AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Yes. Yes. And definitely,hell, yes.
How was I supposed to get over the pain of being left behind when his face was plastered all over the place during the interminable race season that seemed to last forever? It kind of did, since it ran from mid-February to the beginning of November. And it seemed as if every Cherish Cove venue with a television had crowds gathered to watch him speed around whatever track he was at on race day.
I avoided those places.
“Are you going to go see him?” Helen asked, bulldozing on and not getting the hint that I in no way wanted to discuss my freaking ex.
Goseehim? Ha!
“Um…no.” I wheeled my cart around the corner and down an aisle three rows away, wincing as the front right wheel squeaked. I’d been meaning to get that taken care of.
Doggedly, Helen followed me. Because, of course, she did.
“He’s coming here for the Woods’ fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital. You know…that they’re holding at the elementary school.”
My heart stilled. Of course, I knew. My aunt had organized the whole thing since before I was born. Crap. I was slated to work at the fundraiser.
“Huh,” I murmured, almost to myself. “Aunt Willow didn’t tell me.”
As one of the Woods’ cousins, I had always worked at the event in one capacity or another. And Axel knew it. Of course, us being in the same place at the same time was no big deal to him. He probably thought things were just peachy between us.
Oh, yeah. Right. Just, freaking, peachy.
“It’s a new development,” Helen told me. “He was just added to the lineup this morning.”
There would probably be no avoiding him. He’d be there. I’d be there. Would be matchmakers would try to push us together for a photo op or something. No one seemed to get the hint that he’d broken my heart.
And this year, I was running the book fair. A twist on a traditional book fair, anyway. We would sell books to youth in attendance—of course, we would. We were librarians, not monsters who’d deny a little kid a book. But our main purpose was for patrons to buy books and craft kits for kids at the children’s hospital. For every non-donation book purchased, money would also be contributed to the hospital.
This was the third year I’d be working the book fair portion of the fundraiser. It had been my idea, and when I’d pitched to my aunt, she’d been all in for it. The past two years of it had been a ton of fun and the event for a good cause. I’d been looking forward to it for months.
Not so much now, though. But maybe, Axel would be so occupied with his adoring public, he wouldn’t make it down the grade school’s hallway to where I’d be set up. One could always hope.
“I’m surprised he has time in his busy schedule,” I sniped since Helen hadn’t yet gotten the hint this wasn’t a welcomed topic.
“Since the event is being held the weekend between his exhibition race in California and the opener at Daytona in Florida, I guess he has time.” Helen sighed, unfazed by my sarcasm. “It must be exciting to travel all over like that, not to mention all the celebrity lifestyle that goes with it.”
“Mm-hmm,” I replied, noncommittal, praying she’d get the clue I didn’t want to talk about Axel. I headed down another aisle, cart squeaking all the way and cutting through the silence of the library. My chest grew heavy as thoughts of Axel invaded my mind and triggered the sadness I’d tried to tamp down for the past few years. I needed to move on, but I just hadn’t been able to.
“Do you think he’ll have his car here? Danny would love to see it. He watches the races every weekend and—”
“Did you need something, Helen?” I interrupted before she could go into detail about her fiancé’s weekends. “A book? The log-in code for one of the computers? The kids’ story time or adult book club schedules?”
An escort to the front door?
Really…what was she even doing here? It wasn’t as if she’d just happened to see me at the library and come over to chat. Helen didn’t frequent the place.
“No, um… You know, I work over at the print shop with Danny, now. I came over to bring these flyers.” Reaching inside her voluminous, tote-sized purse, she fished out a brown-paper wrapped parcel and held it out to me. “They’re for the fundraiser, and we had to make new ones with the change in lineup. Ms. Woods said you guys could hand them out when people check out books, have them sitting on the counter for people to take.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll make sure they’re on the desk.” I’d already been handing out flyers for weeks, and I could add these to what I had. Right now was the final push for the upcoming weekend and all the activities.
Helen beamed at me as if I’d promised her the puppy she’d always wanted. She really was a sweet woman, and I felt a little guilty for my low-key bitchiness. What could I say? Axel did that to me.
“Thank you,” she sing-songed way too loudly for the library, but we didn’t have many patrons right that moment, so I hoped no one would mind. “I’ll see you at the fair.”
“Yeah, see you,” I muttered, but she was already halfway across the floor. I dropped the package she’d given me onto my cart and finished re-shelving the rest of the books that had been returned.
It wasn’t until I got back to the checkout desk that I unwrapped the flyers. Reflexively, I grimaced, my chest squeezing and the remembered pain of heartbreak running through me. There was Axel’s big fat face grinning up at me as if he weren’t a total, self-centered jerk.
