The Love Librarian (The Romance Library #2)

1. Jane

1

JANE

‘ H ow bad is it?’ My heart thudded against my chest.

‘It’s not good, Jane.’ Bill winced as he stepped off the ladder propped against the library wall. ‘It could’ve been worse, but?—’

‘Will it be difficult to fix?’ I jumped in.

‘Difficult, no. Expensive, yes .’

My stomach tightened, knowing my boss was going to be so upset.

When I’d arrived for work this morning at The Romance Library (which, as the name suggested, was a library that specialised in romance books), I’d noticed a massive puddle on the floor in the main hall and realised that the ceiling was leaking.

Luckily it hadn’t damaged any books, but if I’d come in any later, it could’ve been a very different story.

A leak for any business was inconvenient. But having to fix the ceilings and the roof right now would tip the library’s finances over the edge.

We’d only been open for six weeks and although my boss, Jess, had tried to keep her spirits high, I knew that money was tight.

A kind lady called Mrs Davis had left Jess a million pounds to buy this building and create a romance library, but making that dream a reality had been more expensive than Jess had budgeted for.

The money was running out fast. Especially as Jess had to shell out a big chunk to pay for work to start on the library’s new cafe next weekend. Plus, we desperately needed another employee, which meant covering another wage.

There’d been a huge buzz when the library opened and we had a lot of members, but that wasn’t enough. We were self-funded, so if we didn’t start generating a bigger income soon, we’d have to close. Which would be a huge tragedy for all the romance book lovers who flocked from far and wide to visit.

And, I’d be unemployed.

Working here was the best job I’d ever had. That was why I had to do everything I could to protect the library’s future.

‘Once I’ve worked out all the costs, I’ll email a proper quote,’ Bill said.

‘Okay,’ I sighed. ‘How much will it be for today?’

When Bill told me the call-out charge, my eyes watered. I reached in my bag, then handed over my card.

Technically I shouldn’t pay for company stuff with my own money. But this was the first morning that Jess and her boyfriend, Theo, who also worked at the library, had taken off in weeks, so I didn’t want to disturb them. Especially with bad news like this .

After Bill took the payment, then left, I stepped back through the library’s solid wooden double doors.

Every time I wandered down the corridor, my worries melted away. This library wasn’t just where I worked. It was my happy place.

Cool bookish quotes like ‘I’d rather be reading’ and ‘Just one more chapter’ had been carefully stencilled onto the warm rose-painted walls.

When I entered the grand hall, which was the main library space, my heart bloomed.

Rows upon rows of tall pink-and-white bookcases, complete with rolling ladders, lined the shiny wooden floors. Colourful book chandeliers hung from the ceilings, and the seats were all so comfy you could literally fall asleep in them.

And, yes, I was definitely talking from personal experience.

On the evenings when I closed the library, I’d curl up on one of the pink sofas with multiple cushions, a warm fluffy blanket, a steaming cup of tea and a plate of biscuits, then read for hours.

My parents thought it was ridiculous that I spent so much time here surrounded by books, but there was no place I’d rather be.

Plus, the more time I spent at the library, the less time I’d have to spend with them. The sooner I could move out of their toxic house, the better.

Just as I picked up the mop to give the floor another once-over, I heard footsteps racing down the corridor. That was weird. It was only just gone nine and the library didn’t open until half past.

‘What happened?’ Jess burst into the hall. Her thick, curly black hair was thrown into a ponytail. Normally she wore lip gloss and sometimes mascara and some tinted moisturiser, but today her brown skin was bare and she had dark circles under her eyes.

‘I thought you were taking the morning off?’ I frowned.

‘I was, but Theo went to get breakfast and saw Bill’s van pulling out of the library, so he asked if I knew why he was here. I told him I didn’t, and then when I couldn’t get through to you, I got worried and sprinted down here.’

Crap. Even though I wasn’t responsible for the leak, I hated that Jess’s lie-in had been ruined.

‘I must’ve left my phone on silent, sorry. When I came in, I saw the leak and?—’

‘Morning, Jane,’ Theo said as he entered the hall. Every time I saw him I thought of Superman because with his dark hair and piercing blue eyes, he was the spitting image of Henry Cavill. ‘What happened?’

‘I was just explaining to Jess that I saw a massive puddle, so I called Bill. He says there’s a big hole in the roof that leaked through to the room upstairs, then down to the ceiling here.’ I pointed up at the wet patch.

‘Shit.’ Jess squeezed her eyes shut.

‘That’s strange.’ Theo’s face crumpled. ‘The building was checked over thoroughly before we opened last month and the roof was absolutely fine. We’re not even at the end of September yet. It’s not normal for tiles to deteriorate so quickly.’

Hmm . Bill also said that it was odd to have a hole like that, particularly because the tiles seemed new, but said he’d look into it.

‘This is the last thing we need!’ Jess blew out a defeated breath. ‘We’ve only got enough to keep us going for a few more months, so this will really set us back. Maybe I should put the cafe and hiring someone on hold.’

‘No,’ Theo said firmly. ‘We’ll lose the deposit if we don’t go ahead, and we need help—otherwise we’ll all burn out. The candidate I have in mind could help us generate revenue. We have to speculate to accumulate.’

‘We’ve been doing a lot of speculating. When does the accumulating start?’ Jess asked.

‘It’s still early days. It’ll happen. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.’ Theo wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her softly on the forehead. I wished I could find a man who loved me like Theo loved Jess. ‘Was there a call-out charge?’ He faced me.

‘I took care of it,’ I replied quickly, not wanting them to worry.

‘You paid it?’ Jess’s eyes widened.

‘Yeah. I know things are tricky financially, so?—’

‘That’s really kind,’ Jess cut in, ‘but it’s a company expense. I don’t want you to be out of pocket.’

‘Exactly,’ Theo added. ‘Let me know how much it was and I’ll reimburse you straight away.’

‘Okay,’ I replied, knowing they wouldn’t take no for an answer. ‘We can’t do anything until Bill sends the quote, so go home and relax.’

‘That would’ve been nice, but I’ve got an interview in ten minutes,’ Theo said as he glanced at his watch. ‘It was scheduled for this evening, but he messaged earlier to ask if he could come now, and seeing as I was up, I agreed.’

So it was another man they were interviewing.

If he was anything like the last two men, he wouldn’t get the job .

The guy they’d interviewed a couple of weeks ago had the personality of a wet fish. I was hardly the life and soul of the party, but at least I didn’t grunt like he’d done when I’d asked how he was.

They’d interviewed another guy last week who was the complete opposite. When we showed him around, he spoke so much that we barely got a word in. And he tried flirting with two members. He probably just wanted the job because he thought a romance library would be a good place to pick up women.

Oops. I shouldn’t have thought that .

Jess and Theo hadn’t hired him because the library wasn’t a place for a rowdy chatterbox, not because he was some sort of Casanova. Clearly I still hadn’t got over what had happened at my last job.

Of course I knew that all men weren’t terrible. Theo, for example, was amazing. But as bad as it sounded, given the choice, I’d prefer them to hire another woman. That way I wouldn’t get humiliated again.

A sharp pain ripped through my chest as a mortifying memory invaded my thoughts.

Anyway, it wasn’t going to be an issue. Considering Theo had said this guy had messaged at the last minute to change the interview time, I doubted he’d get the job. Jess and Theo were busy people. If this man wanted to work here, he should fit around their schedule, not the other way around.

‘Now that I’m here, I was gonna make some calls,’ Jess said.

‘I’ll start the interview, so just join us when you can,’ Theo replied .

As Jess stood on tiptoe and kissed him quickly on the lips, another pang of yearning shot through me.

I was happy for them. I really was. As a certified romance junkie, I loved the idea of love. Jess and Theo proved that for the lucky few, romance didn’t just exist in the pages of a good novel. It happened in real life too.

Just not to someone like me.

‘I’ll leave you to it.’ I blushed as I picked up the mop and bucket. ‘I’ll bring up the new books from the stockroom and start restocking the bookshop.’

After emptying the bucket and putting away the mop, I headed down to the stockroom, organised a stack of new steamy romance novels into a tall pile, then picked it up.

As I struggled up the stairs from the basement to the main corridor, I realised I was carrying way too many books.

The tower of novels obscured my vision, but I had loads to do this morning and once my colleague, Celeste, arrived, she’d need to stay in the bookshop, so the more stock I brought up for her now, the easier it’d be.

It seemed like a logical idea until I hit a wall and all the books tumbled to the floor.

‘Shit!’ a deep voice boomed.

My head snapped up, then I saw that it wasn’t a wall I’d crashed into.

It was a very tall and extremely handsome man.

Wow.

My eyes popped and my lips parted as I took in the sight of the guy, who looked like he’d just walked straight out of one of my romance novels.

He had brown skin and short black hair that was shaved at the sides, and he wore a white shirt that clung to what I imagined was a very muscular chest.

‘You okay?’ he asked.

‘I… I’m… sorry. I…’ I stuttered, touching my brown hair to check that my bun was still intact whilst desperately trying to remember how to form a sentence. I was softly spoken at the best of times, but seeing this god had literally taken my breath away.

‘Wait.’ He frowned. ‘Jane?’

Nope . Now I was convinced that this couldn’t be real. What were the chances of meeting a hot guy here at work and having him know my name?

Literally zero.

‘Yeah…?’ My face crumpled with confusion and I adjusted my tortoiseshell glasses on the bridge of my nose, hoping that somehow it’d help me to see better. ‘How do you…?’

‘It’s Jackson.’ His face broke into a smile. ‘We used to go to school together. At Northwood.’

No. Bloody. Way.

My jaw dropped so hard I was surprised all of my teeth didn’t shatter.

‘Jackson Campbell ?’ I frowned, still trying to get my head around the fact that it was him .

‘Guilty as charged!’ He laughed.

‘But you look…’

‘ Different? ’

‘Yeah.’

‘A little.’ He laughed again and goosebumps erupted across my skin. He might look different, but the low rumble of his laugh was exactly the same. ‘Let me help you.’ Jackson bent down to pick up the books .

‘It’s okay,’ I said quickly as I spotted a postcard that had slipped out of one of the novels.

‘ Okay …’ Jackson looked up at me, then raised an eyebrow as he picked up the postcard.

Whilst a devilish smile spread across his face, my cheeks heated with embarrassment.

This wasn’t an ordinary postcard with pretty pictures of the beach opposite this library.

This was a very steamy postcard, with custom artwork that was so X-rated that most retailers said it was too spicy to offer to their customers.

It had an illustrated scene of the female main character sat with her legs spread wide open on a kitchen counter whilst the male main character was on his knees going down on her.

‘It’s, erm…’ I sank to the floor and started hastily organising the books into a pile. ‘It comes with the book. Like a free gift… I don’t think you’re supposed to send it to anyone. I’m not sure the Post Office would even allow that. It’s for… actually I don’t really know what you’re supposed to do with it.’

Sweat pooled under my armpits and I wished that I’d stayed in the stockroom longer so I wouldn’t be up here now having this awkward conversation with the boy I used to have a crush on at school years ago.

He might’ve been a boy back then, but he was all man now. Which was why I was still struggling to string two words together.

‘Maybe put it on the wall and use it for inspiration ?’ Jackson smirked.

‘Oh.’ I blushed, feeling like an idiot. ‘Er, yeah. Ha-ha!’

God .

Ground, swallow me up.

Of course I knew that’s what people could use it for.

That thought probably would’ve popped into my head a lot faster if I’d actually had sex before.

Yeah. That’s right.

I’m a virgin.

Thirty-one years old and I still hadn’t popped my cherry.

People thought unicorns were rare. But these days, I reckoned the average adult probably had more chance of seeing a unicorn or meeting Taylor Swift in real life than knowing someone in their thirties like me who still hadn’t done the deed .

I was a joke.

If my cheeks were burning before, now they were so hot you could fry a dozen eggs on them. I hoped my porcelain skin hadn’t turned bright red, but something told me it was already too late.

‘Jackson?’ Theo’s voice sounded behind me.

I spun around, then jumped up as I saw him approaching us.

Thank God.

The sooner I could extract myself from this situation and avoid putting my foot in my mouth again, the better.

‘That’s me! You must be Theo?’

‘I am indeed. Good to meet you.’ Theo stretched out his hand and gave Jackson a firm handshake. ‘Jane, this is Jackson.’

‘Yep. The one and only Jackson Campbell!’ My voice went up several octaves like I’d sucked on helium, and I groaned internally.

As I fiddled with the cuffs of my silk blouse, I wondered if there was a chance I’d stop embarrassing myself anytime soon. Never had I wanted to crawl under a rock and hide for eternity more than I did right now.

‘You two know each other?’ Theo looked between us.

‘Yeah,’ Jackson helpfully replied, giving me time to attempt to compose myself. ‘We went to the same school. Jane was always top of our English class.’

‘And Jackson was always great at IT, maths, science and basically everything ,’ I gushed.

God. I sounded so pathetic.

‘Small world,’ Theo said.

‘I should…’ I stuttered again. As my eyes locked with Jackson’s, my stomach flipped like a dolphin on happy pills. I really needed to get out of here. ‘I have to take these to the bookshop. Really nice to meet… I mean, see you. Bye!’ I sprinted down the corridor before remembering that I’d left the pile of books on the floor.

Doh. What the hell was wrong with me?

I shuffled back towards them, embarrassment coursing through me, then saw that Jackson had the books in his arms and was already heading in my direction.

‘You forgot these,’ Jackson said.

‘Yeah…’ I laughed. ‘I’d forget my own head if it wasn’t screwed on!’

Jackson smiled, instantly putting me at ease.

‘You sure you don’t want me to help you carry them?’ My heart fluttered. He was always kind to me at school. I was glad he hadn’t changed.

‘Thanks, but I’ll be fine.’ I took the tower of books and tried to balance them. ‘I’ll let you get to your interview. I’ve already held you up enough.’

‘Sure? ’

‘Absolutely! Great to see you again,’ I said before remembering that I’d already said the exact same thing two minutes ago.

‘You too.’ Jackson smiled, then followed Theo to the office.

I hurried to the bookshop, almost dropping the stack again before eventually plopping it down on the counter, then leaning against it.

Jackson Campbell.

I hadn’t seen him in years, and my God, what a transformation.

My mind raced, wondering if he was single. Then I slammed on the brakes, ordering my brain to stop creating ridiculous fantasies.

Although I’d always thought he was cute, Jackson was never the popular boy at school. But things had no doubt changed since then.

Now, Jackson must attract women like bees to honey, so he’d never be interested in someone like me. Whilst he’d blossomed, I was still Plain Jane , just like the bullies used to call me.

Anyway, it was irrelevant.

Didn’t stop me from being curious about Jackson’s life, though.

Last I’d heard, he’d gone to Cambridge University, then landed a high-flying finance job in London.

But if that was true, what was Jackson doing here in a small seaside town like Sunshine Bay, interviewing for a role at The Romance Library?