Page 3 of Checking Out the Librarian

Ribby came back and nudged the sticky, grass-covered ball at his knee.

“Sure, buddy, I got it.” He bent to dig his fingers behind Ribby’s ears and stroke the neck places where his fur was so soft that Connor could touch it for hours.

Ribby looked up with golden-brown eyes that made Connor think of maple syrup. He wanted a person to look at him like that.

Logically, he knew it was ridiculous to think that tonight’s hook up would have a fairy tale ending, but somehow his stupid imagination was already setting two mugs on his kitchen counter for a slender, dark-haired man somewhere just out of sight.

Ribby bonked him again.

He was an idiot.

“You’re such a good boy.” He trotted along the edge of the field and gave Ribby a pop-up instead of a deep throw, keeping it interesting.

Throw, think, pet Ribby, throw, think, repeat.

If tonight didn’t work out, and he couldn’t find enough backbone to resist Tony’s inevitable All-Star Week messages, maybe he should use geography to his advantage and go home to the ranch early this year.

He knew Tony was lonely and afraid of losing his big-league career, that’s why he was always such a hot-and-cold, here-and-gone, presence in Connor’s life, but Tony never seemed to grasp that Connor was lonely, too.

After Christmas, he’d decided not to wait around hoping that a handful of hookups a year was ever going to be more. Honestly, he didn’t think there was any foundation left between him and Tony for any sort of more, because they weren’t the same guys they’d been in college.

He’d been young and happy with a lack of commitment, but now he wanted more, and Tony didn’t. Maybe thought he couldn’t, but didn’t even want to try. Hadn’t ever tried.

They were over. They had been for a long time, even if the busy school year had deferred the self-reflection washing through him during the quiet moments of today.

One more throw.

He wiped his hands on his shorts.

Tonight, he had places to be, fancy nail polish and a lithe guy to meet, and a hell of a lot of self-improvement to do first.

“Here boy, bring it in! We’re getting on the road!”

2

MEET JONATHAN & LILY

Jonathan was happiest on the days he and Lily overlapped lunch breaks at the library, although happy was a loaded word. Still, he’d admit to looking forward to lunch conversations on those days.

Without the forced proximity of classrooms, making friends in a new city had been hard. Everyone seemed to either be part of the big university located in Eugene, or have attended it, and recent arrivals who lacked university ties had to sink or swim. Moving to Eugene in February, which was icky and dark, had also made going out to interact with strangers surprisingly difficult.

Lily was his co-worker in Youth Services, his friend, maybe even his social life preserver.

At her own desk ten feet farther along the wall, she forked rice and stir-fry from a leftovers container while reading a periodical. “Someone donated a box of these magazines last weekend, and they’re utterly hilarious.”

“Not more of Grandma’s dreaded National Geographics?”

“No, it’s vintage Eighties. Most of it is something called Hot Shortz, which is of course spelled with a Z. It’s those fake confessionals like ‘oh, I’ve been very bad, let me tell you alllll about it’ and it’s exactly what I need.”

Jonathan rotated his chair to look at Lily. “Porn for Gen X back in the day?”

“Gen X wasn’t old enough to read this stuff when it was first published, I don’t think. Maybe some of them? And the photos aren’t explicit, just very Eighties.” She lifted the magazine to show him a hairy, bare-chested man wearing pleated navy and white striped dress pants held up by a pair of the buttoned-on braces so popular in that era.

“Distinctly Eighties.” He wrinkled his nose. “If the pants actually fit at the waist, he wouldn’t need braces.”

“Like a time capsule, though, and pretty well-written.”

“You’re reading it for the articles, good to know.”