“I think librarian is key here. Growing up, I always loved the library, but the librarians always seemed like a breedapart, whether they were shifters, gnomes—because a surprising number of librarians I met were gnomes—or humans.”
“And…”
“And I am searching for a website that will give us more insight into librarians and what they like.”
Ty grinned. “I knew I liked you. Any luck?”
“Yes.” I tapped a few more times and set the phone on the table between us. “Look.”
“Know Your Librarian.” Ty swiped the screen to open a new page. It seemed to be geared to customers of the library who wanted to know what their favorite librarian might like for Christmas or as a thank-you, so a little simplistic, but we had to start somewhere. And then he swiped again. “Look at these T-shirts. And mugs…everything with naughty librarian pickup lines.”
“Most of which involve the Dewey Decimal System. Do they even use that anymore?”
“I have no idea. We’ll have to ask Penn one day, but I don’t think naughty is the way to prove we’re safe. Let’s go back to the other page.”
We did and found cute and fun things. Plants and mugs with sayings like Librarians Read with Heart and such. Nothing naughty, although my thoughts were very naughty, but we decided to send him a sweet gift every day. It might not be the best idea, but it was better than showing up in person and making him feel unsafe.
Ty and I sat there until closing, holding hands, and were about to leave when we realized we had no idea what library our mate worked at. Fortunately, Zevo was able to find the address for us on the box of menus, or we would have had a real problem sending the mug for delivery the next day.
Chapter Ten
Ty
Our first delivery to Penn was a mug. Right after Zevo gave us the address for Penn’s library, I ordered it while standing by the bar with Freid looking over my shoulder.
“I’ll help pay,” Freid said.
“You can send the next one. A plant would be nice.”
“Deal.”
I punched in our choice. A mug with the words:Reading Is Dreaming With Open Eyes. It was by far the cutest mug out of the choices, and we both agreed it felt right.
When I placed the order, it showed us the box wrapped with shiny gold paper and topped with a tag. We filled in our names for the tag, and it was done. Since it was a Saturday night, we scheduled the gift to be delivered to his work on Monday. We assumed…hoped he would be at work that day.
Together, we scoured my phone for Tuesday’s gift.
“What if he doesn’t like plants?” Freid asked.
“What? Everyone loves plants.”
“Well, they’re pretty but I have a very brown thumb. Just saying.”
“It might be the wrong gift for you, but our dingo loves them, I think.”
“Do you think, or do you know?”
“Something is just telling me it’s a good gift,” I replied.
We discussed more gift ideas to have delivered the rest of the week but didn’t decide on anything right away.
We hung out a bit longer at the bar. I had bottled water. After my martini, I was a little tipsy and needed to wait an hour before driving home.
Freid’s presence beside me had always been welcome. It felt easy and wonderful. But tonight, all of that had multiplied. Now that I knew we really were mates who were meant to be, every cell in my body burned for him. I kept leaning closer to him. At the bar, our knees and arms touched. Every time I looked at him, it seemed like I was falling into his deep, brown-eyed gaze.
He was safe. My best friend. And now, our connection had transformed in one night into something I’d always longed for. Forever loyal and loving. My mate for life.
I wished our third felt the same. But I had to remind myself Penn didn’t have the three-year start we had. The foundation of friendship was huge. This wasn’t going to be just a hookup for a night. This was life-changing for all of us.
