Chapter Twenty-Five
As winter approached, Joanna could no longer deny that Granny didn’t need her anymore. She still got sore if she overexerted (which was all the time), but if she didn’t walk far, she could do it without her cane. She could drive and cook and walk the dog all by herself.
But winter was coming. What if she slipped on the ice? Joanna stuck around, just to make sure.
Then it snowed.
A lot.
It was one of those weird, pre-winter storms, the kind that comes out of nowhere before the salt trucks are ready and dumps a foot of snow on the ground as if to say, ha ha, bet you weren’t expecting that.
Joanna sat at the kitchen window, nursing a hot cup of coffee, watching the snow fall.
“It’s been a while since you’ve seen that, huh?” Granny asked.
It hadn’t been that long. When you tour around the country, you see all kinds of weather. But this snow was different. This snow wasn’t getting between her and her next gig. It wasn’t snow she’d have to scrape off their crappy van or wade through to load out. It was just . . . pretty.
She wanted to enjoy the snow, dammit.
“I have your old snow boots in the hall closet,” Granny said, reading her mind.
Granny laughed at Joanna’s shocked expression. “It’s all over your face. You used to get that same look when you were little and you couldn’t wait to go outside with the other kids to build snowmen.”
“And snowball fights.”
“Yes, well. You always did have a good arm.”
Joanna stood and put her mug in the sink. She stretched her arms over her head. “Maybe I will go out. Just for a walk.”
“Could you use some company?”
“Gran, I don’t know if you should be out there in this.”
“Not me. And not Starr, she hates the snow.”
“Then who?”
Gran took a sip of her coffee.
“Gran. Jeez.”
Still, when Joanna got to her room to change into more snow-appropriate clothes, she called Liam.
“Come out and play, librarian.”
“Ah, I can’t.”
“Why not? Too afraid of a little cold?”
“Well, no. I’m at work.”
“Work? Why? Isn’t the library closed today?”
“No. I got here okay.”
“How? The roads haven’t even been plowed yet.”
“I walked.”
“Walked? Liam, that’s like four miles!”
“It’s closer to three.”
“You must have some serious snow boots.”
“Yeah. And snowshoes.”
She stopped for a moment, one leg in her leggings.
“You snowshoed to the library?”
“Yes. It was the safest way to get here.”
“You really are a Boy Scout. So, is it busy? Are you providing warmth to the masses?”
“Uh, actually, no. I’m the only one here.”
“Really?” She did not sound surprised at all.
“I’m glad you called. I was going crazy here all by myself. The good news is, I’m all caught up on my e-mail.”
“Why don’t you close now?”
“Eh, it’s fine. Closing is a whole rigmarole with the board and I don’t really want to deal with that. Besides, I’m here, so obviously I was able to get to work. There’s no real reason not to be open.”
“Except that the governor declared a state of emergency and nobody’s supposed to be out on the roads.”
“I wasn’t on the roads. Well, I was, but my car wasn’t.”
“Yes, but you’re the only idiot in town. Nobody’s coming to the library, buddy.”
She heard him sigh. Poor Liam. He worked so hard.
Poor Liam in that big ol’ building all by himself.
All by himself, with no one to keep him company.
And no one to see if his girlfriend walked over to the library and seduced him . . .
* * *
Liam’s eyes were starting to cross. Maybe putting in a full day at the library when no one else was there was not something he needed to be doing. He thought about his couch, and a fire in the fireplace, and tucking himself under a blanket with a book. Or better yet, with Joanna. Peggy’s house was sort of on the way home. He could snowshoe over and . . .
And what, throw her over his shoulder and carry her off to his pink-kitchened love nest?
She would totally go for that.
Just as he was revising his plan for getting snowed in with Joanna, there was a bang from the lobby. That sounded a lot like the front door opening and closing.
Great, patrons.
Well, he had opened the library for a reason. Shelter from the storm and all that.
He blinked hard and walked out from the stacks, ready to greet his patrons with a friendly smile and swift customer service that would have them out the door quickly so he could figure out how to ravish his girlfriend.
And then, there she was.
He didn’t recognize her at first, what with the massive plaid scarf covering most of her face. But he recognized that voice.
“Holy balls, it’s cold out.”
She wiped her nose on the edge of her scarf, and he had never been so happy to see someone in his entire life. What kind of winter magic was this? He just thought about her, and she appeared.
He tried thinking about a pizza. He’d forgotten to bring lunch and he was hungry.
“Hey.” He walked over and helped her out of her coat and stepped back as she toed off her snowy boots. “Welcome to the library!”
“Am I the only one here?”
“So far.”
She snorted. “So far. You know it’s still snowing, right?”
“Is it?” He hadn’t looked out the window in a while. He did so now.
Yup, still snowing.
“So.” She pulled off her snowy hat and tossed it on top of her snowy jacket. That was probably going to leave a wet spot on the carpet.
Oh well.
She shook her hair out, then smiled up at him. “What have you been doing with yourself ?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just getting caught up on stuff. I was just shelf reading.”
“What’s shelf reading?”
“It’s where you look at all the spine labels on the books and make sure they’re in call number order.”
She just looked at him. He thought he might have to explain it differently. Sometimes he did that, used too much library jargon to explain things to a civilian.
“That sounds terrible.”
Yup, she understood.
“It’s not great,” he said. “But it has to be done.”
“So . . . how’s it going? Anything good on the shelf?”
“The pregnancy books were totally out of order, but the rest was mostly fine.”
“Huh.”
“Well, I didn’t do the whole collection, so there might be some other problems. I just focused on the sections that are used the most.”
“You are such a nerd.”
“I know.”
“Are you ready for a break?”
“That depends. Were there hordes of patrons behind you?”
“Nope. I had the sidewalks of Halikarnassus all to myself. At least, I think I was on the sidewalks. They’re sort of buried.”
“Okay, then. I’m ready for a break.”
“Good.”
She bent down to her discarded shoulder bag and pulled out two thermoses. “Soup, and hot chocolate.”
He could kiss her.
But first, he wanted to eat.
* * *
“It’s weird how quiet it is in here.”
They’d pulled the cushions off the chairs and made a little nest for themselves near the science fiction. That way they could eat their soup—which was hearty and delicious and he still wanted to kiss her for it—and watch the snow fall.
Because the snow was still falling. A little less rapidly now, but it clearly was not done with the whole “blanketing the streets of town” thing.
“Imagine that, a quiet library,” he said.
She nudged him with her shoulder. “You know what I mean.”
He stretched out on the floor with his happily full belly. “It is nice. I mean, I don’t think the library needs to be a quiet place anymore, you know? The noise means people are using it.”
“Hmm,” she said, and he thought she was lost in the peaceful view from the window, but when he looked at her, he saw that she was looking at him.
“What? Am I being a dork?”
She shook her head. “You really love this place, don’t you?”
He wanted to tell her that he didn’t really care that much one way or the other, that he would gladly follow her anywhere. But he’d never lied to her, and he wasn’t going to start now.
“Yup.”
She sighed and looked out the window. He wanted to ask her if maybe she was changing her mind, if these few months they’d spent together had made her see that Halikarnassus wasn’t such a bad place or such a boring place. When they were together, it could be great.
But he didn’t, and when she turned back to him, she had a wicked grin on her face.
“How much do you love this place?” she asked.
“Uh.” He was confused. But that grin was doing things to his insides. Sexy things. “A lot?”
“A lot?” She got on all fours and crawled over toward him, then over him so her body surrounded his.
“Have you ever had sex in a library before?” she asked.
He gulped. He watched her eyes move to his throat and she licked her lips. No, he hadn’t had sex in a library. He couldn’t think of a more unsanitary place to have sex. Actually, yes, he could, but still. Sex in the library felt . . . well, it didn’t feel wrong. It should feel wrong, but Joanna was shaking her head, the ends of her hair tickling his face; then her hands were unbuttoning his shirt and her hair was tickling his chest.
He decided that now was not the time for an ethical quandary. Not when Joanna was reaching for his belt buckle. So he just gave himself over to the fantasy and let Joanna show him how much he could really love the library.