Page 33 of Clearly Charmed

‘That doesn’t matter right now. Please, grab those materials and do not tell my grandmother I was ever asking for them.’

Her glasses slid down her nose. ‘I don’t hide anything from Clo.’

‘You will, or I might let it slip about your recent Vespa excursions.’

She gasped. ‘Dandelion McGuire, you wouldn’t!’

‘I would, Ruthie. Clo cannot know I’m looking into the archives.’

We stayed in a quiet stalemate until she gave in. ‘It was only a few spins around the block,’ she said in a wounded voice, like that might change my mind.

‘I’m sorry, weren’t you laid up in Silverton for a month last year with a broken arm, hip and pelvis because of your Vespa crash on the highway? And did you not swear to your life-long best friend that you had sold said Vespa?’

‘Yes.’ She rolled her deep brown eyes, not appreciating how I had her pinned in a corner. ‘All right. This stays between you and me.’ She stepped closer. Lowered her voice. ‘But your grandmother, she can’t know about my little spin…’ She stopped mid-breath when the door to the library swung open, and Bryce took long strides toward us.

Her left eyebrow now joined the right high up on her forehead. Under her breath she murmured something about ‘a young Robert Redford’.

God, not her too. Bryce was just a man. An athletic, smart, ridiculously attractive man. But still, just a man.

He stopped next to me and stuck out his hand. ‘Hello there. I’m Bryce O’Dell.’

I shook my head as our tough-as-nails librarian melted like the spring snow.

‘Ruth Ansleigh. Pleasure to meet you.’

‘Librarians have always had a special place in my heart; I was a big reader as a kid. Still am.’

She actually giggled at him. ‘I can always tell the readers.’

‘Where do we get started?’ I said, breaking up their lovefest.

‘Oh.’ Ruthie hesitated. ‘He’s helping you?’

‘Yes, Bryce, as I’m sure you’ve heard around town, is writing an article about Harvest Moon.’

That anxious twitch returned to her mouth. ‘Mo might have mentioned something about that to me at a recent bunco night.’

Of course she did.

‘Why don’t you have a seat at one of the tables.’ Ruthie gave me a confident stare, now understanding my request. ‘Give me a few minutes to grab the information you need.’

She took off, her little feet tapping against the hardwood floors as she raced for the staircase that led to the upper level where the town’s archives were stored.

He glanced around me. ‘No Flora today?’

‘Ms Ruthie loves me, but even she has rules about animals in the library.’

He nodded and wandered off in the direction of the stacks. Towering floor-to-ceiling bookcases covered the entire back wall of the building. For a small town, we had a wide collection ranging from biographies to mysteries and romance books. I trailed Bryce as he strolled up and down the aisles.

You could learn a lot about a person when you followed them through a library. What spines or titles happened to catch their attention. How they stopped at certain sections. Pulled books off the shelves to read the summaries. Apparently, he was a military thrillers and space exploration kind of guy.

‘Did you serve?’ I asked, curious about his past beyond the small glimpses he’d already shared with me.

‘You mean like in the military?’

‘Yes, you seem to be drawn to that kind of book.’

‘No, but my grandfather was in the navy. They lost his ship, the USS Arizona, in Pearl Harbor.’