“Yes!” she said and immediately added, “Well, no.” A small smile tugged her lips when their eyes met. She glanced at the floor. “My own weirdness I can handle. I’m not sure I’m ready to accept that some kind of great big magic exists.”
“But wouldn’t it be fun if you did?” Jack asked. His smile unknotted some of the tension in her muscles. “What if it’s time you stretch your willingness to believe in the extraordinary?”
Stella turned toward the desk, away from his piercing gaze, and cupped her hands around her coffee mug. Her sweaty hands felt slick against the ceramic. “You want me to accept that you and the other people I’ve seen in the archives have stepped out of books? That people from fiction are here and alive, just walking around therealworld?”
“It’s temporary, but yes.”
Stella shot a glance at him. “What do you mean bytemporary?”
“We’re not here permanently,” Jack said, pushing one hand through his dark brown hair. “We’re not able to come and go as we want whenever we want. There’s a process, and it’s a temporary one.”
Her chest felt as though it were being buried beneath a pile of reference books. If shewantedto believe Jack Mathis was real, now he was telling her he was only here temporarily? Long enough to raise her hopes and then smother them? A red flag rose quickly in her mind, whipping in the windstorm of her thoughts. “How long are you here?”
“Two weeks. But I’ve already been here eleven days.”
Two weeks? Only three days left.Fuchsia words, appearing in an ever-widening spiral, emerged over his shoulder and drifted down his arm.Hold on. Enjoy the moment. Be here with me.Jack glanced down at his arm and then back at her. Could he feel their presence?
Stella looked away and fiddled with the mug’s handle. “And then what happens?Poof?You turn to ashes in sunlight?”
Jack laughed quietly. “We’re not vampires, Stella. But I don’t know what happens exactly when my time is up. It feels like being filled with sunlight and warmth and air, like every part of my body becomes wind and light. I’ve never asked Arnie what it looks like to him.”
The front doors of the library whooshed open, and Ariel rushed into the small entry alcove. She caught sight of Stella behind the circulation desk as she hurried across the main floor. Ariel’s blond hair was parted in the middle and braided down both sides, with the left side striped in bright pink. She lifted one hand in a wave and then pointed toward a white to-go bag.
“Stella!” she said, sounding out of breath. “I’ve been texting you.”
Stella stood and looked around for her cell phone. “You have?” She found her phone hidden beneath a stack of books she needed to check in. As soon as she lit up the screen, she saw she’d missed a series of texts. “Sorry.”
Ariel plopped the bag on the counter. “I brought breakfast. I was worried. How’s Arnie? Oh—hello,” she said, noticing Jack, who stood beside Stella.
“Good morning,” Jack said.
Ariel looked him up and down and passed a questioning glance toward Stella.
Stella motioned between the two of them. “Ariel, this is Jack. Jack, this is my best friend, Ariel.”
“New hire?” Ariel asked.
“No,” Stella and Jack said simultaneously.
Jack tried to mask a chuckle by clearing his throat. “I’m only visiting.”
Total understatement. According to Jack, he would only be “visiting” for three more days, and then what? He would sparkle his way back into his book?
“He’s a friend of Arnie’s,” Stella clarified. “Thank you for breakfast and for checking in.” She relayed what she’d learned about Arnie’s condition. “Vicki and Dan are coming in soon, and wheneverything is settled here, I’d like to head back to the hospital to catch visiting hours.”
Ariel pressed her hand against the garnet pendant hanging from her necklace. “I’m so sorry, Stella, but the good news is that it sounds like he’s stable. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.” Her gaze drifted to Jack. “Where are you visiting from?”
Out of nowhere a red-hot sensation exploded in Stella’s chest and expanded so quickly that it stole her breath. She wobbled sideways, buckling against the desk and gripping the edge to keep from falling over. She heard herself moan, but it sounded like it came from somewhere deep in the earth. Jack and Ariel both called her name.
Two Jacks stepped into view, then bright violet liquid pushed out of his shorts pocket, like goo squishing from the fabric. Pulsating letters the color of ripe plums and outlined in lavender wriggled down his leg. Tendrils dragged behind the letters and circled the floor at Jack’s feet like a creature from a fantasy novel.
Stella croaked the words, “‘Tell you that?’” Instantly the burning in her body stopped. She inhaled a shaky breath and straightened. Jack’s hand was on her arm.
Ariel’s panicked voice asked, “Stella? Are you okay? Is this that word thing again? What’s happening?”
The intense purple words rushed into the bottom drawer of the desk where Stella’s purse and notebook were stashed. She moved away from Jack, wondering briefly why the words had come out of him. Then she pulled open the drawer, grabbed her notebook, and flipped to the page where she’d been cataloging these particular words. Including the new additions, the page now read:I fell in love once. Did I ever tell you that?
Stella slid the notebook toward Ariel while shaking her head and rubbing one hand across her chest. “I don’t know how much moreI can stand. If these words are supposed to mean something to me, I’m failing at knowing what.”
