3. Emma #2
Carson pulls back his hand like I’m made of fire, like he didn’t even remember he was the one stopping me from leaving.
Which maybe he should have kept doing, because when I open the pantry door and step out, Sharon is staring at us in all of her scrubs and judgment. Her long blonde hair is pulled back into a low pony, and she’s resting a hand on Penny’s shoulder.
“Morning,” I croak. “Just needed to get some flour for Sour Dan.”
Sharon nods, giving her son a loaded look.
“I was helping her find it,” he says.
Even Penny screws her eyebrows together, not bothering to hide her disbelief. How old is this girl? She looks small, but she’s acting like a pre-teen. The kind who hog the computers and check out all the Dork Diaries at once.
“Anyway, I need to go.” I start toward the exit. “I’ll bring you a loaf later, Sharon.”
“Thanks, honey.” Sharon follows me as I speed walk toward her door. “But I think you’re forgetting something, Emma.”
“What?” My dignity? My pride? Half of the saliva my mouth has produced in the last ten minutes because of how badly I drooled over her son?
No, it’s worse than all of that.
Sharon nods to my empty measuring cup. “The flour.”
Demi finds me in the sorting room that afternoon, waiting on the machine to finish so I can re-shelve the kid lit books. She tucks her short dark hair behind her ear and leans against me, groaning. “My head hurts.”
“Was it fun, at least? Worth the pain two days later?”
“Larry came over yesterday and fixed my hangover,” she says.
“With another one?”
“Don’t judge, Ems. It’s my wedding week.”
“I’m not.” I pull books from the sorting bin and stack them on the wheeling shelf. “Are you ready for this weekend?”
“As much as I’m going to be. Larry’s mom is worried about the weather, but if it rains, we’ll just put up those tents.”
“It’s going to be perfect, no matter what happens, because you get to become Mrs. Rodriguez.”
Demi gets a moon-eyed look as she slumps against the wall. “Seth wants you out front.”
“Why?”
“To ask why you ditched him for that hot blond the other night, probably.”
I shoot her a look. “He was all over your sister.”
“Mina was just bored.”
“So was I.”
Demi scoffs. “Rude!”
“You know what I mean. Why did you invite him, anyway?”
She looks guilty, shrugging her dainty shoulders. “It wouldn’t be a library party without him and Dale.”
“You didn’t invite Sophie.”
“She wouldn’t have wanted to come.” Demi pushes away my complaints. “She’s a volunteer who works half a day every week. Anyway, he looks mad, so you’d probably better get out there.”
I take the last few books and stack them on the cart before wheeling it toward the door. “Take a nap, Dem.”
“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.