Chapter 14
Adam
hey I wanted to thank you for working with me on the art show plans. I was really happy with how we worked it out. I’m glad you’re there to remind us (me) who the festival is about. You’re also a dang good negotiator.
Me
Thank you for bringing it all to me right away, open to all my input and changes - and negotiations ;)
Adam
also, I wasn’t just acting all chummy the other day. All chumminess was real.
all of it was very real.
The Sweet River Annual Library Book Sale is a Rhodes’ family tradition. We brought out our big totes ready to be filled with books to the old art deco building built in the ’20s. The librarians were longtime friends. The carpet on the library floor had stains from our toddler days when Mom set us up with snacks while she browsed.
The sale consisted of various tables of different genres. We always started at the general fiction and ended our hunt at the dollar table. We were lacking Gracie this time around, but we powered on.
“Did you see Gabriel Hernandez and his fiancé, Emma Brown, flew out to have a table for his new book? Maybe you should talk to him about doing something at the festival,” Mom mused as we built up our separate stacks in romance.
“I didn’t see that. Are they here inside the library?” I glanced around.
“No, they have a booth on the library’s lawn,” Mom said, half-distracted as she read the back copy of a book. “I heard from his sister, Katie, that Emma flew out to be with Gabriel a lot while he was writing his new book and wound up writing a lot about the travels herself. Isn’t that funny, they’re both writers?”
I went back to scanning the selection. “I knew about that. He’s cute, but I can’t imagine any guy I would attempt backpacking and scaling a mountain for.”
“She scaled a mountain?” Mom put the book down, appalled.
“Who scaled a mountain?” a voice that was beginning to feel oh so familiar asked over my shoulder.
I looked up at Adam. “Mom, this is Adam, he’s the one I’ve been working with on the summer festival. Adam, this is my mom, she’s the woman who ran my life for years.” I gestured between the two.
Mom and Adam started making some light chit-chat about the library and Sweet River. I scanned him in awe. He was in jeans and a tee shirt, no slacks or button-downs. Had I seen him in casual clothes yet? He let out an easy laugh at something my mom said.
Yet another side to Adam. Off-work Adam. Casual conversation Adam. He reminded me of the Adam I imagined when I first saw him on Love Local.
“Wait.” His eyes went big and round under his glasses as he pointed to the stack of books currently in front of me. “Is this your stack? Are you buying all of these?”
“Yeah,” I said, unashamed. “This sale only happens once a year.”
“You carry this massive load around from table to table?” he asked.
“It’s a burden I’m more than willing to take on,” I said, proudly patting my stack.
“This explains your toned little arms.” He ran a finger down my arm as he said it like he was fact-checking his own statement. I ignored the trail of goosebumps that followed.
“I got it from her.” I pointed to Mom’s own tower of books, not quite as tall as mine, but definitely not easy to carry around.
“I think I can help you guys out,” he said. A toddler ran past us with arms full of board books, her mom chasing after her.
“We are not having you carry our books around for us.” My mom dismissed this idea, waving him off.
“Give me a second,” he said, then strolled over to the table of librarians and volunteers running the book sale. After a short chat, he came back and said, “They’ve set up a hold pile behind the desk for the two of you. Just drop your books there as you find them and then when you’re ready to buy them, they’ll bring them back out for you.”
Then he carried both our towering piles of books, at the same time, over to the desk for us. I watched this endear my mom to Adam instantly.
It irritated me. One moment this man is sharing ice cream with me. The next moment he’s cutting adorable student artists from our festival. Now, he’s carrying around my mother’s books along with mine. I held back an exasperated sigh.
“Not my first book sale.” Adam winked at me when he returned. Now he’s winking at me?
Adam ventured off to the fantasy section leaving me alone in romance to build a whole new stack. I moved from table to table, but couldn’t resist looking around every so often to clock Adam’s location. I was in literary fiction while he was in westerns. When I was in classics he was in autobiography and memoir.
We wound up meeting up again in mystery.
“I notice you have your own giant stack building up behind the library desk,” I said as I perused the back of a Murder She Baked book.
“Not as big as yours,” he said with a tone of admiration.
“Maybe someday.” I patted his shoulder.
“From what I’ve seen, you favor romance and literary fiction. I was sad to see you only grabbed one book from fantasy,” he said.
“I do like fantasy, I promise. I just have very specific taste when it comes to that genre. But when it comes to romance, I’ll read pretty much anything,” I said. “I noticed you really hung around the fantasy and westerns.”
“I appreciate an adventurous journey.” Adam had turned completely toward me, his back to the table, not even pretending to look at the books like I kept doing.
I didn’t even know what the book in my hand was called at this point. I squinted at the back copy for show. “What’s your favorite fantasy book?” I asked.
“You know better than to ask a question like that.”
“Okay, okay. Which book would you recommend to me? As a fantasy dabbler.”
He looked serious. He took off his glasses and ran his fingers through his dark curls as he thought. Then, he put his glasses book on as he said, “Divine Rivals.”
“Really?” I was surprised. “I was expecting some Tolkien or Rowling.”
“You enjoy romance and, from what I saw of your literary picks, you’re drawn to historical fiction. Plus, I love a rivals-to-lovers situation,” he explained.
We started walking to a new table, both with arms full of books.
“Such a specific recommendation. You were really watching me, huh? Squinting across tables to see which books I was picking up.” I was in front of a bunch of children’s books. I had no idea what I was doing now. I grabbed a board book.
“To be honest,” he lowered his voice. “You are a dazzling redhead studying books with such serious deliberation, I’m fairly certain I’m not the only man here squinting across tables to look at you.” I felt his words like he had whispered them warm and soft against my neck.
My mind was completely blank. I swallowed. “Basically, men who read books are creepy gawkers?”
“Men who read books know a heroine when they see one.” He didn’t look away or laugh. He said this with complete seriousness. Instead, it was me who looked away.
Because what, now he was calling me dazzling? A heroine? Wearing jeans he looked unfairly good in?I was a mess. And impressed that he himself had to have read or at least kept up with reading to base recommendations off the books I’d been selecting.
“Stocking up your classroom?” he asked.
“What? No?” I looked up at him, confused.
He pointed at the board book in my shaking hands. I dropped it down. Was I sweating?
“So, what was your gateway book? The first one you really loved?” he asked, kindly distracting me.
“Little Women,” I said without having to think too hard about it. “I devoured it as a pre-teen. I read it over and over. I remember comparing my sisters to the March sisters. Who is a Jo? Who is a Meg? Laurie was my first crush, honestly.”
“Little Women,” he repeated. “Huh.”
Olivia met us at the children’s section. “Hi there, Adam,” she said. “How’re you liking our little book sale?”
“It’s small, but mighty,” he said warmly. Olivia smiled at this response. He sure knew how to work my family.
“Who are the kid books for?” she asked, turning to me.
“Just browsing,” I said quickly. “Ready to check out?”
“Sure,” she said. The three of us headed toward the checkout desk.
“Your assistant, Victor, has a lot of great ideas for my house, you know. He got my number when you two were over a few days ago and we’ve been texting. He’s really talented, from my completely in-experienced opinion,” Olivia said.
“He worked in construction for a long time. He can really help us out in city planning, I think,” he said.
The two started discussing Victor and the city. I made little remarks, but really on the inside, I was willing Adam to please leave.
Adam took up so much of my mental space and that was just in relation to the little summer festival work world we lived in. I didn’t want to see what toll he would take on my body and mind if he started inhabiting all my other worlds. He was already marching into my book world.
“Hi, guys.” My mom hurried into line behind us. “Oh, Adam, good. You’re still here. I went and picked up that book you mentioned. It looked so good. I started reading it while I was standing there!”
“Ah, Ms. Rhodes, it’s such a good one. I might need to reread it, too, so we can talk about it,” Adam said. I could feel my eyes bug out in utter dismay.
“Do you have Facebook?” I couldn’t believe my mom just asked him that.
“I do,” he said. “I’ll friend you.” He pulled out his phone.
I looked to Olivia for some show of sisterly support, but she had her phone out and said, “Friend me, too, Adam.”
“I’m not even friends with Adam on Facebook,” I said randomly. No one paid me any attention.
My phone buzzed in my purse and I pulled it out to find a request from Adam. I glanced up and caught him grinning at me. He winked.
Finally, it was our turn in line.
The four of us discussed our finds as Penny, the volunteer who also owned the ice cream shop downtown, added each up. We did this every year, all of us commenting with each other, and usually Penny, about which books we’d read before and which ones we couldn’t wait to read.
This time, opinionated Adam was in the mix, too. Penny said at one point, “I’ve never met you before.” After Adam introduced himself, she asked suggestively, “And how do you Rhodes girls know Adam?”
“He’s a colleague,” I said primly, not taking the bait and ignoring Adam’s sideways glance.
Penny raised a brow quizzically.
As we headed back outside, Mom asked, “Who’s hungry for pizza?”
“Pizza sounds perfect,” I said.
Olivia nodded, saying, “Yes, please.”
Adam started to tell us goodbye and excuse himself, and my world started to return to normal. My heartbeat slowed after speeding along rapidly. Until my mom said, “Come have dinner with us, Adam.”
“Oh, I don’t want to impose—” Adam started.
“You’re new in town. It’s no imposition. Plus, I want to hear more about that book club you’re in,” my mom said.
“Well, in that case, pizza sounds fantastic,” Adam said all too eagerly.
My mom, who has no use for Apple Maps or really her phone in general aside from Facebook, said, “Lucy, ride with him and show him how to get to our house.”
“Why can’t I send him a pin?” I squeaked.
Olivia was laughing.
“What’s a pin?” my mom asked. “Lucy, just help the man out.”
Mom and Olivia walked off together, Olivia turning back toward me for a moment with a sheepish grin.
What was happening?My mind had a traffic jam, too many different feelings and thoughts all colliding at one time.
Adam was standing beside me. “I’m parked over here.” He pointed toward the street across the way. “Your mom sure is sweet.”
I nodded wordlessly and followed him to his forest-green Jeep Patriot.