Page 67 of I Met Him At The Library

Ryan

Waking up with Emily in my arms was the best feeling in the world. Her soft hair was draped over the pillow behind her as she nuzzled into me. I didn’t want to wake her and would prefer to keep her like this for the next several weeks to make up for the time we’d lost, but she was supposed to have breakfast with Addison March this morning. I didn’t want her to miss out on the opportunity.

Kissing her soft, bare shoulder several times she stirred slightly, giving me enough room to kiss the length of her neck and jawline too.

“It’s time to wake up, sweetheart,” I murmured against her skin.

She growled at me, and I chuckled. Emily wasn’t a morning person but I found her growly morning temperament adorable. She required a good cup of coffee before she would no longer be a hazard to the general public. I was a lucky man getting to see her like this. Everyone else got the quiet but kind Emily, while I was graced with the adorable, bed head, grumpy side. I liked experimenting with the different ways I could wake her pleasantly. So far there was only one way that actually worked, sadly we didn’t have time for that particularly effective wake up method.

“You don’t want to be late for breakfast do you?”

She gasped and sat up quickly. She glanced around the room before landing on the digital clock. I had woken before the alarm she had set, so she had plenty of time. Once she figured it out, she scowled slightly at me.

“I’ll get you coffee.” After placing a soft peck on her lips, I reluctantly pulled myself away from her.

After coffee, a hot shower together, and getting dressed, we headed into town. Trey had messaged me sometime in the evening to let me know the park was back to normal, the tables and chairs had been returned, and the stage was torn down. I couldn’t thank my friends enough for all the work they did for the festival. If it were not for them, none of it would have been possible.

I dropped Emily at the diner for her breakfast with Addison before I headed toward the library. Everyone would join me in a couple of hours to figure out the final totals, but before that I wanted to start preparing the thank you emails I’d be sending to all of the authors. If we managed to save the library for a full year, we’d likely throw a book festival every year to raise money.

Unfortunately, despite my hopes that we saved the library for the next year, I still doubted we had. The Hills put a massive wrench in our plans with the concert at the church yesterday. I didn’t know how it went because I was too busy with the festival and then too busy with Emily to even think about it.

Sitting at my desk, I went to social media to see if anything was said about the concert, and sure enough there were plenty of complaints. People were upset to find out the transportation they were promised from Fairwood hotels to the concert never showed and were demanding refunds for the tickets. Then I read a comment that had me barking out in laughter.

Walt, the bus driver that showed up to the hotel, said he knew every bus driver in a twenty-five mile radius. He said no one had been contracted for the concert at the church, and he didn’t believe anyone could volunteer either. He and a few others were driving as volunteers for the book festival to save the library. My friends and I purchased tickets to this book festival, thankfully they weren’t expensive, to get us closer to the concert, then we walked three miles to the church, only to find out there wasn’t enough seating. I don’t blame the singer, I blame the church putting on the event for the bad planning on their part. Several people were talking about how they had to purchase tickets to the book festival to do the same thing. At least the money was also going to a good cause.

Meghan pulled through with her connections to Walt. Our ticket prices weren’t huge because we managed to keep our costs down, but now I began to wonder how many last minute ticket purchases were made that went to help the library so people could get to the concert that was only being put on to stop our fundraising efforts?

A small petty part of me felt pure satisfaction that the concert didn’t have as many rave reviews as our festival seemed to have. With a smirk on my face, I began working on the emails to our authors while I waited for my friends and staff to arrive.

We began adding up the totals in donations as well as the numbers of tickets sold once everyone was present. Meghan entered everything into the spreadsheet and I swore the whole room held their breath as we waited for the final number. Based on the slight frown on Meghan’s face, we hadn’t reached our goal.

“We made enough for nine more months,” Meghan revealed.

The sting of disappointment ran through me, but looking at Emily she smiled. Nine months was plenty of time to figure out additional funding. It could be enough time to convince the town to demand public funding too. We may have only pushed off the inevitable but it might have been enough to save the library for good.

“So the doors stay open,” Betsy remarked.

“It gives us enough time to get the townspeople contacting the city council to demand more funding for the library,” Levi offered.

“I’ll offer a discount to library supporters,” Ruby said.

“And I’ll threaten the others with my frying pan,” Sadie joked.

“Hand me a frying pan, and I’ll help,” Betsy said with a laugh.

I chuckled as the image of the seventy-something year old woman running through town with a frying pan and hitting people over the head popped into my brain. It would be a sight to see, and unlike Sadie who was in her thirties, the town cops would probably do nothing more than take the pan from her and tell her to stop.

Bending down, I kissed Emily and she smiled up at me. Grateful I would be able to keep my job for a little while longer. We had a real shot at saving the library for good and I couldn’t help but be thankful for her support through this.

“Maybe I’ll write a novella that will specifically help raise funds for my small town library,” she said as we parted.

“All great ideas,” I stated to the group, “Well, maybe not the frying pan.” I nodded to Betsy and Sadie.

“The frying pan is an excellent idea! Let’s go celebrate our win,” Betsy suggested.

“The pub?” Levi asked and everyone agreed.

Conversation broke out as the group filed out of my office, Emily stayed back with me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and mine went around her shoulders. Squeezing me tight, she sighed as her head pressed to my chest.

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