We crossed the road, walking through the green. I couldn’t figure out our destination as we walked away from Firefly’s storefronts. Like everybody in town, Tyler had a rustic charm to him. If he had an axe strapped to his back, he’d fit right in. Two… no… three inches taller than me, and wide enough I’d struggle to hug him. He had grown into quite the stud. I wanted to know what happened to him after that summer. From what I could tell, life had treated him well.
He gave me a nudge with his shoulder. “Stalking sounds bad. I prefer enthusiastically following your accomplishments.” He snorted. His voice might have deepened, but the way he laughed brought me back to my senior year. “Okay, that sounds bad, too. How about I knew you’d be in town, and I hoped to run into you?”
“In a bathroom?”
“If I recall, you followed me in.”
“Can I blame it on the alcohol?”
“I hope you don’t.”
Was this flirting? Were we flirting? Maybe I wasn't a lost cause? I’m sure I’d find Amanda later and over-analyze the encounter. First, she’d have to get over being angry that I ditched her twenty years ago to kiss my first boy. Maybe she’d understand. Or she’d just be annoyed I abandoned her for a boy.
“Sorry about that. I was in a mood.” Did I just apologize for making out with a sexy lumberjack? “Not sorry enough to not do it again.”
“It happens.” We reached the edge of the park and came to an old stone building with five cement stairs leading to an ominous wooden door. It must have been as old as the original mills that created the town. It couldn’t have been any bigger than Mimi’s house.
“We’re here.”
Here where? The sign in the yard faced away from us. Despite all my years visiting, I had never been inside this building.
“Welcome to Firefly Public Library.” He stared up at the building as if it were more than a small square. Like much of the old mill town, it had been built with red bricks, and on either side of the door stood a white four-pane window. It held the same small-town quaintness as every other building. I debated if I should act surprised he worked at the library or that Firefly had a library at all.
“Wait.” I gave him a funny look. “You’re a librarian?”
“Yup. All started because a cute boy left behind a book.”
I couldn’t help but smile. It had been a cornerstone moment for me as well, but it hadn’t changed my life… had it? I stole a glance at Tyler as he admired the building, face beaming with pride. He wasn’t just a librarian. This was his library.
“Are you going to invite me in? Or is that a faux pa?”
“How forward of you!” He snorted.
Every time he laughed, I couldn’t help but grin. That sound brought me back twenty years. I wanted to hear about his life. If nothing else, it’d be a great opportunity to see how far we had come. It was one reason I loved spending time with Amanda. Every time we came together, it was like visiting a new version of ourselves.
“I’ve been working here for almost… Wow. Since I got out of jail.” He whistled, walking up the stairs. “It’s been a decade now. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
My awkward teen kiss had gone to prison? Who knew I'd be so turned on by hanging with the bad boy? We’d put a pin in that conversation for later. I had a lot of questions. But the last part of his statement sounded even more ominous.
I followed him up the stairs, and he held the door open with a slight bow. Swoon. As soon as I walked in, the smell of books filled my nostrils. Not the scent of fresh, pristine books, but books that had existed since before Firefly became a town. People paid to make their homes smell like this. I inhaled audibly and let it out with an “Ahhh.”
“Every person does that,” he said.
To the left, there was a small sitting area with two leather chairs that had seen better days. Waist-high bookshelves separated it from the rest of the library. From there, the traditional rows of books lined the left wall. On the right, a podium held a single book. Call me curious.
“Spellbook?” I walked toward the solitary tome. “Do you summon demons to do your bidding?”
“Only on Thursdays.” He followed close behind. I’m sure it was my imagination, but as he stood behind me, I swore I felt the heat from his body.
“What is it?” It was opened to one of the first pages. I could see a bunch of rectangles surrounded by dimensions that had faded. It took a moment, but it looked almost like an aerial view— “Is that Firefly?”
“Hendersonville,” he corrected. “It’s the town’s charter and incorporations.”
“Hendersonville?” I had never heard that before.
“Founded by the Henderson family. It wasn’t until much later they changed the name to Firefly Valley.”
“Smart marketing choices were made.” Once upon a time, it had been nothing more than a few paper mills. The town came later and was created to support the families of the mill workers. I wondered if Mimi’s grandparents had worked there once, and if that’s what brought them to Maine. Now that I thought about it, much like me, she didn’t talk often about her parents.
