Page 68 of I Met Him At The Library

“We’ve got this,” she whispered.

“I know.”

She glanced up at me, her eyes sparkling, and I placed a soft peck on her lips. “Let’s go celebrate how far we’ve come.”

“Lets.” She whispered.

Turning, I grabbed my bag and draped the strap over my shoulder before taking Emily’s hand and walking with her. After shutting off the lights and locking up the doors, Emily and I stepped out into the cool night air.

Neil sat on the bench, and as we walked past he spoke up, “Did you save my bench?”

“For the next nine months at least,” I responded with a smile.

He narrowed his eyes on me before he lifted a large envelope and shoved it at me, “Well, I want my bench, so, here. I’m late for dinner. And I’ll hear nothing more of this. Don’t go telling anyone either. There’s a reason why my name isn’t anywhere on that.” he gestured to the envelope. “Oh, and you two are adorable. You remind me of me and my Clara.”

The old man pushed to stand before he started hobbling off toward the diner. My eyebrows scrunched in confusion, and I turned to look at Emily who had the same confused expression on her face. Looking down at the envelope there were no markings on it, but it was thick.

Turning the envelope over, I untied and opened the flap. As I began pulling the large stack of papers out, the words Maple Creek Library and Trust stood out. My eyes widened and Emily gasped next to me.

Shoving the papers in the envelope we stared at each other with wide eyes before we both started walking quickly toward the pub. Once inside we joined everyone at the many tables they put together to accommodate our party size. I sat next to Betsy and slid the envelope to her.

“What the hell is that?” She asked.

“I think the library is completely funded,” I replied with a bright smile.

Shock came over her face before she opened the envelope and pulled out the stack of paperwork. Pulling her glasses from her bag, she perched them on her nose and began reading over the papers. A brilliant smile spread across her face as everyone leaned in to hear the good news.

“Who gave this to you?” Betsy asked.

“It was a last minute anonymous donation,” I said.

“We found it sitting on the front desk,” Emily said, her eyes twinkling at me.

If Neil didn’t want to be identified as the donor, we sure as hell weren’t going to share his secret.

“Well, you are correct. The library is completely funded,” Betsy announced as laughter, sighs of relief, and cheering came from our friends.

Epilogue

Emily

It had been about a month since Neil handed Ryan and me the envelope that fully funded the library. We had a good laugh over how the man most of the tourists believed to be homeless was actually so well off he could generously fund the entire library. Ryan had been working on improvements that could be made, and Betsy was working on starting a tutoring program.

My latest release did so well I actually made the bestseller list. There was a high demand for me to appear at more events, but I took Meghan’s advice and picked only a couple to attend each year. We did list special edition signed copies of my books on the website and they sold out within a week.

I had dropped off yet another large amount of packages at the post office when my phone rang. Answering it, I dropped into the driver seat of Ryan’s car. I’d borrowed it to run some errands before I got back to writing at the library.

“Hey Poppy,” I greeted my best friend excitedly, and asked, “What’s up?”

“Well, I caught Max and Chloe having sex, so I’m on my way to Maple Creek.”

My mouth dropped open at the news and I pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at the caller ID. She had said it so casually, and, for a second, a part of me worried if Max was in the trunk of her car, and I was talking to a woman who snapped.

“Wait, what happened?”

“I had gone to write at a cafe but it was so loud I wasn’t getting much done. I went home, and there was Max and Chloe … in our bed … having sex. So I packed up Cumin and we got into my car. Mom told me to go to their house because they don’t have anyone renting it.”

“You’re on your way home?”

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