Chapter 28
Kinsley
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Thomas pulled the car over next to the huge brick building of the library at exactly four o’clock. Braxton was already there, leaning against a red sport bike I hadn’t seen before, wearing a white T-shirt with dark letters on it. I narrowed my eyes and read the text: big dick is back in town. I let out a snort.
“How many bikes do you actually have?” I asked and he grinned.
“Not enough.” He straightened.
Samantha stood almost six feet away from Braxton at the brick wall, and she pushed her phone into her pocket when she noticed us. Aaliyah and Cora arrived a few minutes later, and we waited for them in silence. Even Braxton stayed quiet, which surprised me. He didn’t even try to slip in a single dirty joke.
The library was almost empty when the six of us strode inside. It felt weird doing this without Connor, but it was still summer, and a date was a date. The first door in the hallway led us into the main area of the library, which was stuffed with enormous bookshelves. I looked around, my eyes wandering over some of the shelves, then toward the desks with only two students studying at them. One of them looked up, and I turned my head away.
“I have to talk to my mom,” Cora muttered, glancing at a short-haired, blonde woman. “The computer room is behind that door.” She pointed toward a blue door on the other side of the room, before turning around and rushing toward the woman.
“Sorry, we will catch up,” Aaliyah added, turning her head around as she followed Cora.
Cora’s mom was one of the librarians in Coldwater. Cora told us that the library stored almost every paper that ever surfaced, which was quite a lot. At first, I thought she only meant Coldwater’s papers, but I was wrong. Apparently, most libraries had this big, shared database where you could search for any article you wanted to find. Cora told me that when she was little, she used to spend her afternoons here in the library with her mom studying the oldest papers on microforms. Those were the most fascinating. Some of the local ones went back to 1823, when the town was founded.
“I will show you.” Samantha turned toward the blue door.
“I like your shoe choice, Converse girl,” Braxton smirked as he passed me, and I heard Thomas groan on my other side.
I looked down at my red Converse shoes, and only then I noticed Braxton was wearing the same pair.
“Look at that, you can add him to your secret handshake with Con,” Thomas teased, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Braxton freeze midmotion.
“You have your own handshake?” He stepped back, and I opened my mouth, but Thomas was faster.
“Oh, they sure do. With all the different movements like side-fives and finger snaps.” He sent me a playful smile.
“Finger snaps?” Braxton’s eyes gleamed. “So how can one become a member?”
“I will talk to Connor,” I promised, turning back to Thomas and giving him a look. His expression changed to serious as he watched Braxton catch up to Samantha.
“Have you changed your mind?” He cleared his throat, changing the subject.
I had no idea what he meant. But whatever it was, my answer remained the same. “No,” I replied. “You?”
He let out a long breath, shaking his head.
“Good,” I said, and he nodded.
“Good.”
“Are you two coming or what?” Braxton shouted from the other side of the room, his voice echoing from the walls. The silence that followed froze the air around us.
“Shh.” One of the librarians, an elderly woman leaned out from between two shelves, giving a strict look to Braxton.
Thomas and I caught up to them before Braxton had the chance to get us kicked out. Samantha opened the door, and we stepped into a smaller room with six tables in the middle. Each one had a computer on it. Three of them were occupied, which was a surprise compared to how empty the other parts of the library were. Samantha led us to the farthest computer, which also looked the oldest, and stepped aside to give Thomas space. We waited for him to sit, but instead, he stepped to the closest table and grabbed a chair away from it.
“Sit,” he said to me in a low voice, and I widened my eyes. “I’m not going to sit down until you do,” he added.
“How chivalrous,” Braxton commented, leaning on the back of my chair as I sat down. “I will be jealous of you, Converse girl.” He playfully pushed on my chair, and I snorted.
Thomas wasn’t listening to us anymore. His entire focus was on the monitor’s screen. He set the date in the search menu of the database to July 2009 and pushed Enter. We all waited, holding our breaths, until the computer started to download old pictures and articles. I leaned closer to him so I could see them better, and his cologne filled my nostrils. I took a deep breath, swallowing and trying not to get distracted by the comforting scent. From the corner of my eye, I could see a smirk form on Thomas’s face, and I muttered a curse, leaning back in the chair. Of course, he noticed my reaction to him. It was basically his future job to notice and learn every uncomfortable thing about people.
“There.” Braxton leaned in between us, touching the screen with his index finger. “That’s my mom.” He pointed at a picture, and Thomas clicked on the article.
The picture doubled its size and showed us a beautiful Asian woman, Braxton’s mom, standing next to an elderly man who I guessed was Kevin’s grandfather, the previous chief. The chief was scribbling something down on a piece of paper while Braxton’s mom looked like she was in the middle of a sentence. When my attention turned toward the background of the photo, I instantly recognized the slightly older version of Braxton’s house.
I read the title and flinched, glancing at Thomas. His eyes moved fast over the text of the article, but he didn’t show any particular reaction to the tasteless title.