Page 3 of Bookworm

"And," I added, "not every one of our imaginary library visitors can beTDH. It's just not believable."

Casey nodded. "True…but this one is. And he has eyes that shine like stars."

"And he can cook," Natalia added.

"And he's a football star."

I laughed. "You and your jocks."

"And," Casey went on undeterred, "he just won the championship."

"So he came here because he wanted…a good book?" Natalia said.

I shook my head, joining in on the fun. "That was his excuse," I said, picturing our mystery visitor in my head. "But he really cameto escape the footsteps he heard following him, and—

"—and to celebrate with a quick make-out session in the stacks," Casey said.

"Or a long one," Natalia added, following it up with a suggestive waggle of her brows.

Shaking myhead, I said, "You know no one really does that right? Comes here to make out? We would've caught them by now."

Casey and Natalia exchanged a look.

"What?" I asked.

Casey held up a hand. "I've seenseveral couples playing tonsil hockey in the stacks.Sometimes doing more than that, but they never noticed me. Too preoccupied."

My jaw dropped.

"Same," Natalia said, and my eyes shot to hers in surprise. "It'sactually a pretty common occurrence."

"You're joking," I said.

"Nope," Casey said. "Happens all the time—especially in the ancient history section."

With a nod, Natalia added, "Oh yeah, those books may be old, but they see a lot of play, if you know what I mean."

I was both horrified and incredibly curious.

"Why didn't you guys tell me about this?" I asked.

"It's kind of a rite of passage," Natalia said.

Casey nodded. "You can't really consider yourself a true employee—"

"—volunteer," I cut in.

"—until you've walked in on your first bookish hook-up."

Honestly, I was still kinda shocked. There were people,realpeople, who came to the library of all places to have illicit trysts among the shelves?Where all the books could see?If what my friends were saying was true, the library wasa prime hook-up spot.Who knew?

But they were acting like it was no big deal, so I just said, "Oh cool. What do you do whenit happens?Do you just step in there and say, 'Hey, you kids. No kissing on my watch'?"

Casey grinned. "I usually just sit back and enjoy the show."

When I gasped, she chuckled.

"Don't look so surprised, Lottie." She giggled again at my scandalized expression. "I bet you'd do the same. I mean, how awkward would it be to interrupt?"

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