19. Carson #2
A little boy’s hand shoots up in the air. He starts telling Emma about the pumpkin he chose that’s now on his front porch and the fun slide and how he was lost in the straw maze. She nods along, giving him her full attention until he’s nearly wrapped up.
“Well, I have a story for you today about a big pumpkin, and it’s called Big Pumpkin.
Let’s begin.” Emma reads the picture book, turning it around to show the children.
She does different voices for the witch, ghost, vampire, and each of the characters, making the kids laugh at all the right moments.
Against my better judgment, I find myself falling for her over the course of that story time.
These are dangerous waters.
“Dad!” Penny runs up to me once story time is over.
Emma read at least six books, some with puppets, one with an actual witch’s broom that she loaded children onto as she read, giving them costumes to turn them into a witch, cat, dog, and all the other characters from the book.
She was engaging and delightful. Even as I stand here in a crowd of kids and their parents, I crave more of her.
I drag my attention away from Emma where she’s cleaning up and put it back on Penny, who is barely containing her excitement. “Dad! Dad!”
“What, Nickel?”
“Can we go get a library card now? Emma said she could help us and Molly already has one and she’s going right now to pick out books!”
“Who’s Molly?”
“She’s my friend from school. We’re in the same class.” Penny bounces on her toes. “Please, Dad?”
So much for putting distance between myself and the incredible librarian. “Yeah, sure. Let’s do it. But later I need to hear more about this Molly kid.”
Penny squeals, then runs for the girl she was sitting with, and together they head into the library. Molly’s mom is swaying, one hand pressed to the baby strapped to her chest in one of those wrap things. She lifts a hand to acknowledge me, so I head her way. “Hi, I’m Carson.”
“Katie,” she says, shaking my hand. “I’ve heard a lot about Penny, so I’m glad we ran into each other. You moved here recently?”
“We moved back,” I tell her. “I bought Vance Dental and I’m trying to give it a reboot.”
She nods knowingly and starts toward the library doors. Emma has already gathered her things and headed inside, so we follow. “We had checkups in August, but we should be on the schedule in February. I’m pretty happy a nice dad has come in and taken over. Molly was terrified of the last guy.”
My body pulses with joy, and I hold the door open. “I look forward to seeing you guys, and I’ll make sure the experience is the exact opposite.”
“I feel better already. Maybe we can exchange numbers and get the girls together sometime. Molly plays with Stephanie Bauer a lot, and I think the three of them would have fun.”
“Sure, that would be great.” My nerves dance, though.
Anticipation for my kid is high up there.
I want her to make friends and this mom seems great.
But this stage of forming relationships is always slow and rocky.
I hope we’re putting our eggs in the right basket, but you never know at the beginning.
A pretty young woman with dark hair is sitting at the front desk, chewing gum and looking at her phone. Penny has run off with Molly somewhere, so I approach the desk. “Hi.”
The woman looks up, then slowly sets her phone on the desk. “Hi, Dr. Price. I’m Maggie.”
Well, that’s weird. My smile doesn’t falter, but it’s always trippy having people know who you are when you don’t know them. How much does she know about my situation, about Jen and my divorce, about how I gave up everything to move back in with my mom?
“Your face is right here,” Maggie explains, pointing to the jugs holding change and green dollar bills.
They’re lined up on the floor, three in a row, sporting pictures of James Carver, Sadie Stevenson, and me.
They look terrifyingly equal right now. “Don’t worry, Dr. Price.
It’s impossible to predict who’s going to win merely from looking at them. ”
I pull out my wallet and drop cash into James’s and Sadie’s jugs anyway. If I’m going to be kissing anything tomorrow night, I’d rather it not be a pig. “I need to open a library card for my daughter.”
“I can help you with that. You only need one card per household, so you can use it, too.”
How quaint of her to think I plan on using it as well. I’m not anti-reading…I just don’t do it for fun.
Maggie lists the necessary documents, which I don’t have quite yet. All the bills are in my mom’s name, so proof of residency is proving tricky.
Emma slides behind the desk. “I can vouch for him.”
Maggie blinks at her.
“We’re neighbors,” Emma says. “Besides, I think running his business across the street is good enough for the county requirements, don’t you?”
Maggie shrugs, a faint look of annoyance on her face.
Emma leans over and types something into the computer, then pulls a stack of library cards from a drawer. “Choose one.”
There’s a card on top, clearly designed by a kid, that has all sorts of animals on it. I instinctively know Penny would want that one. I tap it with my forefinger.
“That’s the favorite around here.” She scans it, then types something else into the computer. “It was a kid’s drawing contest in the county, and we got a lot of cute submissions. Okay, there you go. You’re all set.”
I take the card and pull out my keys, snapping off the keyring-sized one and slipping it in place.
“If you want to find Penny and meet me in the back, I’ll pull out those books I told you about.”
“She’ll be super happy. Thanks, Emma.”
She nods, slipping out from behind the desk. Maggie looks between us, eyes narrowing, but I ignore her. I’ve gotten good at ignoring things lately: people who want details on my divorce, my dad guilt, the way I feel about Emma.
What’s one more thing?