Chapter 10 #2
He wasn’t sure if it was the scent of old paper or the hum from the bank of public-use computers or the fact that libraries simply operated at a slower pace that calmed the chaos in his head, but it didn’t matter. For the first time all day, the stiffness in his shoulders loosened.
Wren glanced up as he approached the circulation desk and smiled.
Not the polite customer-service smile Lark had been giving him lately, either. Nope. Wren’s smile was genuine and immediate and made him feel like she’d been hoping he’d show up.
“You’re back,” she said, her eyes twinkling. Unlike Lark, who wore heavier makeup, Wren was fresh-faced, her beauty all natural.
Grayson held up the paperback she’d checked out to him. “I finished it.”
Her eyes widened. “Already?”
“It was good,” he said.
“Good?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “That book was a masterpiece.”
He laughed. “It was. The ending nearly killed me, by the way.”
Wren’s too-pleased grin was adorable. “I knew it would.”
“Writers shouldn’t end stories like that,” he added, feigning a grumble.
“They absolutely should,” she countered. “Emotional devastation is the best.”
He crossed his arms and shook his head. “I had no idea you were a sadist when I let you pick out that book for me.”
She smirked, zero remorse on her face. “You want another one?”
“Hell yeah.”
God, she was easy to talk to. This conversation reminded him so much of the ones he’d shared with Lark at the festival. The conversation flowed effortlessly. No awkwardness. Just warmth and humor.
“Did you cry?” she asked cheekily.
“No,” he said firmly. “I did not cry.”
She giggled. “Yeah, right. You totally cried.”
He lifted one shoulder. “I might have gotten something in my eye at one point, but that’s just because paperbacks are dustier than eBooks.”
She rolled her eyes. “Mm-hmm. Sure, they are.”
“Smart-ass,” he teased. He’d called Lark the same, so obviously it ran in the family, he thought with amusement.
Wren grabbed the book from the counter, hugging it briefly to her chest like she was welcoming one of her small children home from school. The move was cute enough to make him smile again.
“Favorite part?” she asked.
He didn’t even have to think about his answer, because there was no contest. “The cabin scene.”
Her eyes lit up. “Right? That scene would be incredible in a movie.”
“That’s exactly what I thought. It was written well enough, I could see it playing out in my mind.”
She rounded the circulation desk, her excitement building. “The whole thing would make an amazing movie if they casted it right.”
He shook his head. “Hollywood has let me down too many times. They’d screw it up.”
She lifted one shoulder. “You’re probably right. But in a perfect world, who would play Charles?”
For the next twenty minutes, they stood in the middle of the library, debating actors and arguing over which scenes would survive an adaptation. It was fun.
Wren tucked the book under her arm and motioned to a cart overflowing with novels. “Want to walk with me while I reshelve? We can figure out your next read as we go.”
The afternoon sunlight filtered through tall windows, bathing the stacks in bright yellow. Wren moved confidently between shelves, sliding the books into place with practiced ease.
“You know, this place feels a lot less intimidating now that I’m an adult.”
Wren looked scandalized. “Intimidating?”
“Admit it. The Dewey Decimal System was invented to torture school-age children.”
She gasped. “Take that back.”
Grayson crossed his arms. “Nope.”
“It’s beautiful organization.”
He shook his head. “It’s numerical chaos.”
“I should ban you from this library.” Her threat missed the marked by a mile, given she was smiling so widely.
“But you won’t.”
She sighed. “But I won’t,” she admitted.
Grayson didn’t know what to do with the way those three words warmed him up like a bonfire in fall. He’d felt the exact same way with Lark…for that one short weekend. Since then, there hadn’t been a single spark.
Regardless, he wasn’t the kind of guy to flirt with and kiss sisters. Even if he couldn’t stop himself from wondering what Wren’s lips would taste like. Would they be as soft and sweet as Lark’s?
Jesus.
Abort!
Thoughts like that were a one-way ticket to disaster.
Wren must have noticed he was looking at her mouth, because she nipped her lower lip with her teeth, then quickly turned toward her cart, reaching for a hardcover book, intent on reshelving it.
“Dammit,” she muttered.
“Something wrong?”
She held the book out like it had personally offended her.
“Not a fan of Shakespeare?” he asked, confused.
“I’m not referring to the play. The book,” she said, opening and fanning through it.
He saw that someone had dog-eared several pages, the corner bent sharply inward.
Wren unfolded them, trying to press out the creases with her fingertips. “Who does that?”
Grayson chuckled at her obvious annoyance. Nope, he thought, she looked downright pissed. “Do you think you might be overreacting?”
She looked up at him with eyes slit so narrow, they might have been closed. “It’s violence against literature. And,” she leaned in, whispering the next part, “it fucks up the book.”
A laugh burst out of him before he could stop it, because the F-word coming from the quiet, buttoned-up librarian was too stinking cute.
Wren pursed her lips, trying to hold on to her anger, but he could see it was wavering. “It’s not funny,” she said, even as a small smile threatened. “Dog-eared pages are like…my biggest pet peeve.”
“That’s your biggest complaint in life? Someone marking their spot with a folded corner?”
She snorted under her breath. “Yeah. It is. But I can’t expect the monster who reads eBooks on his phone to understand.”
Grayson shrugged. “At least there are no dog-eared pages online.”
She shook her head, even though she was grinning now, then returned the book to the cart and started pushing it farther down the aisle. “You are impossible.”
“And you are adorable.”
Wren stumbled a step, and while she wasn’t facing him, he could still see her profile, so he didn’t miss her blush. It reminded him of Lark.
So much for not flirting with sisters.
Grayson was making a muck of this. So much so, he glanced over his shoulder and considered leaving and never coming back. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen Wren in the past few years, so it wouldn’t be hard to avoid the McCoy twin danger.
Lark, however, given her place of employment, would be impossible to avoid. Not that he wanted to. Despite her driving him crazy the past week or so, he was still determined to expand on what they’d started at the festival.
Before he could make good on that escape, Wren glanced up at him. “So what’s your biggest pet peeve?”
Grayson didn’t even need time to consider his answer. “Being lied to.”
This time, Wren didn’t stumble, she came to a full, abrupt stop. She was suddenly frowning and studying his face so hard, he was starting to feel like he was her algebra final.
He held her gaze, somewhat confused by her response, so he saw when something subtle shifted in her expression.
“You had that answer ready to roll,” she said, somewhat hesitantly.
Grayson shoved his hands in his pockets, trailing behind her when she continued walking.
“Yeah. I guess I did. When it comes to relationships, I seem to be a magnet for girls who lie. I dated this girl, Dara, one summer about six years ago. She was Jenny Perkins’ college roommate.
Dara’s folks were doing some big six-month cruise, so rather than go home for the summer, she came to Gracemont and stayed with Jenny’s family.
She and I hit it off instantly. We dated for nearly three months, and for most of that time, I was trying to figure out how to keep the relationship going long-distance because man, I really thought she might be the one. ”
Wren had stopped walking and was now leaning against the shelves. “What happened?”
“End of the summer came, and I laid out my plan. She and Jenny were at JMU, so it wasn’t like they were going to be on the other side of the country.
Harrisonburg is only about an hour-and-a-half drive, so I told her I could come see her every other weekend, and she could come stay with me during holidays and stuff.
She was studying to be a schoolteacher, so I told her it would be easy for her to find a teaching job around Gracemont after she graduated.
That was when she cut me off and said she had a boyfriend at school. ”
“She had a boyfriend?” Wren exclaimed, so aghast, he was touched.
“Yeah. Which was news to me because she never once mentioned him. Apparently, they’d decided to take a break from their relationship for the summer. One summer to sow their wild oats and do whatever they wanted.”
“And she wanted to do you?” Wren asked, wincing when she realized how that sounded. “I mean—”
Grayson chuckled. “Yeah. She wanted to do me. Which I honestly would have been fine with, if she’d said it couldn’t be anything more than casual. But she constantly told me how great I was…even said she loved me.”
“That’s awful,” Wren breathed.
“Yeah, it was. I’d been thinking forever. She’d been thinking summer hookup.”
However, it wasn’t the broken heart that bothered Grayson the most in the end. It was the fact that she’d lied to his face every single day they were together.
“The worst part is, that wasn’t the biggest lie a woman has ever told me.”
Wren grimaced. “It wasn’t?”
“That honor is held by Staci. I met her on one of those online dating apps. She lives in Leesburg and we went out for four months.”