Page 5 of Daddy's Little Librarian
He had steel-gray eyes and jet-black hair, buzzed militarily short against his scalp. He had a mouth so delicious that it would have made a nun reconsider, and a hard, square, mess-with-me-buster-and-I’ll-clean-your-clock jawline, the overall effect of which was only slightly gentled by the dimple that kissed his chin.
He looked big. He looked strong.
He looked like he ought to be somebody’s Daddy, Scotti’s Little voice whispered inside her head. Somebody like me would be nice.
“This,” she vaguely heard Sadie say from somewhere behind her, “is my grandson.”
Scotti sighed, melting in his arms as she gazed up into Kurt Doyle’s handsome gray eyes. “Egg rolls,” she said. “I’ll take two, please.”
* * * * *
Kurt didn’t think it possible for the day to get any worse, but Monday quickly proved him wrong.
He’d spent most of the walk to the library fiddling with the squid hat, trying to put it together. Fold out Flap A, insert Tab B into Flap G and secure with Tab C. Tab C? Where the hell was C?
By the time he was within a few blocks of the library, he’d come to the conclusion that he didn’t deserve the added responsibilities of operating a French fry machine. In fact, it was a wonder he was allowed to leave the house without supervision.
And then he ran into the bees. Or rather, he ran into the post that they called home and accidentally knocked the bottom half of the nest loose from the rear of the sign, sending it crashing to the sidewalk at his feet.
The bees got pissed.
Kurt ran a block and a half before hopping a hotel fence and leaping into their nearly empty swimming pool. There was just enough water in the deep end to submerge himself if he lay flat on his back with his toes pressed toward the ground.
After ten minutes of trying to catch him whenever he came up for air, the bees finally gave up. Eventually, they went away, and Kurt crawled out of the pool. Not only was he now dripping wet, but he’d lost his paper hat and his stomach throbbed where one lucky bee had got him.
And now, he had a crazy blonde librarian wrapped in his arms.
“Sorry,” he said, propping her back up on her own feet. “I don’t have any egg rolls on me.” He leaned around her, reaching for his grandmother’s bookbag and slinging it over his shoulder. “Ready to go?”
Sadie knuckled her fists into her round hips and scolded, “Kurtis Bartholomew Doyle! You mind your manners, mister, and talk to Scotti.”
“Who’s Scotti?”
The librarian raised her hand. Sure enough, the nametag on the front of her demure white blouse did indeed read: Hello! My name is Scotti.
Great, Grams is matchmaking.
Kurt managed not to groan as he dutifully raised his gaze back from her chest to her eyes. The way his Monday was going, he supposed he ought to be grateful she didn’t think he was ogling her boobs.
“Hi. Sorry.” When he gestured at her, she dutifully looked down at the spots of wetness soaking into her. Particularly her breasts and stomach, and around her to her back where his arm had hugged her and his sleeve had shared the wetness. “Sorry about that. I fell in a pool.”
“A pool?” Plucking at her blouse, she fluffed it in and out, as if that might help dry it faster.
“In my defense, I was being chased.”
Dismay shadowed her face. “Chased? Did he have a knife?”
“It wasn’t a ‘he’,” he said, the cop in him perking his ears. “It was more of a ‘them’, and why did you just say that like you thought you knew who would be chasing me?”
She tapped her fingers, dismay only growing. “Them? He has… a gang now?”
He stood six-foot-four to her five-foot-one (maybe). When he drew himself up to his full, impressive height and folded his arms across his chest, he knew she noticed. “Okay, I was talking about bees. What, or who, are you talking about?”
She went from tapping her fingers to twisting them and didn’t answer.
He looked from her to his grandmother. “All right, what’s going on?”
“This,” Sadie said, “is a conversation best had in private.” Planting a hand to each of their backs, the old woman pushed until they started moving, and she shooed them back into the library and all the way down the foyer toward the bathrooms.
