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Chapter 4
The library had been filledwith extra tables from somewhere. Azalea had no idea where they found so many, but every year, they managed to do it in record time. She stood, bending over a large box, filled with books of varying sizes, genres, and no doubt interests. She’d taken the afternoon off with some personal time and set about making the tables look exactly as they were supposed to. The long tables would be littered with books and order forms. Students and their parents would trapse through, find some good reads, purchase, and the world would be that much better.
Every year she worked with the book fair, wanting her students to learn even outside of the classroom. Almost mechanically, Azalea set out books, fanning them so they could be seen, stacking some behind others to stand them up. She worked in the community room across the hall from the small library that their town boasted. By that point, Mary knew she could trust Azalea to do the job and do it well.
Azalea loved working in the silence. People rustled through the halls as they went from one office to the other and came in and out, or across the hall in the library as other tables were set up and more books placed on them. She always loved to see the kids’ faces as she stood by to help them.
“Hey.”
Azalea spun on her toes, her heart racing. She locked gazes with Jewel’s dark brown eyes. “Is school out already?”
“Yeah. Thought I’d check to see if I could be of any use.”
“Sure.” Azalea gave her a soft smile. “Start stacking.”
“Any method to the madness?”
“Not really, not in this room. The younger kids’ books are in the main library, but we’ve got all the middle grade books here.”
“Wise choice. Your idea?”
“Yes, and Mary finally listened to me on it.” Azalea pulled out another stack and began to organize them. “How were the littles today?”
“Beyond energetic. I think we all need spring break.”
“There’s three more weeks to go.”
“I know,” Jewel whined. “But I need it.”
“Why?” Azalea pressed a stack of books onto the table. “I mean, yes, we can all use the break, but it seems like there’s something else you’re not telling me.”
Jewel wrinkled her nose. “Not really. The energy today was over the top.”
“Must have missed it. Guess there’s a reason I teach high school.”
“Yes, such an upstanding reason.”
“You get the best of both worlds, J. If you were in any bigger district, you wouldn’t.”
“I know. And I enjoy it sometimes.” Jewel set down her own pile. “But other times, it’d be really nice to be at one school and only teach one thing. Orchestra is not one of my greatest talents.”
“You do fantastic with those kids.”
“Well, none of them are good enough to go to Juilliard, so I guess that’s to my advantage.”
“Shhh,” Azalea hushed. “They’ll hear you and think awfully of themselves.”
Jewel stepped in closer and whispered, “If they don’t know it already, then they have bigger problems to figure out.”
Laughing, Azalea shook her head. “I admire you teaching the littles. I’m not sure I could handle that energy on a normal day, let alone days like today.”
“Oh, I think you’d whip them into shape real quick.”
Furrowing her brow, Azalea gave Jewel a pointed look. “What do you mean by that?”
“Haven’t you heard?” Jewel lowered her voice like she was about to share some good gossip.
“Heard what?” Azalea stepped away and went for another stack of books. She didn’t need the town gossip. Nothing good came of it anyway, although it was useful on very rare occasions. She usually didn’t pay any attention to it. Jewel, however, loved the town gossip. Azalea wondered how much she’d paid attention to the rumors and conversation surrounding Jewel’s break up three weeks ago. They were still talking about it, especially now that Brady had been seen at the local Bar & Grill with another woman.
