Chapter Eleven
Standing at the Edge of a Cliff
Instead of being located in some historic brick and ivy-covered building, the Harvest Moon Library was housed in a narrow, two-story, oatmeal-colored storefront at the edge of the main artery of downtown.
Ms Ruthie ran the place with an iron fist, hunting you down on the street, your place of business, or even in a restaurant, if you had an overdue book that had a long hold list. Judge Greene was notorious for being the biggest ‘late fee’ culprit.
It was amusing to watch tiny Ms Ruthie go toe to toe with the judge at the bakery.
The poor man was only trying to eat his jelly donut, not get a lecture on good citizenship.
It was no wonder she was best friends with Clo.
While they had the smiles of elderly grandmas, they could intimidate you like a military general.
I pushed through the opaque glass door. Ms Ruthie sat at the information desk, observing the library like its tried-and-true guardian. Her silvery-white curls framed her full face. The edges of her mouth twitched when she saw me coming.
‘What do I owe this surprise visit to?’
‘Can’t I come by and say hello to my favorite librarian?’
She pulled off her cat-eye glasses and gave me that look that often made misbehaving kids flee from story time. ‘Dani, let’s not play games. What do you need?’
‘Can you pull the records from the town’s early incorporation but leave out anything about the Perkins and McGuire families?’
Her right brow arched. ‘What is going on? Why do you need that information?’
‘That doesn’t matter right now. Please, grab those materials and do not tell my grandmother I was ever asking for them.’
Her glasses slid down her nose. ‘I don’t hide anything from Clo.’
‘You will, or I might let it slip about your recent Vespa excursions.’
She gasped. ‘Dandelion McGuire, you wouldn’t!’
‘I would, Ruthie. Clo cannot know I’m looking into the archives.’
We stayed in a quiet stalemate until she gave in. ‘It was only a few spins around the block,’ she said in a wounded voice, like that might change my mind.
‘I’m sorry, weren’t you laid up in Silverton for a month last year with a broken arm, hip and pelvis because of your Vespa crash on the highway? And did you not swear to your life-long best friend that you had sold said Vespa?’
‘Yes.’ She rolled her deep brown eyes, not appreciating how I had her pinned in a corner.
‘All right. This stays between you and me.’ She stepped closer.
Lowered her voice. ‘But your grandmother, she can’t know about my little spin…
’ She stopped mid-breath when the door to the library swung open, and Bryce took long strides toward us.
Her left eyebrow now joined the right high up on her forehead. Under her breath she murmured something about ‘a young Robert Redford’.
God, not her too. Bryce was just a man. An athletic, smart, ridiculously attractive man. But still, just a man.
He stopped next to me and stuck out his hand. ‘Hello there. I’m Bryce O’Dell.’
I shook my head as our tough-as-nails librarian melted like the spring snow.
‘Ruth Ansleigh. Pleasure to meet you.’
‘Librarians have always had a special place in my heart; I was a big reader as a kid. Still am.’
She actually giggled at him. ‘I can always tell the readers.’
‘Where do we get started?’ I said, breaking up their lovefest.
‘Oh.’ Ruthie hesitated. ‘He’s helping you?’
‘Yes, Bryce, as I’m sure you’ve heard around town, is writing an article about Harvest Moon.’
That anxious twitch returned to her mouth. ‘Mo might have mentioned something about that to me at a recent bunco night.’
Of course she did.
‘Why don’t you have a seat at one of the tables.’ Ruthie gave me a confident stare, now understanding my request. ‘Give me a few minutes to grab the information you need.’
She took off, her little feet tapping against the hardwood floors as she raced for the staircase that led to the upper level where the town’s archives were stored.
He glanced around me. ‘No Flora today?’
‘Ms Ruthie loves me, but even she has rules about animals in the library.’
He nodded and wandered off in the direction of the stacks. Towering floor-to-ceiling bookcases covered the entire back wall of the building. For a small town, we had a wide collection ranging from biographies to mysteries and romance books. I trailed Bryce as he strolled up and down the aisles.
You could learn a lot about a person when you followed them through a library.
What spines or titles happened to catch their attention.
How they stopped at certain sections. Pulled books off the shelves to read the summaries.
Apparently, he was a military thrillers and space exploration kind of guy.
‘Did you serve?’ I asked, curious about his past beyond the small glimpses he’d already shared with me.
‘You mean like in the military?’
‘Yes, you seem to be drawn to that kind of book.’
‘No, but my grandfather was in the navy. They lost his ship, the USS Arizona, in Pearl Harbor.’
‘Were you two close?’
Like he needed a distraction, he pulled a book about Gothic architecture from one of the shelves.
‘He lived with my mom and me for five years before he passed. The guy could be gruff at times, but he also taught me how to play gin rummy. Change a tire. Made sure I always pulled out a chair, held a door, for a lady.’
‘Sounds like a good man.’
He took a thick gulp, nodded as if he couldn’t conjure any more words about the person who had clearly made a difference in his life.
‘Like I told you, my dad was never around. He died alone in Las Vegas when I was ten. My grandpa moved into our small bungalow in Toluca Lake a few months later. He’d had a heart attack, and my mom didn’t want him living on his own anymore.
It was weird at first, because it was always just the two of us, but I think my mom liked having another person to care for.
She’s a nurse and likes feeling needed.’
I followed behind him as he pulled more books off the shelves.
‘What about you? Are you close with your mother? Is she in town too?’
‘No. She’s never stayed around long,’ I said, trying not to sound bitter.
‘My grandparents raised us, because my mother was always too busy trying to find herself in some other part of the country.’ I didn’t like the way his eyes clouded with sympathy.
‘We were fine. My grandfather passed a long time ago and Clo, she’s always been a rock for us. ’
‘From the few moments I spent with her, she seems…’ He pressed his lips together as if choosing his next words carefully. ‘Resolute.’
A small bubble of a laugh left my lips. ‘Interesting word choice. Accurate but interesting.’
‘Told you I like words. Certain phrases. My grandpa, his name was Emmett, he said you shouldn’t open your mouth unless what you had to say had meaning. I think about that a lot when I work on a story. Consider every word I put on the page to ensure it has the most impact.’
A book with a red spine and gold foil letters at the end of the aisle caught my eye. I plucked it off the shelf and said, ‘That must make writing a chore. Constantly stopping and thinking about every single word.’
‘Not for me. It’s a creative challenge. To search through the data bank in my brain and pluck out the exact right word.’
‘Again, sounds daunting.’
The corner of his full lips edged up into a smile. ‘I may also cheat a little.’
‘What do you mean by cheat?’
He stepped in close, the scent of peppermint gum on his breath. ‘WordHippo,’ he said like it was the sexiest thing in the world.
Once again I couldn’t control my laughter. ‘No! Like the thesaurus site online?’
‘Yep.’ He gave me a wide grin that made my stomach flip. Dammit. There was that covert charm of his again.
We stood toe to toe for a few more seconds, his eyes lingering on the way my hair was twisted back from my face. His hand moved as if he wanted to touch me, but he shrank back when Ruthie appeared a few feet away.
‘Dandelion.’ Ms Ruthie crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes narrowing like she’d caught us in a compromising position – which this was not. ‘The books and journals are sitting on a table in the study room.’
‘Thank you. We’ll head that way right now,’ I said as she continued to give us a withering look.
When we reached the stairs leading to the second floor, Bryce let out a small laugh. ‘Dani is short for Dandelion?’
I shot him a dark look. ‘Not a word.’
He chuckled under his breath as Ruthie tracked our movement up the steps. ‘Why do I feel like we’ve been busted like teenagers caught kissing in the bathroom?’
‘That’s just Ruthie’s way,’ I said, ignoring the way my brain wanted to replay, once again, that kiss we’d shared in the clinic.
Yeah, I really need to get out more.
When we reached the top of the stairs, he let out a sharp breath. ‘Holy shit. This place is amazing!’
Looking at this non-descript building from the outside, you would never imagine that a space like this existed.
The roof was vaulted at least thirty feet high.
Rough-hewn beams made of dark wood sat in a cross-hatched pattern against the ceiling.
Three six-foot mahogany tables were placed around the room with small Tiffany-style glass lamps settled on each end.
A large stained-glass window depicting what looked like a tree of knowledge, books dangling at the end of the branches, took up one entire wall.
On one of the tables sat the books I’d requested.
Bryce shifted around me, but I stayed planted in my spot, unable to take another step forward.
This felt too much like standing at the edge of a cliff with my toes pointed over the edge.
For years I’d ignored the rumors and whispers about my family.
Pretended that the magical tales this town sold to gullible visitors was just part of the tourism shtick.
It’d been safer to make those choices, because it protected me and Lia and Aster.
But even though I’d agreed to do this, asked Ruthie to pull archives excluding material about my ancestors, I worried this was all heading into dangerous territory.
Bryce may have claimed that he didn’t believe in the magic angle, but the stories around here could be convincing. The more people spun our ‘gifts’, the easier it would be to add it as a thread to make his article as sensational as possible, even if none of it was true.
‘Hey.’ Bryce’s voice was like soft honey. ‘You okay?’
I wanted to say no. Run from the room and never look back.
I remained in my spot, though, because Lia and Aster needed me to do this.
Needed me to prove to this man that who we were, what we meant to this town, was nothing more than three women using their skills, talents and intelligence to make Harvest Moon a special place.
But that small part of my heart, the one that always wondered if Belladonna was hiding dark secrets from us, forced me to nod and head straight for the stack of books waiting for us.