Worth The Wait (Small-Town Secrets-Fairview Series Book 1)

by Sophia Sinclair

  “Can I have your book for just a minute, Buddy?” he asked the oldest of the two children, Tanner. Molly knew them well; their mom, Marianne, was in here with them regularly. Tanner shook his head. Molly knew that Tanner and his little brother, Tucker, didn’t like to hand their books over once they had them in hand. Molly always walked around and used the hand-held scanner so they wouldn’t have to. She decided to see how David would do it. He thought he already knew everything about libraries, but she just bet he didn’t run into many college students who didn’t want to put down their books to check them out.

  “OK, you really like those books, huh? Let me see what I can do here.” And he walked around the desk and used the hand scanner to check out the two boys’ books. Just as she routinely did. Score one for the Pirate Man.

  He flashed her another smile, catching her off-guard and eliciting a big smile back before she could stop herself.

  “How’d I do, Miss Molly?”

  “I guess you’re doing OK. I’ve seen worse,” she said, but she smiled as she said it.

  “Have I earned a short break? I wouldn’t mind taking another look at the local history items. Nobody is looking at them at present, although I understand that they’re a pretty hot property around here. Can’t let them out of the library for a second.”

  She shot him a look. Sarcasm was not attractive to her. “Yes, when you have down time, you can read whatever books you wish. Including the reference books.”

  “Thank you, Miss Molly.”

  “And stop calling me that. It’s Ms. Miller.”

  He doffed an imaginary hat in her direction and walked off to the history area in the back. This gave her a chance to surreptitiously pull his employee folder out of the desk, but then she realized she was sneaking for nothing. He was her employee. She had a perfect right, no, a duty, to look at his resume further.

  She resolved to call the references he had given after he left. Strictly speaking, she ought to have called them before officially hiring him, but she had felt flustered. It was preposterous, really, to have hired him, but at the moment she did it, it had seemed reasonable. Her phone beeped and she glanced at the screen. It was Lori: “OMG, you hired him?!?!? The Pirate Man is WORKING FOR YOU?”

  Molly groaned. She knew that gossip moved fast in Fairview, but he’d been on duty for a few hours and already Lori knew, which probably meant that half the town knew.

  She texted back: “How could you possibly know that?”

  Lori: “So it’s true?”

  Molly: “He happens to be a very qualified librarian.”

  Lori: “Oh, I just bet he’s qualified”

  Molly: “He worked three years at his college library, and I was down one employee.”

  Lori: “Whatev. I’m coming over tonight to hear everything”

  Molly: “Come over, but there’s just about nothing to hear. TTYL.” She slipped her phone back into her purse and went back to the computer. An hour later, she realized David was no longer in the local history section. She picked up a book so she’d have the pretense of shelving it, and walked through the stacks. He seemed to be looking at a law book now. She was curious in spite of herself, but asked no questions.

  The rest of the afternoon passed slowly. She was hyper-aware of his presence but tried not to show that she was thinking of him. She read her book about the tribes of Papua, New Guinea, but her heart wasn’t in it. She was wondering how it was that David apparently wasn’t hurting for money, whether he planned to restore the old family home, whether he really intended to live in Fairview and about a hundred other things.

  In about an hour there was another preschool Story Time. She had three books laid aside to read today, including “Go, Dog Go!” — every small child loved it. She had it completely memorized to the point that she didn’t really need to look at the words at all — she could just hold it out for the children to see the pictures. Glancing at the page was all she needed to keep the story going. It had been a favorite of her own children, long ago. She remembered the nights of reading and reading and reading to her children on autopilot, wondering where their father was and what he was up to, and knowing on some level he was with somebody else, she just didn’t know who with at that point. Later, when she did know who it was, she’d packed up all their books and clothes and not much else and had moved back in with her mother. Hank had first sworn he hadn’t cheated and then he had sworn it was just once and then he had sworn he would never do it again. Molly was deaf to his pleas and she thought that deep down he was probably relieved. If there were ever a man who wasn’t good marriage material, it was Hank.

  Louisa French came up to the desk. Louisa was easily the shyest adult Molly had ever met; she seemed embarrassed about everything and seldom spoke at full volume. At first Molly thought she was just being extra quiet in the library, but she’d since tried to engage the woman in conversation out and about; she was just as timid in the grocery store. Louisa cleared her throat, quietly.

  “Excuse me, Molly, but there’s something wrong in the ladies restroom,” Louisa said, and then she scurried off. She hadn’t said what the nature of the problem was, but Molly knew if Louisa had gathered up the courage to report it, it was more than a burned-out light bulb. She sighed and walked to the back to see what was going on. Before she even reached the door, it was clear — water was seeping under the door.

  “Oh, SHIT!” Molly said, loudly. She could see that one of the ancient toilets was running continuously, and the entire restroom floor was covered. She gritted her teeth against the distaste, walked to the toilet and turned off the water. She then walked slowly out the door, taking care to avoid getting any more of the water on her shoes than was necessary, and entered the men’s room (giving a good knock and a warning first) and used the sink to thoroughly wash her hands. She would have to call a plumber, just as soon as she placed an out-of-order sign on the door.

  “What is it?” David asked, evidently having heard her exclamation.

  “Plumbing issue. Can you stand here and make sure nobody tries to enter the ladies room?” she asked.

  “Sure. Do you want me to take a look at it?”

  “No, it’s a mess. The restrooms have needed to be redone for, oh, a decade probably, but of course the board can always find a reason to put it off. I’ll be right back with a sign.” A few minutes later she had posted the sign and locked the door. “I need to deal with the board and the plumber. I’ll have to cancel Story Time today,” she said.

  “I can do story time if you want,” he said. “There are already several moms and kids waiting in the children’s room. Be a shame to cancel it.”

  “If you’re sure, there are three books behind the desk. The dog one is on top. You can’t miss it.”

  “Sure thing,” David said. “You go deal with your plumbing issue.”

  Molly put her full attention on calling the library board president, a tight-fisted banker who questioned every purchase she made, once calling her out for spending $20 on pencils. He wasn’t going to like this. The board would have to approve an emergency fix and they were going to have to cough up the money to do some remodeling. As beautiful as the old library was, its old plumbing was far out of date. She made her calls and drifted over to the children’s room to see just how disastrous things were, taking care not to be seen by David.

  She heard laughter. Lots of it. About a dozen children, the younger ones on their mothers’ laps and the older ones forming a semi-circle at David’s feet, were laughing. He was using different voices for the different characters and was getting a better reaction thanshe ever received. Did he have children, she suddenly wondered? Was there a Mrs. Pirate Man? That hadn’t occurred to her. Well, it didn’t matter to her if he did have a wife. Her only interest in him was as a part-time library assistant. Well, and to learn more about the Conrad murders, if indeed he was able to solve them.

  He’d made his way through all three books while she was making her calls, and now the children
were asking for more. Several of them were giving him the books they wanted him to read, and he didn’t beg off as she might have done. He just kept reading. She had situated herself so that he couldn’t easily tell he was being observed, but she could glimpse some of the mothers’ reactions. She would describe them as being less than maternal; a couple of them were frankly looking at him as if they wanted to be a southern belle busting her bodice in the Pirate Man’s embrace.

  He was damned attractive. His curly black hair was expertly barbered, but Lori had been right. If he let it go for a couple of months he would look very much like the cleft-chinned pirate. All he needed was more of a tan, a gold earring in the ear, and an open shirt. His eyes were brown instead of the book model’s green ones. With his rolled-up sleeves and the top button of his shirt undone, she could see that he couldn’t be much less muscular than the man on the cover of that book. She could see a few chest hairs revealed by his shirt. God, the man was good-looking, she finally admitted. What the hell. She might as well enjoy the view for a moment.

  Story Time had now gone for an extra 45 minutes, but nobody was complaining. She edged away from the doorway before anybody caught her drooling over him. With any luck, the plumber would be here soon and she’d need to let him into the restroom. Her heart sank as she realized she was going to have to clean up the mess herself after the library closed. Ugh, nothing more disgusting than cleaning up toilet spills.

  Johnny Turner, the plumber, walked up to the desk just then, and she led him to the restroom, key in hand. “I’m afraid it was running for quite a while,” she said. “I didn’t investigate, I just turned off the water feeding the problem toilet.”

  “That’s fine. This might be an easy fix if it’s just a matter of replacing the toilet. But you know this thing is on borrowed time. You really ought to pull all the fixtures and replace these pipes. They’re over a hundred years old.”

  “You don’t have to convince me, you have to convince Matt Green. He’s the board president.” The rest of the board generally did whatever Matt thought best, she knew. But if the restrooms at the bank started overflowing, she just bet Matt would find the money to fix them. “I’ll leave you to it, but let me know what you find out,” she said, and headed back up to the front desk.

  She passed several mothers and children in line at the front desk, where David was checking out the books they’d chosen today. He certainly did seem to have everything under control, she thought. Their eyes met. He seemed to be questioning whether she wanted to take over, but she decided to let him finish what he was doing and she gestured to him to keep going. She made her way to the janitor’s closet to haul out the mop and other cleaning supplies. There was no janitor, of course. It was Matt Green’s contention that the library staff could easily clean the library during down periods. In practice, that usually meant Molly did the heavier cleaning after hours by herself, but the whole staff did pitch in on the routine dusting and polishing.

  She kept a pair of old work boots in the janitor’s closet; she did not like to mop and vacuum in her high heels like some kind of stereotypical ’50s housewife. She bet the average ’50s housewife did not do these chores in heels and pearls either, outside old TV shows.

  It wasn’t long before Johnny was back, stating he had pulled the old toilet and would be back in an hour or so with a new one. “Won’t take long to put it in, unless I run into problems with those old pipes. Be back in a jiffy.”

  Molly sighed. It was by now late afternoon and the mothers and children had largely cleared out. Other than a couple of teens using the library’s few computers, things were quiet. She hoped Johnny would return quickly with a new toilet and get it in without issues so she could mop and sanitize and get out in time to prepare a decent dinner. She remembered Lori was coming over. To heck with it; she’d order a pizza. It was a splurge, but one she well deserved, she thought. Lori would just have to risk her perfect figure on the double pepperoni with extra cheese her children (and Molly herself) were fond of.

  “Don’t tell me you’re planning to do the clean-up yourself?” asked David, sounding genuinely surprised. “You don’t have a cleaning service?”

  “Why should the board pay for a cleaning service when they can just have me do everything?” Molly said. She knew she sounded bitter, but it was true, she did feel they took advantage of her. Whenever she had tried to negotiate raises or extra help, Matt was in the habit of pointing out that she didn’t have a degree in library science or anything else, and implied that she was quite lucky the board had named her the new director when the last one retired. She knew he had a point and she did feel lucky to have the job. But she also knew they used that fact to take advantage of her. It is what it is, she always thought to herself.

  “I’ll help you,” he said. “That’s a dirty job, and you’re wearing such a nice dress.” His eyes moved up and down the lines of her dress. He was right, it was a nice dress. It was probably 10 years old or maybe more, but she generally always chose nice plain black or gray dresses that never went out of style. That’s because they were never in style, according to Lori, who was dressed to the nines whenever she wasn’t wearing her scrubs. Lori was always trying to talk her into wearing brighter colors and more fashionable outfits, accessorized with piles of jewelry, scarves, jackets, shoes and everything else that Lori could afford and Molly really couldn’t. But Molly was content with her look. She wasn’t desperately trying to date doctors, as Lori was. Lori was a good nurse, but Molly sometimes thought at least half the reason Lori wanted to be one was because her real ambition in life was to marry a doctor. How someone as determined as Lori had not managed to reach her goal, Molly had no idea. It couldn’t be because she went unnoticed, that was for sure. Lori always drew every eye of every man wherever she went, but she didn’t date anybody who wasn’t a doctor. She had her goal and she stuck with it.

  “You don’t have to stay. I can only pay you until closing time, anyway.” She began pushing the wheeled mop bucket toward the restrooms.

  “I’ll stay anyway,” he said. She knew she should tell him not to, but instead she just said, “That actually sounds like the best offer I’ve had in … forever.”

  Johnny was back, carrying the heavy boxed toilet as if it weighed nothing. “I’ll help you with that,” David said.

  “I’ve got it, but you can grab the other box I left outside the van if you really want to,” Johnny said. David went to get it, Molly holding the door. The two men drifted back to the restroom together, and she could hear them laughing and talking. It was nearly time to close the library and she was already looking forward to the pizza. She texted her children and Lori that she would be a bit late and explained why. “Pizza tonight,” she texted.

  Johnny had been right; installing a toilet was a quick and easy thing for him. He came back out in no time at all, the old toilet under his arm. “This thing is a certified antique. You really need to replace all of them. It’s just a matter of time before you have another mess,” he said. “I’m gonna talk to Matt. He oughta understand it’ll save money in the long run to do this right.”

  “Good luck with that,” Molly said. “Seriously.”

  She locked the front door behind Johnny and she and David walked toward the back. “You aren’t going to mop in those shoes,” he said.

  “No, I’m not. I have a secret pair of work boots in the closet I’m going to wear. They go great with my dress,” she joked. She wasn’t eager for him to see her in her clodhoppers, but she was also not eager to ruin her pumps. She slipped them off, leaving them neatly lined up outside the janitor’s closet, and came out in the work boots. “Ta da!” she said, affecting a model’s pose.

  “Very nice,” David said. “Much sexier than the black heels. You know, there are a lot of men who think there’s nothing sexier than a librarian.”

  She turned her head away from him, embarrassed, and pretended to be busy filling the mop bucket and adding the disinfectant.

  “I can�
��t think why. We’re poor and usually on the dowdy side.”

  “You aren’t dowdy. You manage to make the boots look good. If I may say such a thing. Don’t fire me for being inappropriate, Miss Molly. I got 10 children to feed!”

  “Do you have children?” she asked.

  “Not a one, actually.”

  “Yet you were great with the kids today,” she said. “I snuck a listen. You could have had your pick of the moms, too. They were all as mesmerized as the kids.”

  “You don’t have to have kids to like them, you know,” he said. “I always thought I’d like to have kids, but I’ve never met anyone I felt I wanted to have them with. My mother, to make a long story short, was not exactly the mother of the year. But you have three, I believe?”

  “I do. How do you know that?” She began swiping the mop around the floor.

  “Well, for one thing, the family picture at the back of your desk. And no dad in the picture, literally.”

  “Hank made a great high school boyfriend but not such a great husband. We split up while the younger two were still in diapers.”

  “That night in The Clipper, I asked around about you a bit.”

  “Oh you did, did you? I can’t think that was very interesting.” He reached for the mop and took over. She let him. It was tiring work, trying to do a good job without getting your dress wet. If he hadn’t been around, she’d have simply taken off her dress and hung it over a bookcase. She normally brought old clothes to wear to do the heavy cleaning, but she obviously hadn’t intended to do this job tonight.