AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Right?
Bryce stomped around the corner. Sweaty, hot, tall. He wore a muscle shirt, and he hadn’t gotten cheated when he bought it. He wore shorts that came to his knees along with sneakers and low socks.
It was the scowl that caught her eye though. And the anger. Lots of anger.
“Mr. Shaker. Good to see you. If you can just direct me to the library, I won’t bother you again. I’ll be leaving at midnight, and I can see myself out.”
He stood looking at her, his hands hanging down at his sides, and she realized he had boxing gloves on. So that was what the thumping was.
“You came.”
“I said I would. So I’m here. Library please?” she said in her most businesslike tone. She wasn’t going to get railroaded out of his house. She was going to be kind, she was going to be gracious. And she was going to... Maybe she wouldn’t be able to love the man, but at least she could be kind to him and not get angry.
You’re not going to get angry. You are not going to get angry.
She wasn’t sure that was going to help, but she kept repeating it to herself anyway.
“Lots of people say they’re going to do things, and then they never follow through.”
“Do you or do you not need your books cataloged? Did you or did you not tell Charlene you wanted someone to help you? Did I or did I not say I would? Here I am.”
She needed to close her mouth. To stop talking already.
Still, he didn’t move.
Finally, almost as though he’d made a decision, he shifted, then nodded behind her.
“You might want to take your coat off and hang it up there. I have the heat on in the library. You won’t need it.”
She didn’t need to be told twice, so she unzipped her coat and hung it on the rack that sat behind the door. She’d missed it when she came in.
“The library is this way.” He started off down the other side of the hall, disappearing around the corner quickly.
Peyton hurried after him, going around the corner, just as he made a left-hand turn.
Afraid she was going to lose him, she power walked the short distance to the turn. But as she looked around, he stood there, waiting.
“This is the library,” he said, with his hand on the door.
He hadn’t turned on any lights, and the hall was dark.
She could work in the library even if it was dark and gloomy, but she loved the natural light from the entryway and kind of wished the library would be like that too.
No sooner had she thought that than he opened the door, pushing it open and allowing her to go first.
She stepped in, overcome.
The library was in the shape of an octagon, three stories high.
She’d noticed that there was some kind of structure sticking out of the top of the house, but the other times she’d come, it had been semi-dark, and today she’d been nervous and hadn’t studied it.
Now she knew.
It was the library. The entire third story had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and floor-to-ceiling windows the whole way around. She didn’t count, but there must have been 16, since there were eight sides. A window and bookshelf in each side.
The second story had a slightly bigger ledge, with bookshelves sticking out as well as lining the walls, and several tables scattered around.
There were two circular staircases, one right beside her and one across the room that led up to the second story. A circular staircase on the opposite side led up to the third.
