Chapter 4
BOOKER
“I’m not denying he’s maybe the most casually beautiful man I’ve ever seen,” Seth said, getting between me and the selection of houseplants out front of the florist that all looked more or less the same to me.
“I just didn’t take you for being into the tweedy little nerd type. I mean, it’s fine, it’s a good type.”
“It is just possible,” I said, checking the label on a lacy… fern, maybe? Probably a fern. I knew next to nothing about houseplants. I’d expected Seth to be more help. “That not everyone in the whole wide world fits into a neat little box. You should know that.”
I didn’t have to look at Seth to feel the raised eyebrow he was giving me.
“And I also never said he was my type,” I added. “What I said was that he’s scared and alone and he needs someone to lean on.”
“Right, and you’re Otter Bay’s Universal Public Uncle,” Seth said.
“Yep,” I agreed, holding up two plants that seemed identical to me but had very different labels. “Which one of these is most likely to survive in the crappy cabin you tricked him into accepting as part of his contract?”
“The cabin wasn’t meant to be crappy,” Seth defended. “He insisted on coming up a week early. I was planning to get it cleaned before the original start date. And I told him!”
“Yeah well. Like most normal people, I think he assumed you meant it needed dusting and airing,” I said.
Seth laughed. “You’ve got your claws out for little ol’ me over the new librarian and you’re trying to convince me you don’t have even the teensiest crush?” he asked, holding his fingers up a half-inch apart. To demonstrate the teensiness of the crush, I supposed.
“He was engaged to a woman,” I said.
I didn’t mention that I’d definitely felt a way about hearing that.
Besides, I’d mostly felt like I wanted to cheer him up. I hated to see anyone upset or hurting.
“He could be bi,” Seth said. “Or one of the other assorted options. And that doesn’t have any bearing on whether you’re into him.”
“Well, I’m not,” I said, licking my lips and tasting the barest hint of a lie.
It was just like Seth said. Miles was… casually beautiful. That was exactly the right way to describe it. He had the brightest, bluest eyes I’d ever seen, and the cutest nose, and the one smile I’d gotten out of him made me want to make him laugh just to see what he looked like happy. He was…
Dammit.
I was too old for crushes.
“Uh huh,” Seth said, as though he didn’t believe me. “I like the rabbit’s foot fern, personally.”
“Which one—”
“That one,” Seth said, pointing at the one I’d been leaning toward because there were more colors on the label and I had no idea how else to choose a plant.
“I’ll take your advice.” I set the other, unidentified fern down again.
“Look, if you like him anyway,” Seth began as I headed into the shop. “I have a favor to ask.”
“I don’t like the sound of this.” I passed the plant to Dawn, who wasn’t even pretending she hadn’t been listening in. “Could I get a ribbon or something on that?”
Dawn’s eyes lit up. “Always. If you tell me how cute he is.”
I glanced at Seth. “Where are the twins?” I asked instead.
“Milo and Xander are walking them.” Dawn smiled wryly. “They do this every day now. They’re gonna grow up thinking they have two dads and two moms.”
I smiled at that. “They deserve it.”
“Mmhmm,” Dawn agreed, holding a spool of yellow ribbon and a pair of scissors. “Now, tell me about the cute boy.”
“Did you know the library reopened today?” Seth butted in. “And the new librarian is hot?”
I was lucky it was dark in the florist, because I was pretty sure I’d just turned the color of a fire truck.
“A librarian,” Dawn said, as though that was some kind of scandal. “I do think glasses are hot, for the record.”
“Not sure he wears glasses,” I mumbled, like a fifteen-year-old embarrassed about his first crush.
I felt about as ridiculous as I had at fifteen, though, so that made sense.
“Oh, he does,” Seth said. “He’s got this cute pair of huge gold-rimmed reading glasses that make him look like an owl.
He had to put them on to fill out some paperwork yesterday.
Which brings me to my favor. Since you like him anyway, please, please, please encourage him to stay?
It was hard enough to find someone willing to take on this job in the first place and the library is so important and this is our last chance to save it.
If he won’t stay and we can’t demonstrate that it’s providing value to the community, they’ll shut it down permanently. And the town whole town will kill me.”
“You’ve got them wrapped around your little finger,” I pointed out. “They’re way more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“Seriously, though,” Seth said. “I need him to stay. And he does obviously like you. Help me out?”
Dawn tied the ribbon around the plant. Out of pity, I thought.
But also, she knew now that she could go see the cute boy for herself, so she didn’t need to hold my—his—houseplant hostage.
“I don’t know how convincing I am,” I said.
“Just... keep trying to make him feel welcome?” Seth asked. “You would’ve done that without me asking anyway.”
“I would,” I agreed. “He is welcome.”
Seth lit up into a bright smile. “Perfect. Tell him if he needs anything else in the cabin, he can actually tell me.”
“How did finding a librarian become your job, anyway?” I asked. Seth had his fingers in just about every pie in Otter Bay, and he was on the city council, but I wasn’t sure how that’d translated into HR.
He shrugged. “The wages of competence are extra work,” he said. “I’m into it though, and libraries are important and it’s my civic duty to make sure we get to keep it. I should run for mayor.”
I snorted, but secretly, I agreed. “Well, you’ve got my vote.”
“Mine too,” Dawn agreed, trading me plant for debit card.
“See?” I raised a brow at him. “Practically elected already.”