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Chapter 15
The library was open for a few hours on Saturday, and I had a bunch of holds that had come in all at once, so I drove over to pick up my books. Who did I see reading a book to four children but Alivia?
I stopped breathing for a second when I glanced into the Children’s Room and realized who it was. She looked so good. I felt like I hadn’t seen her in forever.
She held the book open so the kids could see the pictures, and they listened to her with rapt attention. I’d never seen four kids that quiet before. I listened as Alivia changed her voice to speak in monster voices, and I leaned against a shelf, unable to take my eyes off her until she turned the last page and closed the book. The kids begged for another, and she stood up to return the book to the cart behind her so the librarians could put it back.
She picked up another book, turned around, and saw me.
The moment our eyes met, she smiled so brilliantly that my heart stopped. Everything around her went fuzzy, and she seemed to walk in slow motion toward me. Not again.
“Hey, fancy seeing you here,” she said, stopping a few feet away.
“I came to pick up some books,” I said, my mouth dry.
“This is the place for it,” she said, looking down at the kids who’d followed her over to me like a row of ducklings.
“These are my nieces and nephews. This is Alex, Tucker, Ellie, and Grace,” she said, putting her hand on each child’s head to introduce them. My guess was that they ranged in age from about three to maybe eight or so. The little girl with the dark hair that had been asleep on her chest the other night was Grace.
“This is my friend Charli. Can everyone say hi?”
The oldest boys said hi enthusiastically, the middle girl, Ellie, came forward to shake my hand, and little Grace hid against Alivia’s leg.
“It’s okay to be shy,” I said, leaning down to her level. “I can be shy too.”
She peeked at me, smiled, and then hid again.
“I should probably let you get back to story time,” I said, even though I didn’t want to.
“We’re having dinner at the inn later, if you wanted to come. I would have invited you sooner, but I wasn’t sure if it would be too much, you know.” She gestured to the four children. They were quiet now, but I had no doubt that they could be chaos machines when they got cranky or overstimulated.
“It’s not too much,” I said, shaking my head. “I’d love to.”
“Mom’s having a good day, so she and Dad are going to join us.”
Oh, wow. Meeting one of her siblings as well as her parents. That was a lot, but I wasn’t going to say no. I wanted her in my life and she’d already been subjected to my family, so it was only fair.
“I’d love to meet them,” I said.
She smiled softly. “They want to meet you too.”
Oh. She’d talked to her parents about me. That made my heart grow a few sizes in my chest.
We kept standing there, staring at each other, until one of the kids started whining about reading books, and so she had to return to taking care of them.
“I’ll see you in a little while,” she said.
“It was nice to meet you,” I said to the kids, but they were too distracted by the books.
I went to the desk and got my hold books from Beth the librarian.
“Those are four of the most well-behaved kids I’ve ever seen. If I didn’t know better, I would say she enchanted them,” Beth said, referring to Alivia.
“She has a way about her,” I agreed.
Beth shook her head. “I must find out her secrets.”
* * *
