12. Chapter 12 Eli #2
"Try not to look like you're attending a tax seminar."
Earl nods in agreement.
"Smile a little. People like smiling."
"I'm a firefighter," I reply.
"We usually smile after the emergency."
Laughter follows us out the door, and I have the uncomfortable feeling that the morning is only getting started.
The library is already busy by the time we arrive.
Several people are studying the Stories Saved Me wall before the building officially opens. A few children are searching for Book Trail cards around the flower beds while their parents visit on the sidewalk.
Ben steps back and surveys the scene.
"This is exactly what I was hoping for."
He positions Maggie near the entrance beneath the library sign and asks Sophie to stand beside the display of colorful sticky notes.
"Perfect," he says. "Now, Mr. Turner, would you mind stepping in over here?"
"I would."
Ben smiles patiently.
"I was hoping you'd say yes anyway."
A moment later, I'm standing beside Maggie while Ben adjusts the angle of his camera.
"Don't worry," he says. "I'm not asking you to look romantic."
"That wasn't my concern."
"It probably should be."
Maggie laughs under her breath.
I pretend not to hear it.
"Just stand naturally," Ben continues. "Look toward the library."
I can manage that.
"Now maybe look at each other."
That seems considerably less necessary.
Still, Maggie turns toward me with an apologetic smile that somehow makes the whole thing easier.
"This feels awkward," she murmurs.
"It is awkward."
"Good. At least we're experiencing the same thing."
Ben snaps several photographs.
"Excellent."
He takes another.
"Now one with Sophie."
She slips happily between us, holding up a Book Trail card as though she'd been practicing for this moment her entire life.
The camera clicks several more times.
"Perfect," Ben says.
Just then, a pickup slows as it passes the library.
The driver's window rolls down.
It's Randy Wilkes.
He leans one arm out the window and grins.
"Well, look at that!"
I immediately recognize the tone.
It's the tone every small town reserves for news that hasn't technically happened yet.
Randy points toward Maggie.
"Eli, you finally dating again?"
The question lands harder than it should.
Everything inside me tightens.
The silence stretches just a little too long.
Randy shifts uncomfortably behind the steering wheel, clearly wishing he could reel the question back into the truck.
Ben lowers his camera.
Even the children searching for Book Trail cards seem to have paused.
I open my mouth.
I'm not entirely sure what I'm planning to say.
Probably something practical.
Definitely something that puts an end to the speculation.
Before a single word leaves my mouth, Maggie smiles.
It's an easy smile.
Gentle enough to take the tension out of the moment without making anyone feel foolish.
"We're just figuring things out," she says. "The library campaign has all of us spending more time together than we expected."
The explanation is perfectly reasonable.
It gives Randy a graceful exit.
More importantly, it gives me one too.
Randy chuckles.
"I can understand that."
He tips two fingers from the steering wheel.
"Well, I won't keep you. Looking forward to reading the article."
He drives away, leaving the sidewalk strangely quiet behind him.
Ben raises his camera again as though nothing unusual has happened.
Margaret, who has somehow wandered over from the inn with Wren without my noticing, calls from across the sidewalk.
"I told you people would start talking."
Wren laughs and responds, "They started talking three weeks ago."
I barely hear either of them.
My attention is fixed on Maggie.
She turns toward me with an apologetic expression.
"I hope you don't mind."
Mind?
I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to mind.
The conversation?
The rescue?
The fact that she stepped in before I had to?
No.
It's one word that refuses to leave my head.
We.
She hadn't said I.
She hadn't said the library.
She hadn't even said Sophie and I.
She had said we, as though the two of us were standing on the same side of something.
The thought settles somewhere deep in my chest before I have a chance to argue with it.
I know exactly what she meant.
She was smoothing over an awkward conversation.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
And yet, hearing that single word spoken so naturally leaves me with an unsettling realization.
For one brief moment, we had sounded surprisingly right.
Before I can think of anything to say, Sophie reaches over and slips her hand into mine.
"Dad?"
Her small voice cuts through the tension more effectively than anything else could.
I look down.
"We're taking pictures," she says matter-of-factly. "You're supposed to smile."
Behind the camera, Ben quietly lowers it.
No one speaks for a moment.
Then Maggie, with impeccable timing, looks at Sophie and says, "I think your dad just forgot the assignment."
A ripple of laughter moves through the little group. The tightness in my chest eases just enough for me to realize I'd been holding my breath.
Ben lifts the camera again.
"Let's try one more."
This time, when I look toward Maggie, I manage something that feels almost like a smile.
Almost.