AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After tossing a few ideas around, he’d left them to continue working and had taken a shower and gone into town. While he was in Divine, he’d gotten an idea. The library was his second to last stop before returning home to work some more.
Jayne Carter looked up from her seat at the check-out desk and smiled at him in surprise. The library was quiet and he noticed the other librarian, an older lady, peeking at him from the copy room behind the check-out desk.
Jayne had a large reference book open in front of her as she said, “Hi, Spencer. What brings you to my neck of the woods this morning?”
“Hi, Jayne.” He pointed at the large book in front of her and said, “Did I catch you at a bad time?”
She marked her place with a bookmark and laid the book aside. “Absolutely not. What can I do for you?” She rose from her seat and waved at the other librarian, who nodded then turned her smile on him. Surprising, since he was used to older people eyeing him with open suspicion because of his vividly tattooed arms.
Jayne came out from behind the desk and gave him a hug. Spencer was a little in awe of the town librarian. Even though cancer had stolen over a decade from her, she hadn’t let it defeat her. She was happily married to Seth Carter, whom he respected the hell out of, and had taken Seth’s toddler son under her wing as her very own when he’d been practically abandoned on Seth’s doorstep.
To top it all off, she had some gorgeous body art that rivaled anything he’d ever seen on a woman before. Jayne was so demure and understated and he never would’ve believed she had even a tiny tattoo if he hadn’t seen it at the Independence Day party that Grace had invited them to at the ranch earlier that summer. Seth was damned talented, and Spencer and the guys had gotten to see several of his pieces of work at the party, including Jayne’s.
“I—we need a suggestion from you.”
“Okay…a suggestion for a book? Something for you?”
“No. We decided to send Maizy some gifts this morning, at work.” Man, I hope we’re not being totally lame!
The smile spread instantly on Jayne’s face. “That’s so romantic.”
“I hope she thinks so.”
“I’ll bet she’ll be so happy. And I’m guessing you’d also like to send her a book?”
“Yes. I went to the bookstore, but I don’t know the lady who works there. She’s nice but…”
“Violet doesn’t know you or your situation.” At his nod, she said, “What have you gotten so far?”
“I sent her roses first thing. Then I went to Divine Drip to get a cup of coffee. Cassie had just finished some of those cupcakes she makes, you know—the really fancy decorated ones—and she had her son Joseph deliver one of those to Maizy in a pretty box with a bow. I thought she might like a book but I wasn’t sure which one to get for her.”
Jayne tilted her head and said, “Maizy is a lucky woman.”
Spencer felt his cheeks flood with heat which felt so fucking weird he didn’t know what to say, so said nothing. She patted his biceps and said, “Come with me. I have the perfect book. I’ll show you, and then I’ll call Violet for you. Chances are that she’ll have it, and may even have a nice collector’s edition.”
He followed her into the British literature stacks and waited while she ran her fingertip down the shelf until she found what she wanted.
“Shakespeare?” he asked when she lovingly placed the volume in his hands.
“Yes.” She pointed at the book title. “Maizy studied British literature in college and I know she loves his sonnets.” She flipped to a page in the middle of the book, smiled, and pointed at it. “This one is her favorite. It’s very appropriate, I think.”
They’d been so busy romancing her, he felt bad for not knowing more about her life prior to meeting them. He might not be able to point to a college degree of his own but he wanted to know everything about her.
He tilted the book and looked at the back. “This won’t seem over the top coming from the three of us?”
“Not at all. Is everything going okay?”
“Yeah. Could I ask a question?”
