Stella felt her shoulders relaxing from her ears. She softened her tone. “We can’t lose you.”
“Do I sense affection in your voice?” he asked.
Stella’s cell phone dinged with a text and startled both of them. “It’s Vicki. She typedEmergency 911in all caps.” Darcy met Stella’s gaze before slipping down an aisle. Stella hurried toward the circulation desk, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. Vicki stood at the desk with a frantic expression, shoving papers around on the countertop and opening and closing drawers at random. Stella called out to her, and Vicki’s head popped up.
“Oh, Stella, finally! I can’t do this without you,” Vicki said, running straight at her. Anxiety filled her wide eyes. “Dan had to leave unexpectedly. His cat got loose, and the neighbor was having troublecatching it, and Dan was having a fit to get home. He may or may not come back.”
Stella hesitated before asking, “Is that all?”
“No! It’s a circus here,” Vicki said, tugging her unruly frizz into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. “I’ve been looking for a note, a memo,anythingthat would let me know what’s going on because this is definitely not on the calendar. There are no emails about it and no one called ahead to confirm the appearances. I wanted to call Arnie, but I didn’t want to bother him. I knew you’d be back soon and could handle it, but then you took longer than I thought, and I’m freaking out. I have no idea what to do, but one of the guys is a real weirdo. Frankly, he scares the bejesus outa me.”
Stella blinked a few times, struggling to understand. “Pause. Go back, please. None of that makes any sense.”
“I know!” Vicki said in exasperation. “It’s a complete mess. I have no idea what to do.”
“Let’s start at the beginning. What appearances?” Stella asked.Please don’t say Captain Hook and Robinson Crusoe.
“The impersonators,” Vicki said. “There is a man who looks like he washed ashore a hundred years ago, a charming Englishman, and a man I’m pretty sure is a pirate.”
Stella’s knees wobbled, and the blueberry muffin she’d eaten with Arnie churned in her stomach. She tried to focus.
Jack rushed down the main stairs accompanied by a man wearing ragged clothing and a coiled rope looped over his neck and hooked under one arm. Stella felt a surge of relief that Jack hadn’t listened to her and left.
“Jack,” Vicki said as she stepped toward him. “Did you find him? He was really terrifying the childrenandme.”
Stella passed a glance between Jack and Vicki. “You didn’t leave, and... you’re helping Vicki? Who’s terrifying the children?”
“We didn’t find him,” Jack said to Vicki, “but Mr. Crusoe and I will be ready when he reappears.”
Stella’s stomach performed a somersault. “Mr. Crusoe?”
The man with Jack turned his tanned face to Stella and lifted his thick eyebrows in response. “Yes?” Unraveling, threadlike words uncoiled from his rope and dropped to the ground like sand falling through an hourglass.Orinoco. Wooden cross. Friday.
“This is really happening,” Stella said, looking at Jack.
His hazel-eyed gaze found hers. “No one else for you to pass the buck to.”
Stella’s thoughts felt as though they were pushing through pine tar. Words drifted past her line of vision like leaves caught in a swirling wind.Ink pad. Breath of life. Sunlight.
Jack stepped into her personal space. Rather than backing away from him, Stella didn’t move. She could smell the scent of the forest on him—Douglas fir and winter with an earthy undertone. She blinked the haze from her eyes.
“Captain Hook, courtesy of your irresponsibility, is running amok in the library.”
Stella laughed because that was the only response her brain could produce. She covered her mouth, but more hysterical laughter pushed through her fingers.
“It’s not funny,” Vicki said. “He’s really intimidating. I mean, he’s playing the part really well—a little too well. Jack was nice enough to try to help me find him and tell him we won’t be needing his services today or any other day. Arnie wouldn’t approve. You should have heard the children screaming.”
Stella’s laughter stopped abruptly. The realization of what she’d done caused stomach acid to bubble up her throat. “I think I’m going to throw up.”
Vicki dragged Stella to the circulation desk and pushed her intothe desk chair. The metal trash can scraped over the tiles as Vicki slid it toward her and told Stella to lean over it.
“I’ll get some cold towels from the bathroom. Stay here,” Vicki said as she hurried off.
A shadow fell over Stella’s body. She cut her gaze up to see Jack standing near her.
He placed his hand on her back and rubbed small circles between her shoulder blades. His touch comforted her for a couple of seconds, and then it sent warmth traveling from her spine to radiate through her body. Her head throbbed.
Jack shook his head. “This isn’t the worst situation I’ve seen, but Captain Hook? Really, Stella? Of all the jerks you could have brought here, why him?”
