“Go on,” Cassie insisted. “Or maybe Tom Clancy isn’t your thing? Hold on. I think I saw a Nicholas Sparks. You like romances?” Cassie didn’t give Emma time to answer. She turned her back but within a minute, had swung around again and was offering the battered paperback edition ofThe Horse Whisperer. “Come on, take it,” she insisted.
“I don’t like reading,” Emma responded, her hands remaining lodged in the pockets of her old coat.
“Really?Seriously?” Cassie’s eyes widened in shock.
Bailey chuckled as he watched the exchange. He’d been lending books to Cassie for three months now, so he knew how passionate she was about reading. She’d almost read anything he gave her, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she even read the backs of cereal packets if there wasn’t anything else available. Bailey could understand the attraction, though. Books gave Cassie whole new worlds to escape into, much like he did with the hundreds of books he read a year.
“How can you not like reading? How cananyonenot like reading books?” Cassie demanded of Emma.
Emma shrugged, then tilted her head towards Jude. “He doesn’t read.”
Cassie laughed. “Jude doesn’t do a lot of things. But he’s a bloke. They don’t read much anyway.”
“Hey!” Bailey objected. He raised a hand. “Bloke here. Guy who loves reading.”
Cass shook her head and giggled. “You don’t count.”
“How dare you!” Bailey said in mock outrage. “Are you saying I’m not a bloke?” He put his hands on his hips and gave both the girls the evil eye, or what he hoped was a good enough version of it.
Cassie laughed and Jude joined in, neither of them in the least perturbed by Bailey’s pretend outburst. They knew Bailey was just giving them a hard time and playing on the fact he was gay. It wasn’t something that’d been announced or discussed specifically, but over the three months they’d been stopping by the van a couple of times a week, it had been fairly obvious. Bailey had mentioned a lack of love life, Cassie had tried to steer him in the direction of some “hot gay clubs” on Oxford Street, and Gary, another of the street kids, had even tried to download a hook-up app to his phone. It hadn’t taken Bailey long to snatch the phone out of Gary’s grasp and shove it in his pocket. Now it mostly stayed locked in the glove compartment of the van—better to keep it out of the kids’ hands and better to stop it getting stolen.
Jude eyed Bailey up and down before staring him straight in the eye and raising an eyebrow. The corner of his mouth quirked up as he waited for Bailey’s response.
“What?” Bailey looked down at himself. Underneath the navy padded jacket he was wearing tight beige pants and a fitted T-shirt that could be glimpsed through the opening of the coat. The T-shirt displayed a grinning smurf. “All right. So maybe I’m not the most blokey of blokes—”
“That’s not what I mean,” Cassie interrupted, waving a hand in his direction. “You don’t count because you’re abnormal with your love of books. For God’s sake, you spend your free time driving around giving out books instead of being out having a good time like normal people—”
“Hey, I’m normal people—”
“Youlovebooks. Nerdy love books. Ordinary guys don’t read as much as you do. They get out and they play sport, and they watch TV and they date. I’m talking about ordinary guys from the street, not nerdy guys. Guys like Jude.” Bailey glanced at Jude, who shrugged his bony shoulders and smirked.
“I think you might be stereotyping a little there, Cass. I’m nottotallya nerd,” Bailey said.
She tilted her head. “Maybe,” she said with a chuckle. “But I’d love to see the stats on that.”
Bailey gave up on the faux argument. He knew plenty of guys who liked reading, but maybe there was some truth to Cassie’s words. However, as if proving his point, a couple of other regulars who were avid readers interrupted the conversation.
Tony and Gavin were older, in their thirties or forties, and had been living on the streets for a hell of a long time. It was hard to gauge their age based on their tired appearance. Both dressed in well-worn clothing and shoes, outfits not changing often, and their faces were lined with the evidence of their hardship. Both had obviously had tough lives. From what Bailey knew, they had always stuck together, and both loved stopping by the van. Although they borrowed books, Bailey knew they also visited for a bit of company, someone to talk to apart from each other. The van became an informal meeting place for a bit of a chat.
As he turned his attention to the newcomers, the wind whipped up the ends of his hair. He absently pushed the wayward strands behind his ear as another shiver coursed down his spine—a reminder that winter was well on its way. Time to think about a haircut, but more importantly rounding up some blankets and coats and adding those to the collection of books in the back of the van.
“Got a smoke?” Gavin asked. It was the same question he asked every time he saw Bailey.
“No, sorry, mate. I don’t smoke.”
Gavin shrugged, rubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw, and joined his mate at the back of the van.
By the time Bailey had sorted Tony and Gavin out, Cassie had made her selection and was discussing her choice with Jude. Emma had pulled even further away, standing on the footpath under a street light and eyeing the two older men nervously.
Bailey approached, calling to her to warn her as he neared, not wanting to scare her. “Emma.” Her gaze flicked to his and she looked like a frightened rabbit, eyes wide in her pale face. A siren sounded from somewhere nearby and she flinched at the noise. It grew louder as the ambulance drew closer, eventually passing them and disappearing around the corner. The sound gradually faded.
Once he could speak without having to yell over the screaming siren, he made an offer of books again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take a book? Or maybe a magazine?” He wasn’t going to push, but maybe she was just shy, or thought she wouldn’t be welcome to one of the novels. “There’s no cost. You don’t even have to bring the book back if you don’t want to. Of course, it’s great if you can return it for someone else to read, but I understand that sometimes things are beyond your control and you might not be able to get whatever you’ve borrowed back.”
Emma hunched further into her coat. “I said I don’t read.”
“Okay,” Bailey said while offering her a smile. “But if you ever change your mind—”
