Page 17 of Wild Love

"Marigold wants to give me a tour of the library," I said lightly.

"Is that so?" Chance asked Marigold.

"I'm trying to convince this one to teach a theater class." Marigold looked at me.

"I said I'd do one class. The kids will probably hate it, and then you won't need me anymore," I said.

"Don't sell yourself short," Chance chided, and I paused to consider him. Since when did my family support my love for acting?

Chance dipped his head. "You two have a good afternoon. And, Scarlett, let me know if I can take you out for dinner one night."

My brother never wanted to spend time with me one-on-one unless he was giving me a lecture about not breaking Mom's and Dad's hearts.

"Will you be in your uniform?" I asked to give him trouble.

He smoothed a hand over his uniform shirt. "I can be casual."

"That I have to see." I hooked my arm through Marigold’s, and waved at him. "See you around."

Marigold sighed. "Your brother is so nice."

"Yeah, he's one of the good ones," I said sarcastically, used to people preferring him to me.

Marigold paused in the middle of the street. "I didn't mean that you aren't."

I picked up the pace, not wanting to talk about me or my brother. "Come on. I want to see if the library has changed since we were kids."

Marigold laughed. "When did you ever spend time in the library?"

I paused for a second; I didn't think I had. "I like to read now."

Marigold looked at me with new eyes. "Since when? I was always trying to get you to read when we were kids."

"I was too busy doing the opposite of what everyone wanted me to do. Being on the road so much can be boring, so I startedwith audiobooks, then moved to paperbacks. It was a nice escape."

"You want to get a library card while you're here?" Marigold opened the door for me.

I just gave her a look. "That might be too big of a commitment for me."

She laughed. "I'll wear you down eventually."

I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd be gone soon. I'd do this one class for her, and then the urge to get on the road would be back. I was sure of it.

Inside, she showed me the circulation desk, then the children's section. There was a stage by the windows. "This is nice."

Marigold rubbed her hands together. "You're getting excited, aren't you?"

"I'm impressed the library put this in." Especially since schools were removing programs.

"We sent out a checklist of things the public wanted, and this is one of the options the community picked. So you think you can do it? If so, I'll send out the sign-up to the community."

"I'll do one." I was confident the kids wouldn't be impressed with me. They'd want to know if I'd acted in something big, and I'd never done anything more than small stages. It wasn't like I was on Broadway or had gone to L.A. for my big break into acting. I was okay, but not big enough for something like that.

"Great. Let's look at the calendar." Marigold led me over to the children's desk and pulled up a digital calendar on her screen. "Let's do Saturday."

"I think my parents are having a barbecue at the house. Did you want to come? Otherwise I won't have anyone to talk to."

Marigold looked up at me. "Will your brother be there?"

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