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He flushed. "I mean, I helped raise the funds for it."
"Oh, that's great." That made more sense.
"Anyways, I'll leave you alone in the fiction section. I've read most of the books that I want to, anyway. You can find me in the reading room. It's right by the fiction books. He pointed, and I could see the sign over the bookshelves that said Reading Room.
"Okay."
I watched his ass as he walked away. He had a firm, taut one that his jeans did nothing to conceal. If anything, it enhanced them.
I closed my eyes so I would stop checking out this farm-boy. If I wasn't careful, I'd end up falling in love with him. Then where would I be? I couldn't stay here. I had 6 more nights in this place, then I would be gone.
I wandered through the fiction stacks. They didn't have much, but what they did have was pretty good. I picked up a ton of Robin McKinley books. I loved her when I was a kid, but I didn't read her more recent books. Pegasus looked interesting. I also filled my arms with Tamora Pierce books, though I had to go to the YA section to look for them. The YA section was next to the Kids' Zone, and it had a lot of anime.
It was easy to find him in the Reading Room. There was only an old man wearing a down vest over a flannel shirt and an orange hunting cap with sturdy jeans. I tapped him on the shoulder. He was engrossed in the Wall Street Journal. Funny. I didn't know why a farmer would be reading the WSJ, but maybe there were grain prices in there or something. Maybe there was something in there that was important to him. I didn't know much about farms.
I whispered, "I'm ready to go."
He looked at the stack of books in my arms, a stack that reached past my chin.
"I can see that." He stole my books in a smooth move. He still had a spare hand to put back today's WSJ on the shelf. Then, we walked to the center.
The screen had options: English, Spanish, Pirate, Baby, More.
"What does baby do?"
"Don't push it."
I pushed the button.
"Aww, who wants to check books out today, huh?" a saccharine voice said. "It's you! It's you."
"Oh my gosh!" I stared at it. "This is the worst checkout experience ever."
"I told you not to press the button. I'll just tell you right now that the pirate one isn't much better."
I put a hand over my heart. "I swear to you right now that I am not going to press the pirate button. I have so many regrets."
I saw one part of his mouth quirk up, as if he were fighting a smile. It went back down when he saw me notice it. Too bad. It was nice to catch him being human. We would get along better if he warmed up a little.
He quickly checked out all of the books. The barcodes were on the front of the books. We had a very long receipt, and the computer still spoke to us in baby-talk. I shuddered. I never had patience for that kind of thing, even with actual babies.
He carried my books easily out to my car. I burned a little inside with envy. I was just too small to use my chin to keep the books in place like that. He unlocked the car, and I vaulted in. I was glad that my elementary school gymnastics classes were good for something.
Home
Amelia
We drove home. At least I wouldn't be bored now. Even though it had been a very long time since I had read YA, it beckoned to me like an old friend. I thought that I would start with Trickster's Choice. It was a lovely political intrigue more than a YA book. Tamora Pierce had very adult themes in her books, and it was a bit of a misnomer to call her books YA. Just because the hero was a teenager did not mean that they did not face real problems. She talked about birth control, war, and hunger. It was as gory as Ender’s Game.
When we got home, which was a word that I definitely should not apply to it, he took all my books out for me.
"Where do you want these? Your room? The library?"
"Let's keep them in the library. I don't think that I have any bookshelves. Let's just keep them down there."
"Sounds good to me."
He walked into the library, and he deposited the books. He arranged them carefully on a shelf. I looked at the care with which he arranged them. It was totally at odds with his farm boy in the middle of the nowhere act. He alphabetized them by author name.
