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“You ready, Peanut?” he asked after pulling into the parking lot.
“Yep!” Bree unbuckled herself from her booster seat and they got out of the car.
As they walked hand in hand across the parking lot to the library, Glenn got the same pang in his chest that he’d been getting since Bree started kindergarten. She was growing up. In a few months, she was going to be starting first grade, which was “big girl” school. Full time. No more half days. She could get herself in and out of the booster seat. And as of yesterday, she’d even started taking showers instead of baths.
When she was a baby, he’d thought that the time where he needed to bring a stroller, a diaper bag, at least two changes of clothes for her in case she had explosive diarrhea or threw up on herself would never end. He thought the sleepless nights, the fussiness, the constant demand for his time, energy, and attention would last forever. But now that she was growing up, that she was becoming more and more independent, he longed for those days.
The days when she was completely reliant on him. The days when he felt like he could protect her from the world. The days when he had complete control over who she interacted with and what she did. Those days were over and he had to admit, he wasn’t a fan of this new autonomy.
They walked inside the library and the first thing Glenn noticed was the tall ceilings and exposed beams. The space had a rustic, cabin vibe that fit perfectly in the mountain setting. The next thing that caught his eye was the wall of windows at the back of the building that allowed for a magnificent view.
“Hello!” A woman with a bright yellow knit sweater with a cat’s face in the center and the words Don’t Stress Meowt surrounding the tabby greeted them. She wore fire engine red lipstick and thick black framed cat eyeglasses. “You must be Glenn and Bree, I’m Belinda.”
“Hi,” he and Bree chorused at the same time.
Glenn was still getting used to this Cheers environment, where everyone knows your name.
“Adriana mentioned you might be stopping by. They’re out on the back deck.” She glanced at her watch. “They started a few minutes ago but you’re fine to just sneak on in. And you’re in luck there’s a new reader today and I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun one.”
“Thanks, nice to meet you.” Glenn nodded at Belinda as they walked past her and made their way through the stacks of books on shelves to the back of the room.
When he pulled the sliding glass door open and stepped out onto the large deck, he noticed that there was a group of kids gathered in the far-left corner with parents gathered around them. He shut the door behind him and Bree and when he turned back around one of the parents had moved to the side revealing the reader. It was Vivien Wells sitting in the center of the circle was the knockout redhead with curves that would make a eunuch hard. Yes, he understood that was physically impossible, but so was Vivien’s body.
Fuck. He could not get away from this woman. She worked across the street from the gym. He was renting her backhouse. And now she was the reader at story time.
The universe had a sick sense of humor.
As they got closer he noticed that she was listening to a boy who was explaining that his pet lizard was sick. Her red hair was shimmering in the sunlight and the white V-neck Brewed Awakenings shirt she was wearing showed just a hint of cleavage that had his mouth watering.
He easily spotted Adriana who was amongst the adults standing off to the side and then noticed his nieces Laney and Lexi seated at the front of the circle. Bree must have clocked the twins at the same time because she pulled her hand out of his and rushed over to sit near her cousins.
They’d been in town less than a week, but Aubrey was already declaring all of her cousins her best friends. She’d even used string to braid friendship bracelets for each one of them.
“And time!” Viv said, interrupting the boy who was still talking. Then she pointed to the girl sitting next to that boy and that kid started talking.
He moved beside Adriana and quietly asked, “What’s going on?”
She smiled up at him and whisper explained, “Viv is brilliant. The kids always have a hard time quieting down for story time so she’s giving them each thirty seconds to talk before she starts to read the book.”
He saw the moment Vivien noticed Bree had joined the group. The other girl was still talking but Viv’s face lit up and she waved at his daughter. Bree bounced on her knees as she waved back excitedly.
“And time.” Viv cut the girl off before she looked over at Bree. “Bree I was giving everyone who wanted to say something thirty seconds before I started reading, did you have anything you want to share?”
He watched as she looked around and then shook her head. Bree was outgoing but sometimes, she got shy in larger groups of people.
“Are you sure?” Vivien gave her one more chance.
His daughter nodded.
“Okay, then let’s get our reading on!” Viv opened the book and as she started to read the first sentence her eyes happened to scan over to him.
When they did, she stumbled over her words slightly, then blinked twice before she shook her head, looked back at the book and continued. He wondered if anyone else had picked up on the moment. He didn’t have to wonder for long though, because he felt Adriana’s stare burning into the side of his face. He ignored it.
Just like he’d been ignoring the impulse to show up on Vivien’s doorstep and do something stupid like tell her that he couldn’t stop thinking about her and if he didn’t kiss her his head was going to explode. Both of them, actually.
He was going to stay away from Vivien Wells even if it killed him. And at this point, it was looking like that was actually a possibility. Death by blue balls.
