“Hey Whitman,” the familiar voice of Scott Patterson filled the room like he had forgotten it was a library. “Are you doing any more trivia nights soon? I’m surprised by how much I miss kicking your ass each week.”

Whitman chose to ignore the taunt, mostly because it was the SC Warrior’s picture still hanging above the trophy on the wall behind him. “I hadn’t considered it. Do you think people would be interested? I could go to the town council. I think they were pretty pleased with how the events turned out this summer.”

“I know my mom and grandma were thrilled I wasn’t driving into Copper Beach every night. You’d have their support.”

“Good to know,” Whitman said, because he’d seen first-hand what it meant when Delilah Patterson was on your side. He set aside a book that he was trying to remove old pencil-marked comments from. He loved libraries and if he were the type to decorate with needlepoint sayings, his home would have walls covered with quotes about the importance of libraries. But he really wished people would remember that the books didn’t actually belong to them and they couldn’t write in them. He’d save it for Caitlyn to work on that afternoon. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“No, I was looking for that girl who works for you. Is she here?”

“Caitlyn?”

“Yes,” Scott said like he had been trying to remember her name and was relieved to finally have it. Whitman narrowed his eyes.

“No, she’s still in school,” Whitman said, emphasizing school.

“Right, but she works here in the afternoons. Right? I mean, she’s pretty intense, but she’s also, you know, pretty. And smart. I bet we wouldn’t have won all those trivia nights if you had more like her on your team.”

“Isn’t she a little young for you, Scott?”

Scott laughed and slapped a hand on the desk, still nervously shifting from foot to foot, but at least his upper half appeared confident.

“Naw, man. You aren’t used to small towns, are you? I only graduated a few years ago. Plus, she’s a senior. So even if she’s not eighteen, she will be soon.”

“Don’t forget, you’d also have her older brother to contend with.” Whitman couldn’t quite decide whether or not he liked Scott. They’d had fun on trivia nights. Scott was right about that. But he couldn’t decide if the casual way he spoke about people was due to age or indifference or like he said, some small-town thing that Whitman wasn’t yet privy to. It irked him, but he couldn’t decide exactly how much.

“Yeah, but you can grease the wheels for me there, right? You two are dating. That’s what Melissa was saying at the diner earlier.”

Whitman stiffened behind the counter and clenched his hands together on top of the desk. “I didn’t realize my social life was the topic of conversation these days.”

“Small town, dude.” Scott shrugged like he had no clue how his words might be perceived. “But I’m glad Travis found someone nice. Kids can be real shitheads, myself included. It’s part of the reason I want to look out for his sister.”

Whitman warred with himself over Scott’s clueless but well-meaning words. He’d obviously witnessed the bullying Travis had endured as a teenager, but Whitman hoped he hadn’t participated. Kids could be cruel, but Scott’s behavior seemed a little self-absorbed but not intentionally hurtful. He decided to help the guy out, just a little. It was ultimately Caitlyn’s decision, after all.

“She won’t be here for another hour, but if you want to leave your number, I’ll tell her you dropped by.”

“I’ve got class at the community college, so I’ll just stop back in later. Thanks.”

Whitman watched as Scott ambled out of the library without a care in the world. He decided a lunch from Molly’s, courtesy of his favorite delivery man, was in order. He couldn’t keep this news to himself, even if it did make him feel a little like Mrs. Leake on a slow news day.

Travis arrived at the library and took his box from Molly’s straight to the conference room. Whitman followed in after and watched as Travis took out two sandwiches, two soups, and two slices of carrot cake that he hadn’t ordered but that Travis knew he would enjoy anyway.

“You’re joining me?” Whitman asked and Travis felt guilty at the hopefulness that infused his voice. “I thought maybe you were mad at me.”

“Why would I be mad?” Travis asked, although he already knew. He hadn’t spoken to Whitman since their date. He had begged out of staying over like they had originally planned, claiming that he would have to get up early to get Caitlyn. And then he hadn’t called or texted or stopped by since. He couldn’t blame Whitman for worrying. Shame clawed at him for acting that way, but he was under so much pressure, it was messing with him.

“For saying you need to tell Caitlyn about her dad.”

“But I do need to tell her. I can’t be mad when you’re right. I’m sorry I made you worry. I didn’t mean to take all this,” he made circles around his head with his hand, “out on you.”

Whitman snorted as he popped the lid off his soup and waved a plastic spoon in Travis’s face.

“Sure, you can. Just because I’m right doesn’t mean I shouldn’t mind my own business. Case in point … I’m not sure whether or not to tell you this.”

The spoon had stopped it’s wagging and now Whitman looked truly pensive. It had knots forming in Travis’s stomach.

“What is it?”

“Scott Patterson wants to ask out your sister,” Whitman said and followed the words with a spoonful of broccoli cheese soup. His eyes teared and he reached for his plastic insulated water cup, gulping it down. “Ow, hot.”

“Excuse me?”

Whitman opened the lid and took out a piece of ice, letting it sit on his tongue for a minute and melt down to where he could talk around it. “He came into the library looking for her.”

“No. No way.” Travis had started with his half chicken salad sandwich, which he squeezed so hard at the news that globs of filling plopped onto the plastic wrap underneath.

“He seemed to pretty genuinely like her,” Whitman said, picking up his sandwich and pushing the soup aside.

Travis glared.

“Nope. I thought Caitlyn was like a sister to you. If so, you need to work on the appropriate brotherly responses. In this case there is only one correct one, and it’s that she is not going out with Scott Patterson.”

Whitman didn’t have a chance to respond or argue. Travis’s back pocket vibrated with an incoming text. He pulled out his phone and scanned the message. He’d almost rather go back to arguing about Scott Patterson.

Whitman raised a brow like he wanted to ask, but his lips were sealed after the Scott Patterson debacle, so Travis put him out of his misery.

“Text from Ginger. The paternity test results already came back.”

“That was fast.”

“Yeah, I guess when you can pay for it to be expedited, it helps.”

“And?”

Travis tossed his phone onto the table and swiped up a blob of chicken salad from the plastic wrap with his finger and sucked it into his mouth. He swallowed and stared at his disheveled lunch like it was responsible for his misery.

“We already knew they’d be positive. But now they can move forward with the hearing to determine custody.”

“Travis …”

Moments like these, he wished he could me more mature about things like Scott Patterson or Caitlyn’s father. More like Whitman. But Travis reverted back to his angry sixteen-year-old self instead, the one with a vendetta against the world.

“No, I know. I need to tell her. I just don’t know how.”