Chapter 11
Will: The pictures Liv posted are disturbing.
Tate: I don’t know what to tell you. I’m cute, and she’s hard to fend off.
Will: She gave her address to her work.
Tate: Good. Do you have any suspects there?
Will: No. We’ve checked everyone out extensively. But the other times Liv let them know her new address, Leroy found her in days. So keep on the lookout, and I’ll keep running background checks on everyone in her company.
Tate was determined to get me out of the house.
The annoying part was, I knew he was right.
I needed to get out of the house. If we were going with Tate’s plan, it had to be done.
I had to be brave. But admitting that to Tate felt a little too much like handing him another victory.
So for our first outing, I asked him to take me to the one place in town I knew he'd hate. The one place I’d feel the most comfortable, especially after basically announcing to the world that I was living in Autumn Ridge with Tate Walker and his family.
The Autumn Ridge Library.
There was no parking in front of the library, so Tate parked his truck down by the Maple Bar and Grill. For a long moment, he stared at the brick building down the street.
“Isn’t this like the mother ship for you people? Why do you need to go inside?”
I laughed. “Why are you scared to go inside?”
“This is the place I got quietly yelled at my entire life to be quiet by people who looked like my sweet grandma. It was confusing.”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have been causing trouble in the library. Respect the walls, Walker.”
“It was too much fun not to.”
“We don’t have to go if—”
He rolled his eyes and opened his door. “We’re going, Rawlins. Let’s see who can be the bravest today.”
For the first time all season, the forecast had been chilly enough to dress for fall.
I'd been waiting a long time for the chance to pull out my knee-high brown boots, cream-colored sweater, and green scarf. Actually having somewhere to go while wearing them was the icing on the cake. The trees lining the streets boasted yellows, coral oranges, and deep-red leaves. That combined with being near Keller’s Bakehouse meant that even the air smelled like cinnamon and apples. Fall in this town was pure magic.
I cautiously fell into step beside Tate on the sidewalk.
He reached for my hand, and I remembered that we were a full-blown couple as far as Autumn Ridge was concerned.
Instead, I slipped my hand through the crook of Tate’s arm.
It felt like the kind of brisk morning walk where a woman should be clutching her lover’s arm, which coincidentally brought his body closer to me.
Thankfully, Tate was in cop mode and didn’t notice.
He was meticulously surveying buildings, faces, and cars as we walked.
I relaxed into him ever so slightly. With him on the hunt, I scanned the beautiful fall window displays of each store we passed and observed the shoppers on the street, wearing beanies and sipping coffee from their steaming cups.
Growing up, every October, my mom and I treated our Saturdays like gold.
No matter how busy our week was, we’d grab a hot chocolate from Keller’s and spend an hour window shopping on Main Street or thumbing through books at the bookstore.
We both shared a love for autumn and a slow Saturday morning, and I suddenly felt homesick for a feeling I hadn’t felt in a while.
For a place where people knew who I was.
There was a comfort in that. A safety in a town that felt like family.
It had been so long since I’d felt at home somewhere.
Or with someone.
As we got closer, the sight of a seemingly unassuming elderly pair made my stomach drop in dread.
Forget Leroy. We had a much bigger problem this morning.
What sat at a small table outside of Keller’s Bakehouse, coffee cups and a half-eaten sticky bun sitting before each of them, was nearly as terrifying as Leroy himself.
There were curlers in their hair, jewelry dangling off their necks and wrists, and they were cackling loudly at something up the road.
I glanced up at Tate, wondering if he’d discovered the same thing, but he seemed completely oblivious to the immediate threat not so innocently sitting before us in bright-colored polyester pants.
They noticed us right away, if their gawking and the sudden silence of their cackles meant anything.
Maybe they wouldn’t recognize me. It had been so long since I’d graced the streets in this town.
I attempted to cover the side of my face with my hair as we passed, gave them a tight smile and a nod, and kept walking.
“Aren’t you the little Rawlins girl?”
My heart sank as our steps slowed.
The Ednas had recognized me. Will had hoped to keep my time in Autumn Ridge quiet for my safety. But now with Tate in charge, I wasn’t sure how exactly this would go.
Edna Gilbert and Edna Bloomberg had been best friends for as long as I could remember.
You might assume they were little old widows, but last I’d heard, both of their husbands were still kicking.
I honestly wasn’t sure which Edna was which, so I was only thankful that, between the two of them, one name sufficed.
I rallied up a smile in their interested direction. “Yes. Hi, Edna. How are you both?”
“Good, good,” the taller Edna spoke, a smile on her painted red lips as she took in the pair of us. Of the two ladies, her hair was still dark, though I couldn’t be certain it was natural. “Is that a limp, Mr. Walker?”
I inwardly gaped at her audacity, but Tate only smiled and placed his arm around my shoulders before saying, “Got in a little fight on the job a few weeks ago. It’s getting better.”
“So it wasn’t a fight with your girl, then?” She motioned toward me with her head.
Tate grinned, glancing at me. “Nope. This one can’t keep her hands off of me either, but it’s in a much nicer way.” He squeezed me in close and, before I could prepare myself, pressed a light kiss on my cheek. The ladies were delighted.
The taller Edna nodded happily toward Tate. “Glad to see this handsome young man finally off the market.”
Tate’s smile was charming as he squeezed me in close. “About time too. I’ve been chasing after her for years.”
His words were simple. Casual. Sweet. And the exact wrong thing for my brain.
But it was more than enough to satisfy the Ednas.
Two squeals of excitement sounded from the bench before Tate said our goodbyes and opened the library door.
“You shot that out pretty fast for someone who claims not to like me,” I said as I stepped inside the doorway, creaky floorboards and the musty smell of old books, like a sip of warm tea, immediately calming my nerves.
An easy smile crossed his lips. “You’d be surprised at the things I have to pretend to like while undercover.”
That’s right.
A tiny stab of disappointment filtered through me just then. A pinprick, really. I was working with an undercover agent of the law. I’d forgotten for a moment. He could fake anything with anybody and not think twice about it. That was all. Back on track now.
I brightened when I saw a familiar face behind a circular desk, smiling with a young mother holding a toddler as she checked out a stack of children’s books.
“Wait. Emma Harper’s the librarian?”
Tate followed my gaze to take in the friendly red-headed woman he’d graduated with. Although she was a couple years older than me, I was familiar enough with her that I considered her a friend, even though I was closer in age to her younger twin siblings, Rosie and Dominic.
He shrugged before waving at her when she looked over at us. “Looks like it.”
“Alright, I’m going to ask her a few questions.” I motioned toward the rows of books to his left. “The classics are that way if you need to brush up.”
He still looked wildly uncomfortable.
“I’m going to do a quick walk-through of the building and then wait outside by the door. Keep in view of the main window and come outside when you’re done.”
“I thought you said you were going to be brave,” I taunted lightly.
His nose wrinkled in a very attractive sort of way. “If the books are any good, they’ll make them into a movie.”
I gasped. He’d wounded me.
“Great,” I said, a devious edge to my voice. “Your girlfriend writes movies. Have you seen any of hers?”
A begrudging smile bit his lips. “I haven’t. But you couldn’t keep me away.”
“Perfect. I’ll meet you on the couch later tonight to watch one.” Actually, I would rather die than watch something I wrote with him. But I held back my cringe when he smiled.
“If I’m going to be writing half your manuscript, I probably do need to see what I’m working with.”
“Ha ha.”
I turned to visit with Emma when his low voice stopped me.
“Wait.”
He waited until I had turned back around before he added a fake furrow to his brows.
“Is that how you say goodbye to your boyfriend?”
I stared at him blankly until a roguish smile crawled across his lips, and a rush of flutters swarmed my belly at his meaning.
When I stood there like a fish out of water, he laughed and motioned toward Emma. “Get to work. We don’t have all day.”
Severely flustered, I fled, fully aware of his low chuckle as I left.
Emma Harper had always been pretty, but she seemed almost glowing now.
Radiant. She had left Autumn Ridge for college but had the opportunity to work at the town library and came running back.
I couldn’t blame her. If I wasn’t already doing my dream job as a screenwriter, working as a librarian would be the next best thing.
“What’s your favorite part of your job?” I asked, jotting a few notes down in my notebook.
“When people ask me for recommendations, and I talk their ear off about my favorites,” Emma said, smiling. “But most of the time, I’m in the children’s department, re-shelving books and doing story time, which I also love.”
“Dang. Are you hiring?” I joked. “I’d probably be full of inspiration for writing if I worked here.”