Page 11 of Falling for Keeps

“I’m on it.” She drops on the sofa, since this room doubles as our staff break room, and closes her eyes. Her wedding is Saturday morning, and she’s been up to her eyeballs in plans for the last year. It’s going to be a relief to the entire office when the event is over.

A family with young kids is running around the picture book section and a few teens are sitting at the computers, but aside from them, the library is mostly empty. Seth sits at the desk, his thick, wavy hair brushed back. His deep brown eyes track my movements, and there isn’t a lick of a smile on his mouth.

Yikes.

“Hey,” I say, pushing my cart right in front of the desk. “Demi told me you needed to see me.”

He’s silent, searching my face for so long the air grows uncomfortable. “We just heard from the powers that be, and they’re sending over the forms to apply for that big Vermont Library Association grant.”

“I can take care of it.”

“Great.” He moves over a stack of books that was checked in and runs his finger along the spines. “Are you still meeting with the Friends of the Library tonight?”

“I planned on it.”

“Don’t tell them about the grant, then.”

My stomach sours. “Why not?”

“If they think we’re getting more funding, they might slack off on the fall fundraiser, and we could use all the money we can get.”

“Isn’t the grant tech-specific?” I glance at the ancient wall of computers. “Nothing we bring in from Kiss the Pig or Witches’ Night Out is going to compare to a tech grant.”

“We could use more than new computers. Our entire system is outdated. The rear cameras don’t work, and our sorting machine is going to die any day now.”

“We’ll be lucky if they give us approval on a new book cart,” I say.

“The wheel is still being janky?”

“Yeah.”

“One thing at a time, I guess.” He straightens the stack of books in front of him and nods to the bulletin board. “Start thinking of something interesting for October, okay? We need to drive more people in. If we don’t get our numbers up, we can guarantee none of our requests will be approved. They’ll keep allocating the majority of funds to Burlington Main and South Burlington.”

“I’m on it.”

“Good.”

I move to leave when Seth stops me. “Hey, Saturday was pretty fun, wasn’t it?”

This can’t be going anywhere good.

“Sure looked like you had a good time, at least,” he continues. “The guy you were sitting with looked familiar. Do you know him?”

I lift my eyebrows, daring him to continue that line of conversation. He must sense the folly of mentioning me making out with another guy, how blatantly inappropriate it is, because he gives a nod and goes back to his computer.

Familiar doesn’t begin to cover it, though. If Carson moved home, we’re all going to be seeing more of him. This town is way too small for any other eventuality.

Carson

Dr. Vance of Vance Dental basically threw a grenade in his office as he walked out the door for the final time, leaving nothing but destruction and disorder in his wake. The patient files are a mess, and the office itself is outdated, broken, and in need of more than just elbow grease to get it in working order. I figured I had my work cut out for me when I took this on—there’s a reason Vance couldn’t get anyone else to take the place off his hands—but I didn’t realize the extent of the work ahead of me.

I’ve owned the business for a week now, and it still looks like I stepped twenty years into the past with aged tech, terrible brown walls, and dim lights. There’s tasteful brown, and then there’s this.

“Knock knock!” Mom says, pushing the front door open and holding it so Penny can race past her into the office.

“Hey there, Nickel.”

Penny’s blonde hair swings behind her, frizzy and messy, while she squeezes me around the waist. “Nana took me to get a maple bar.”