried desperately to hide my grin and the way my cheeks were heating. My eyes drifted over the top of my laptop, and he was still standing where I last saw him - arms crossed over his chest leaning in a doorway. He winked and turned away before disappearing down the hall leading to the staff offices.

“Hey, Emily, how are you coming along with book seven?” Poppy asked, answering the phone.

I kicked my feet up on my coffee table and answered, “On schedule. How are you?”

“Still struggling to find some peace and quiet. Max isn’t being super helpful.”

“So, why do you need so much quiet?” I asked.

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