Page 4 of The C*ck Down the Block

“It’s no problem.” He shrugged and smiled, and on anyone else, it would be endearing. “I forwarded you some emails from parents I got this morning. Thought you might like to be warned.”

I frowned and straightened my spine. “Bad emails? Complaints?”

We got the occasional angry parent and our fair share of repressed parents who wanted books banned from the library, specifically the teen section, but I’d never had a complaint about anything I did. My mind raced to come up with what I could have done wrong.

The only thing I could even think of was the new program to help the older teens with their college applications. Perhaps some parent wanted to control that part of their child’s life and resented the library for interfering? Stranger things had happened.

“Oh.” He chuckled and looked down at his shoes. “Of course not. They’re requests for one-on-one help from some overachiever kid’s helicopter mom.”

This is why I was the teen librarian and Karter was not. He didn’t like teens or their parents. “No worries. I can take care of them. Thanks for warning me.”

I slipped into the building and didn’t miss the way he stood in the doorway just enough in the way so that my hips brushed against his as I went by. Blech.

Thankfully, my desk wasn’t in eyesight of Karter’s office, and I didn’t have to feel his eyes on me as I got settled and started in on my to-do list for the day. The parent’s request was the first thing, and it wasn’t even what Karter had said it was. They just wanted to know if they could come and ask some questions about volunteer opportunities at our next scheduled program time.

Just a few minutes before the library was about to open, two emails pinged my inbox. The first was a notification of a reschedule of my evaluation with Karter. Good. Fine. But the second one had me a little off kilter. It was a message forwarded from Lulu.

I read it twice, tried to take swig from my empty coffee mug, and read it again.

“We are pleased to announce that the following librarians have been nominated for Young Adult Romance Writers Association Librarian of the Year.”

Me? Librarian of the Year? Out of the whole country?

No.

What?

No.

“Trixie, you coming to round-up?” One of the other librarians passed my desk on her way upstairs to the main desk. We all met for a quick ten-minute round up just before the library opened to check in with the day’s programming and any news or info that everyone might need to know.

“Uh, yeah. Coming.”

I stared at the email for one more minute, locked my computer, and walked up the stairs just in time to catch Karter start the meeting. I had no idea what he said until he excused us all to go open the doors. I walked to the teen section and sat down behind the desk, staring at the stacks of books for a full three minutes before I realized I’d left all my stuff to work on downstairs.

Crap. Since we were rarely swamped on a Friday morning, I hurried down, got my books, clipboard, and binder full of college essay samples to add to, and rushed back up to my desk. Whew. That was my workout and steps for the day.

Sitting on my desk, right where the pages placed it every morning, was a copy of the Denver Post. And of course, staring up at me from the big picture on the front page, was Johnston Manniway, standing in front of his new steak house.

I turned the paper over. I didn’t have the brain capacity at the moment to think about the opening tonight and still be in shock and awe over the nomination. I could only freak out about one or the other.

I flipped the paper back over. Manniway’s grand opening tonight was the lesser of two evils. It was just one night, and Chris would be there to protect me from any reporters or weirdos. Plus, I was looking forward to the celebrity gossip. Half the fun of being dragged to these events was standing at the bar with him as he pointed out who was who and who was doing who.

Okay. Okay, I could concentrate on figuring out what to wear tonight and think about the nomination tomorrow. I went over to the periodicals and pulled a bunch of fashion magazines. I was definitely making Jules go through them with me later.

Although it’s not like I was going shopping later or something. My librarian’s salary covered gas, rent, chicken food, my fancy flavored creamer addiction, with just enough left over to put a little into savings like a good girl should.

Crappity crap crap. My fingers couldn’t dial Lulu’s number fast enough. She had ESP, because she answered before the phone even rang. “You got my email and you’re freaking out, aren’t you?”

“Yes. No. Yes. Gah.” That anxiety attack was for later. “I have to freak out about that tomorrow. I have an entirely different crisis, and you have to help me.”

“Bring it on. I got you.” Her tone went from teasing to serious in an instant. “Do you have cancer, does your mom? Did your dad get thrown in jail for being in the red-light district in Thailand? Is Luke Skycocker okay? He didn’t get hit by a car or something did he?”

“Lu, stop.” She could go on like this for an hour without letting me get in a word edgewise. “D. None of the above. I have to go to Manniway’s Steakhouse’s opening tonight.”

The line went completely silent. This was worse than I thought. Lulu hadn’t been silent for this long in her entire life. “Why the hell did you scare me like that then? Rude.”

“First of all, you’re the worst-case scenario girl, and secondly,” I gulped, “I don’t have anything to wear.”

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