Tessa, who’d thankfully given up on becoming a professional singing-bowl performer, hefted her gift bag. ‘AndIhave a cat to mail to South Carolina.’
There. Effie put her hands on her skirted hips, admiring the crystal display she’d set up in the reading room – a display that couldn’t be further from Uncle Oswald’s expensive crystal grids. They even had real samples, courtesy of the rock collection that the Grosvenors, one of the town’s oldest families, had donated a few decades back. The fancy art on the walls was also from them. Effie wasn’t sure that an art loan replaced the taxes they’d avoided paying over the years, but a librarian wielded only so much power.
The exhibit was aesthetically pleasing, and educational, for she’d pulled as many geology books as she could find toinclude as a backdrop for the display. She’d always prided herself on her strong science communication skills, an ability she’d honed from years of being asked to summarize books and articles for curious library patrons.
Uncle Oswald’s student shoppers might not learn much about the metaphysical properties of tourmaline, but they’d come away experts on its pyroelectric properties, and the knowledge that it was used in hair-styling tools. If only Bonnie was here. She’d have a field day with that fact.
Now there’s a magical property, she could imagine her sister saying as she fluffed her perfect blonde locks.
‘Rocks!’ exclaimed Bowow, who in today’s adventures in sartorial clashing had paired a chevron-patterned shirt with floral pants. She’d topped the ensemble off with a polka-dot scarf. Dumping her stack of romance novels on a nearby table, she picked up a sparkly quartz cluster. ‘Now we’re talking. I could joust with this thing.’
‘Please don’t,’ said Effie. ‘Jousting is strictly against the library code of conduct.’
Bowow made a face. ‘When did we vote on that?’
‘At our March Friends of the Library meeting. It was after the whole Renaissance Fair debacle in the community room. The three smashed windows?Andthe gouges in the walls. You can check the minutes.’
Bruce the would-be rocker sidled up, pulling a basket of orange books behind him. All about portability and 70s cover design, he gravitated towards tiny vintage Penguin editions.
‘Crystals,’ he said appreciatively. ‘I love a good crystal. All that glitters...’ He picked up a piece of fool’s gold and held it to an ear like an earring, making Bowow chuckle.
When he raised a bushy eyebrow at her, she cut her laugh short.
‘I’m laughingatyou, notwithyou,’ she huffed, jabbing him with the quartz.
‘There’ll be no assault in the library, thank you,’ said Effie drily. ‘Although I won’t report you if you help me put together a turtle display. It’s to go with Tessa’s craft session tonight. Apparently we’re celebrating Shelby’s centennial.’
Bruce frowned. ‘I thought that was three years ago.’
Effie shrugged. ‘Time moves differently when you’re a turtle.’
‘I can help with the turtle display,’ came a low voice from behind Effie. It was Theo, dressed casually but immaculately, carrying a small chapbook volume of...was that poetry? Surely not. Bankers and poetry were inherently antithetical.
Perhaps he liked the short sentences. Or he’d picked it up from the Little Free Library down by the square.
‘I didn’t know you were a library member,’ said Effie archly.
‘I’m not yet. But could I be? I have all my ID.’ Theo calmly waved his licence and a utility bill. How was his energy use so restrained, wondered Effie, glimpsing the monthly total at the bottom. And how was his payment soprompt, she thought approvingly, looking at thePAIDstamp on the bill. It was the same date as the date of issue.
Poetry, timely bill payments, and now a library card? Effie wasn’t even sure how to respond to this trifecta of desirability. She decided on her usual approach for when something seemed too good to be true: suspicion.
‘Sure,’ she said primly. ‘The library always welcomes new members. And if you’d like to join our Friends of the Library group, here are the membership tiers.’
It was a standard part of the joining spiel – the Friends volunteer group was a major source of fundraising and support. All the author visits, the paint and sip nights, the silent auctions, the read with a service dog days, they were all thanks to the Friends. And assuming Theo decided to stick around in town, which was a bigifgiven just how differentlife here was from the city, he could be a valuable asset. Not only was he good with money, but hehadmoney, which was a handy thing to have in a Friends member. And yet, she desperately hoped he didn’t want to join. The library was Effie’s sanctuary, her quiet world away from the rest of the realm that Bonnie ruled over with suchvimandverveand all the words that Effie quietly loved but could never in a million years inhabit. And Theo was clearly of Bonnie’s world, not hers. The thought of those two worlds merging made Effie’s stomach twist. Bonnie had the entire town. By virtue of her noise and messiness, she even had most of the house.
‘Sign me up. And here, I’ll make that donation, too.’ Theo prodded at the largest dollar donation amount on the page as Effie typed in his details. His driver’s licence photo was a good one, although old. From the looks of it, he was a bit scruffier now compared to the Theo of a few years ago. And there was definitely a sadness in those compellingly hooded eyes that hadn’t been there before. And if sadness was going to show up anywhere, it was going to be in your driver’s licence photo. Nothing sucked happiness from the depths of your soul like a visit to the DMV. Even Bonnie had had to demand a retake of hers. Retakes weren’t standard procedure, but when you were Bonnie, there was nothing a little flirting couldn’t get you.
‘All right,’ said Effie calmly, even as a voice inside her screamed,No, don’t do it! Let me havesomething. She filled in his application, then offered him a pen to sign his name. Theo reached for it, but somehow fumbled, knocking over a tin of pens onto the library floor, and taking Uncle Oswald’s photo down with it. Effie grabbed protectively for the photo, which showed Mom leaning back in her favourite armchair, a cup of tea in hand. Effie’s wrists glimmered as she raced against gravity. She caught the photo just before it hit freefall, and crossed her fingers that Theo hadn’t noticed the magical help she’d received.
‘I was told that jousting wasn’t allowed in the library!’ shouted Bowow, cackling.
‘Inside voice, Bowow,’ warned Effie, scooting the photo back across the desk and out of reach of any additional mishaps. ‘This isn’t preschool story time.’
Muttering apologies, Theo stooped to pick up the wayward pens. Thankfully, he seemed oblivious to Effie’s spontaneous display of magic.
‘I’m a butterfingers lately,’ he said, depositing the pens back in their holder. ‘Did your sister tell you that I accidentally sprayed her with fire-extinguisher foam?’
‘She did not!’ said Effie, doing her best to fight back a grin. She leaned forwards, arms folded. ‘This is the sort of general interest, high-action, high-stakes story the library needs to hear.’
