Hewasn’t even sure that was his type. This was more like meeting a fellow puppythan someone he actually wanted to date, but it felt good.
Ashhad almost forgotten what it felt like to meet people he actuallyliked.
“Sohow do you like it here so far?” Charlie asked, shoving his hands deep in hispockets. “Am I taking up your time? Should I help you unpack boxes?CanI help you unpack boxes?”
“Yousound excited about that,” Ash said, glancing at the pile of boxes he had togo. There were a lot in the storage room—which was now serving as Ash’sbedroom, since he really didn’t mind sleeping with all the books. It’d take hima while to go through and catalogue them all, so right now he was focused ongetting the bulk of them into broad categories and on the shelves.
Itwouldn’t hurt to have someone who knew their way around handling and sortingbooks to help for a little while.
“Iwanna see what you’ve got.” Charlie shrugged. “Besides, if I befriend youfirst, you’ll take my side when I’m in here with my husband and he’s raising aneyebrow at the number of books I’m taking with me.”
Ash’seyes lit up.Husband. Charlie wasdefinitelyone of his people.
Agay man running a small town library. Wow. Hope Springs really was a magicalplace.
“I’dtake your side anyway. Book people have to stick together, right?”
“Right.”Charlie grinned at him. “So…”
Ashnodded to the boxcutter he’d been using. “Knock yourself out. Even just openingup the boxes would be a huge help.”
“Iused to work at the grocery store, so I’m good at that,” Charlie said. “I waspromised there were two of you and you were both cute.”
Ashchuckled at that. “Sorry to disappoint you. Declan’s actually just gone to thegrocery store.”
“Hey,you’re cute,” Charlie said. “Declan’s your husband, right?”
“Yeah,”Ash said, pausing at the strangeness of that. He hadn’t really thought aboutDeclan as hishusband. They’d gotten married, but it was weird to thinkof it as something that changed their relationship. “Yeah, he is.”
“Yousound unsure about that,” Charlie pointed out. “Is everything… okay?”
“Ohyeah, it is,” Ash said, hurrying to cover his mistake. “It’s just… new. We’veknown each other so long and we only got married a couple of weeks ago and thenall this with the store… I’m not used to thinking of him as my husband, yet.”
Charliesmiled a tiny, warm smile at that. “Took me a while, too. I never expected toget married, honestly, and then the most wonderful man in the world just showedup out of the blue one day.”
“Soundslike he makes you happy,” Ash said. The look on Charlie’s face spoke volumes.
Oneday, Ash wanted to have someone who made him feel like that. It wasn’t going tobe Declan, and he’d accepted that a while back, but…
Itwould have been nice to havesomeone.
“Hereally does.” Charlie sighed dreamily. “Do you need a dog?”
Ashturned to look at him, confused. That was a complete change of subject.
“Uh,we don’t really have a much of a yard, so…”
“Youcould have a small one,” Charlie said. “We’ve… I, uh… should probably explainthat we foster dogs. You’re not a real local until either me or Scott hasoffered you a dog. But we could find you a little one, if you wanted.”
“Ithink I’m more of a cat person,” Ash said.
“Ican also arrange for you to meet some very good-natured cats,” Charlie offered.“And… I’m totally turning into Scott.”
“Yourhusband?” Ash double-checked.
“Yeah.He’s a vet, hence the dogs. I’m just excited. It’s not every day we get newpeople here,” Charlie said. “I mean, new people to stay. We get a lot of peoplepassing through, but that’s not the same.”
“Ilike you,” Ash said, grinning at Charlie. He’d been worried about makingfriends, but obviously he’d been worried for nothing. They were coming to himfor once.
