Page 135 of Love, Literature, and the Linebacker

“I didn’t want anyone to mess with you,” I say.

“But you just said I was intimidating,” she argues with a smirk.

“I never should have told you that,” I groan.

“Come on,” she says, motioning to the concrete path. “Let’s get you out of here before you confess all your deepest, darkest secrets.”

We start walking and I don’t miss the way her fingers tighten around mine.

Lucy sets an easy pace, swinging her free arm as she looks toward the sky. It’s a brilliant shade of blue today, clear enough that every cloud seems to know exactly where it belongs.

I used to think every walk had a destination.

Now I’m starting to think maybe the walk was the point all along.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Lucy says, bumping my shoulder lightly.

“I’m trying to remember the last time I wasn’t in a hurry.”

She smiles. “Have you figured it out yet?”

“No.”

“That’s kind of sad.”

“I know.”

We continue until the familiar brick building comes into view.

Althenia Hall. The library.

Lucy slows almost without realizing it.

“You still spend as much time here?” I ask.

She laughs softly. “Probably more than I should.”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Seems like the safest addiction a person could have.”

“That depends on who you ask.”

She leads me toward the front steps but doesn’t climb them. Instead, she stops at the bottom, looking up at the old building as though she’s greeting an old friend.

The limestone columns haven’t changed. Neither have the flowers lining the entrance. Someone has planted bright yellow daisies beneath the windows since the last time I really looked.

Funny.

I spent four years walking past this place without ever actually seeing it.

“This building saved me,” Lucy says quietly.

I look over.

“When things got loud at school or inside my own head… I’d come here.” She smiles to herself. “I always knew where Ms. Thorn would be.”

“The front desk?”

“She’d pretend she wasn’t watching for me.” Lucy laughs. “But somehow she’d always have a book waiting that she thought I’d love.”