“Is anything?” she mumbled.
Jack stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder. “Attraction. Hope. Anticipation. For you? All easy.” His half grin was enough to cause her pulse to beat thick and hot.
Stella knocked lightly on the hospital door as she pressed the cold silver handle against her palm and the door clicked open. Sunlight slanted through the partially open blinds and striped the tile floor. The room smelled like soap and blooming lilies, but she also caught the faint lingering scent of astringent cleaners.
Vases of carnations, lilies, roses, and daisies had colorful ribbons tied around them attaching Get Well Soon and Thinking of You balloons to their shiny glass. An assortment of greeting cards had been propped open to display their illustrated fronts toward Arnie. The gifts weighed down the small square end table beside Arnie’s bed and the round dining table near the windows. Stella had been so distracted with her own issues that she hadn’t thought to send anything, but word had obviously spread quickly through town. He’d been in the hospital for less than a day, and already there wasn’t much room for more well-wishes.
An attractive news reporter with a bouffant hairdo and flawless makeup beamed from the TV screen mounted high on the wall opposite the bed.
Arnie’s gaze found Stella’s, and he lifted the TV remote and pressed the Mute button, then pushed himself up into a more seated position, straightening his back and adjusting his nasal cannula.
Seeing him alert sent an avalanche of relief through her. She released a trembling breath. “Easy now, tiger.” She dropped her purse in a chair that looked like it had been in style in 1960. There was a concave depression in the burnt-orange bottom cushion that made Stella think it had likely been in the room since the sixties as well.
Arnie smiled. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”
She crossed the small room and leaned against the bed, careful not to tangle herself in the tubes and wires coming from the machines. “I want to scold you for doing this to me, but it’ssogood to see you. I prefer you in the library rather than a hospital room, but I’ll take seeing you anywhere for now.”
Arnie reached for her hand, and she let him take it. He squeezed lightly. “Sorry for the scare, kiddo.”
Stella swallowed past the tightness in her throat. She dropped a brown paper sack on the rolling overbed table pushed against the wall. “I picked up healthy breakfast muffins from the coffee shop. These were made especially for you with bark and twigs and hippie love.”
Arnie chuckled. “I’ve been pestering the nurses to call you for hours.”
“I had to get the library settled before I could leave Vicki and Dan alone.” She paused to consider if she should mention Jack straightaway, but she opted to ease into that drama. “Vicki is completely capable of handling it, but she likes a to-do list, and she isn’t as good with the patrons, so Dan is working at the circulation deskwhile I’m gone. They both said to tell you that they’re thinking about you, and they hope you’ll be back soon.”
Arnie shifted, and his gaze drifted toward the window. “I appreciate them coming in to help out. Thanks for keeping an eye out, kiddo. And thanks for the change of clothes. The gown was a bit breezy, if you know what I mean.”
Stella walked over to the window so she could open the blinds more. “Better?” she asked. “Seems a shame to block out so much of the light. Percy hated it when the nurses closed Dad’s blinds when the sun was out, saying Dad needed to rest. He argued that Dad could rest while still admiring the sunlight. If he couldn’t be out in it, then Percy wanted him to at least knowit was there.” But her dad had never walked out of the hospital, had never stepped into the sunlight again.
She went back to the bed and hopped up to sit near Arnie’s feet, tucking one leg beneath her. “You’re welcome for the clothes, and we’re handling the library.”
Arnie cleared his throat. Weariness rolled his shoulders forward as he exhaled in rhythm with the machine. Seeing him wearing a plain white T-shirt, rather than his usual sharp attire, seemed to intensify his tiredness. He stared down at his hands when he asked, “Howiseverything at the library?”
Stella had come to see Arnie with the intention of a peaceful conversation, possibly peppered with a few questions, but her need for answers burned like coals in her stomach. Like the words that often came to her, she couldn’t keep her questions inside for long. She decided not to mention using the ink pad. First she wanted to hear his version of the truth. She inhaled a slow breath before catching his gaze. “Arnie, I need you to be honest with me.”
Arnie’s brows pushed together, but he said nothing.
“You want to talk about the library?” she asked. “Then I needyou to tell me what’s going on. Tell me about the people who were with you in the archives last night. Who are they?”
Arnie looked away as though thinking, possibly debating what to say. He rubbed over the spot on the top of his hand where the IV was placed. “Last night? I think it was Darcy, right? And Belle and the prince and Jack. It’s a little hazy at this point, but I know Jack was there.”
Stella’s heart gave an unexpected squeeze. She clasped her hands together in her lap. “Arnie... this morning the others were gone, butJackis still there.”
“Darcy should still be there too,” Arnie said.
Stella shook her head. “Not that I saw.”
“He wouldn’t leave,” Arnie mumbled, looking fretful. “He wouldn’t.”
Stella tapped Arnie’s hand with one finger. “Arnie, focus for a minute, please. Jack told me he’s fromBeyond the Southern Horizon. He said he’s been coming to the library for years. And he showed me your hiding spot in the bottom drawer, the one with the stamp and ink pad—”
“He did?” Arnie asked, sounding alarmed. His heart monitor rhythm increased, creating taller spikes in the lines, and a beeping noise increased in speed.
Stella reached for his hand, and Arnie’s eyes met hers. “Hey, it’s okay. Deep breaths.”
“No, it’s not okay,” Arnie said. Another rush of spiking heart rate lines appeared. “He shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t his place.”
“Arnie, you have to take some breaths and slow down your heart rate or the nurses will be in here stat.”
