Page 13 of The Arrangement
I looked away from the librarians and focused on the books. If I couldn’t put them on the cart, I could at least stack them into neat piles so that they weren’t scattered across the floor and in danger of tripping patrons.
“What are you freaking doing here?” Rome growled.
“What do you think I’m doing here? It’s a library. I’m searching for a book to read.” Oh, I was such a big, fat liar. But it wasn’t like I could tell him the truth and admit that I was there for him.
“Really? You’re not stalking me now that you know I live here?”
“Stalking you?” I scoffed, brutally ignoring how my voice jumped high enough to shatter glass. After clearing my throat, I pushed on. “I’m considering moving to a new place to live. I had no idea that you lived in the city. And the library? Who would ever think that the great Rome Ashbridge even knew what the inside of a library even looked like?”
“So, you live in Boone County, Kentucky?”
I cleared my throat again. Was that where I was? I’d been in the Cincinnati area for only six months. That hadn’t been enough time for me to learn all the counties in the region. I was lucky I knew I resided in Hamilton County in Ohio. Who knew what the hell the counties were in Northern Kentucky?
“Um…yes,” I replied, inwardly praying that I made it sound like a statement.
This was a disaster, and every moment I remained was making it worse. Grabbing the stack of books I’d gathered up,I stood and shoved them into Rome’s arms. “Look. I’m sorry about the mess. It…it was an accident. Sorry.”
And I walked out of the library as fast as I could.
It was only when I was in my car and sitting at a red light on the way to the expressway that I released the pent-up breath that had been lodged in my chest since I’d first spotted Rome. Disaster. Every second of that excursion had been an unmitigated disaster.
There was no way in hell I was ever showing my face in that library. It would be better if I handed in my resignation and started searching for another job. I couldn’t imagine any way I could convince Rome to donate money to the museum.
5
ROME ASHBRIDGE
Two weeksafter myinterestingencounter with Liam at the library, I found myself at Union Terminal with a smirk and a wicked plan. If the man was going to harass and stalk me at work, why shouldn’t I return the favor?
The shouts and laughter of a few hundred children echoed off the high, arched ceiling of the main rotunda as the various groups gathered for this somewhat impromptu school field trip. Through my connections at the library, I was familiar with several elementary schoolteachers in the region. It had taken little coaxing for them to pull together a spur-of-the-moment field trip to see the dinosaurs and other science exhibits at the Museum of Natural History and Science. Especially if I was the one footing the bill for the school buses, museum tickets, and lunches for the kids and the chaperones. It was an expense I was all too happy to pay if it meant happy kids, education, and the chance to make Liam Rose squirm in his own domain.
Yes, after he’d shown up at the library, I’d gone out of my way to find out exactly what he’d been doing for the past several years. Of course, thanks to the internet and social media, the search took all of five minutes to discover that Liam had a PhD in paleontology, which was just the nerdy kind of thing I wouldhave expected him to do, and that he was now employed at the museum as one of their researchers.
There were also pictures of his wife.
He’d gotten married.
She was pretty. A petite brunet with a heart-shaped face and wide smile. She looked as if she were the perfect match to Liam’s reserved and somewhat goofy appearance.
I didn’t know why her picture made my stomach sour and a cold sweat break out across my body. What did I care if he was married? If that was the case, maybe I should have a talk with his wife about keeping a better leash on her husband. Not let him run around harassing his old “friends.”
It didn’t matter. By the end of the afternoon, I planned to have some answers to my most burning questions. Sending a few hundred grade schoolers through the museum was only the beginning. When I’d scheduled this field trip with the museum, I’d specifically asked that Dr. Rose be on hand to answer the children’s questions about the dinosaurs.
There were three hundred and forty-two kids spread out across several groups, not to mention teachers and parents acting as chaperones. They all had to pass by Dr. Rose. He would not escape me. And the best part—I had no doubt he had been told who’d arranged this expedition, so he was going to be sweating all day, knowing he would have to face me, eventually.
This wasn’t stalking. Oh no, this was payback.
My hands stuffed into my pockets and a secretive smile on my lips, I walked along with Mrs. Elizabeth Gunthrie’s third grade class. She had a total of thirty-two students, but she’d divided them up into four groups of eight, a parent attached to each. I stuck close to Mrs. Gunthrie since I knew she would have the tightest handle on her students, and she was happily married. It also didn’t hurt that she was also about sixty. I didn’thave to worry about her wandering eyes and insinuations the same way I did with those hopeful single parents.
The various groups and classes began in different directions. Some began with the dinosaurs and worked through the Ice Age exhibit, while others went to the model train exhibit of the city of Cincinnati during the early twentieth century. This way, all the groups didn’t get clogged up in a single location. Our group was starting at the opposite end with the Cincinnati History Museum, which was dedicated to the history of the city, with a replica of a paddlewheel riverboat the kids could walk through and a cobblestone street with a variety of shops they could enter.
Of course, this area didn’t hold the attention of the kids for long. It was history, and a history without dinosaurs or robots was boring. I did what I could to help keep the kids on target, but it was a losing battle that Mrs. Gunthrie well understood. From that section, we moved to the Children’s Museum, which was filled with hands-on activities to teach them about animals, nature, and their own bodies. She gave them thirty minutes to run wild—which they did—in the closed-off area before he had to move on to eat our early lunch.
I wished I could have enjoyed the chaos more. However, my mind was already counting down the minutes until I’d get to see Liam. At that moment, he should have been talking to the first group of kids about fossils and dinosaurs. I would reach Liam and his dinosaurs after lunch.
While the day stretched on, the little ones were good at breaking up my scowls and watch-checking with their questions. Soon enough, I found myself lost in talking to them about crazy things, trying to teach them things with the same energy I used during story time at the library.
By the time we were strolling past the enormous tyrannosaurus skeleton at the entrance to the Museum of Natural History and Science, I’d lost most of my excited buzzand was worn-out. My back ached, and my knees throbbed from the constant squatting and standing on the linoleum floors. I was weary to my bones. These munchkins were fucking exhausting. How did people stand to have more than one of these? I was trying to keep up with eight, and a fucking pro was at my side all day. Serious props to Mrs. Gunthrie for managing thirty-two of these rabid demons five days a week. We needed to pay teachers way fucking more.
