Page 85 of Roommate's Guide to Love

“You’re strong. I think you can take anything,” she says. “Do you remember the first time you came into my library?”

I laugh. “You mean the time I got detention?”

“No, Quinn. The time after. The first time you returned a book.”

I have to think about it for a second, but the memory starts slowly coming back to me.

“I asked if I was allowed to take another one.”

She nods and gives my hand a squeeze. “The hopeful look in your eye was one I’ve never forgotten in all my years. Knowing that I could give you a place to retreat to, a place where maybe for a little bit you weren’t such the prankster?—”

“Well, that didn’t work out too well, did it?” I joke through my tears.

“Perhaps not. But I know what books did for you. I saw the change in you from that moment on. When I was feeling down about things, or kids not wanting to read as much anymore, I’d remember your face that day. And always after I’d remember that moment, when a new student would come up to the counter asking me what kind of books they might like. Andthat,my darling, is why I kept going for forty-two years.”

Well, shit. I didn’t know I needed a whole ass box of Kleen-ex for this outdoor excursion.

“So why now?” I ask. “Granted, I don’t know if I would’ve had forty-two years of public education in me. I couldn’t even make it to fifteen.”

“Yes…I heard about your fallout in Arizona,” she says.

I can’t help but groan. “I promise you, whatever you saw on Facebook isn’t the truth. Well except a few names I called them. That’s the truth.”

She laughs. “Oh, I stay away from that social media garbage. No, I heard it from your mother. I ran into her at the grocery store.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Good. The last thing this town needs is more ammo on me and how I can’t control myself.”

“You did what you needed to do,” she says. “I know you, Quinn. You wouldn’t have done something like that without strong reasoning.”

I nod, my eyes downcast as I think about the twenty-six faces smiling at me today. “I did it for the kids. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I did.”

“You don’t need to explain it to me,” she says. “You’re the reason I’m retiring.”

I do a double-take. “Did you start a new conversation and forget to tell me?”

“No, my dear.” She takes both of my hands in hers, turning me slightly to face her. “I retired because you’re here now. You’re back. And I want you to take over the library.”

Excuse me what…

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“You want me to work at Rolling Hills Middle School?”

“The very one.”

“The school that still has a ‘Most Wanted’ picture of me in the office?”

She waves me off. “They got rid of that a long time ago. Plus, that principal retired. You’d be starting with a fresh slate.”

Now that’s laughable. “You and I both know that when it comes to this town, I’ll never have a clean record. They still call me Hurricane at the bar. Plus, I don’t even know if I’m staying here. So while this is flat?—”

She holds up a finger, which was always her universal signal to kindly shut the hell up. “I didn’t expect an answer today. I just want you to think about it. Because there’s no other person in this world who I’d leave this library too. It’s yours, Quinn. That is, if you want it.”

I throw my arms around her. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Just promise me you’ll think about it.” She pats my back, holding me for a few seconds. “I truly believe everything happens for a reason. And you being back here means something.”

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