“Yes, but not ballroom dancing. Did you do the tango?”
“We could barely keep from tripping each other.” That wasn’t true. Once they’d gotten the hang of the steps, they were in sync, but she didn’t need Peg and Viola to latch on to any more matchmaking ideas. “Back to Kingston and Sunny. I’m sure they were just talking about dancing.”
“Maybe. But when we sat down, they looked kind of cozy.” Viola fanned her face with her hand.
“They also looked nice together.” Peg frowned, her chest still heaving.
Viola stilled, looking only a smidgen better than her counterpart. “What if Olivia has competition? How are we going to break it to Bea?”
Erma came out from behind the counter and headed for the back room.
“Where are you going?” Peg asked.
“To get you two some water before you pass out. Peg, you take the man chair.” She gestured to the small seating area in the store where visitors could sit and knit or crochet. A large, comfortable chair sat close by where an indulgent husband or boyfriend could take a nap while his significant other shopped. “Be right back.”
“Thanks, Erma,” Peg called out as she flopped into the chair.
As she walked to the fridge, Erma pondered the news. If what Peg and Viola said was true, then they had an unanticipated complication. If Sunny and Kingston were dating, they were keeping it from Karen. That seemed extremely foolish in Erma’s opinion, since she wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the woman’s ire, and there would definitely be ire if one of her children was keeping a secret.
But what if Sunny and Kingston were an item, or on the way to becoming one? And now his mother was trying to fix him up with Olivia when he already had a girlfriend, or at the very least a love interest.
Never mind telling Bea. She had to call Karen. She grabbed two bottles of water, hurried to the front of the store, shoved them at Viola and Peg, and rushed off again.
Viola opened hers. “Now where are you going?”
“To call Karen.” Erma went behind the counter and snatched up her cell phone. “You’re right. We might have a problem, and we need to nip it now.”
***
Olivia sat down in her office chair and glanced at the clock. One twenty-five. Normally she had her lunch at one sharp, but there were times like today when she was too busy to stick to her schedule. She’d spent the morning setting up for toddler story time and sat in for a little while as RaeAnne, who was excellent with the younger children, entertained them and their parents for thirty minutes. Afterward, she assisted the parents with selecting books and checking them out, and after that she’d had a surprise visitor—a librarian from southeast Arkansas.
“I’ve heard about all of the wonderful programs you’ve implemented here,” she said after introducing herself. “I wanted to see for myself. Do you have some time to talk?”
Olivia had shown her around, discussing the ideas that worked and the ones that had failed. When she’d been hired as an assistant librarian five years ago, the library, like much of Maple Falls, had been on the decline. She’d turned that around when she became the head librarian after less than a year. It was nice to be recognized by her peers for her hard work. The Maple Falls community had expressed their appreciation as well by patronizing the library in greater numbers than they had in a decade.
She relaxed in her chair, opened a small package ofunsalted almonds, flipped up the cover of her laptop, and frowned at the unfinished assignment staring back at her. Ugh. She’d never been stuck on a paper like this before. But she had to plow through it, or she would end up behind for the first time in her life. She had precisely twenty-eight minutes to get some of it done.
She popped an almond into her mouth and started typing. Only three words in, there was a rap on her door. Lifting her fingers and clenching them, she saw Flo’s head poke inside her office. “Yes?” she said, trying to hide her irritation at being disturbed when she’d specifically asked not to be.
“Sorry for bugging you, but you have a visitor.” Flo grinned. “A tall, blond, handsome visitor. He said it was urgent.”
Kingston immediately came to mind, but he didn’t have any reason to see her in the middle of the day at work. It could be another librarian, but that wouldn’t be urgent. And if it was Aunt Bea, either she or Uncle Bill would have called her directly. For whatever reason, it must be Kingston.
She glanced at her laptop again. So much for getting the assignment off her plate. “Send him in.”
“Happy to,” Flo said, still smiling. “Although I wouldn’t mind looking at him a little while longer.”
“Flo—”
She slipped out of the office. Olivia shook her head and smiled. Flo lived in Malvern and wasn’t acquainted with the Bedford family other than Anita, who sometimes had lunch with Olivia at work.
She stared at her screen, fingers poised above thekeyboard. She could eke out a sentence or two before he got here. She started to type.
“Hey,” Kingston said as he rushed into the room. “Sorry to bother you at work. Mind if I shut the door?”
“Go ahead.” She finished writing the sentence as he closed the door and turned around. When she faced him again, her breath hitched. Oh no. Not this again. They’d spent almost three hours talking at Aunt Bea’s last night, and she’d had nary a tingle. Now she was tingling all over. Somehow he managed to make a basic white T-shirt, olive-green shorts, and wheat-colored canvas slip-ons look like high fashion. And he smelled good, like leather and lime and... french fries?
He sat down in the chair in front of her desk. “We have a problem.”
