Page 54 of Falling

“Good,” Booker said. “So, are you gonna tell me what made you so upset you came running to me?”

I sighed. I’d almost forgotten all about it.

“I screwed up… absolutely everything about the town council visit today,” I said. “Library funding is on the line because they think nobody uses it. I showed them how many new cards I’d issued, thanks to you⁠—”

“And your efforts to understand the needs of the community,” Booker interrupted.

“You mean my efforts in being pathetic enough that I flipped your knight in shining armour switch?” I asked, shifting to look him in the eyes.

I loved Booker’s eyes. They had kindness written in every line around them, and the almost perfectly colorless grey made him seem so solid and steady, like an ancient sage. But then when he smiled they lit up and reflected lavender blue and there was so much life and warmth in them.

“What?” he asked when I stared a heartbeat too long.

“I like looking at you,” I defended. “Am I suddenly not allowed?”

Booker broke into a smile, and his eyes sparkled just like I’d been imagining them a moment ago. “Look all you want,” he said, the couch cushions creaking as he shifted his weight, making both of us more comfortable. “What’s the bottom line on the library?”

“Use it or lose it,” I said. “The quarterly budget meeting is two Mondays from now, so I have until next Friday to impress them, when they’re coming through again.”

Booker’s lips tightened, his eyes sharpening as he looked right past me, as though I wasn’t there at all.

“Okay,” he said after a moment, coming back to the present and looking me in the eyes again.

“Okay?” I asked.

“Okay, we’re gonna save the library.” He shrugged, like it was that simple. “That all right with you?”

“How, though?” I asked. “I’m just… I don’t know…”

“Trust me?” Booked caught my gaze and held it. The panic that’d been building up in my gut again dissolved.

If I could bottle that, I’d make a fortune.

I nodded without having to think about it. Of course I trusted him.

If Booker said we were saving the library, we were saving the library. Somehow.

“Good,” he said. “It’s gonna be okay.”

It was hard to make myself believe that, but hearing Booker say it made it a little easier. And I wanted to save the library. I didn’t want to give up what I had here.

“You wanna shower?” Booker asked. “Always makes me feel better.”

“Are you going back to work?” I asked. I didn’t want Booker to leave. I felt like I’d just found him.

“No,” he said. “I was planning on scrubbing your back.”

20

BOOKER

My heart threatened to burst as I watched Miles wake. First, he tilted his face so the single ray of sunlight breaking through the blinds fell on it, turning his eyelashes to gold and his freckles to bronze, highlighting the perfect line of his adorable nose. His eyes blinked open, icy blue in the morning sun, brow furrowing against the light until he noticed me watching, eyes widening again with a moment of surprise before he covered a yawn and rolled over to face me.

He was beautiful. I’d known that, distantly, but now it was awe-inspiring. I could’ve looked at him for days at a time and never gotten tired of it.

I was turning into a sap in my old age.

“Morning,” I murmured, soft as I could, not wanting to break the peace just yet.