Page 52 of Lessons in Heartbreak

Griffin approached, his arm brushing against my shoulder as we watched her leave the library with quick, excited steps. Before she went out the door, she had her son on the phone.

“Bryan? You won’t believe what just happened ...”

The door swung shut behind her, and I glanced up at him. “That was nice.”

He grunted. “Don’t tell anyone. They won’t believe you, anyway.”

I rolled my eyes. Kenny walked past us, his messenger bag over his shoulder. “You okay to lock up?”

With a nod, I hitched my thumb at Griffin. “He’s my bodyguard tonight since Bruiser isn’t here.”

Griffin cut me a sideways look. “If Bruiser is my competition, that doesn’t say much about me.”

Kenny smiled. “All right. Good night, guys.”

It felt different when he left, leaving me and Griffin in the quiet of the library. The whole building seemed to pulse with it—the utter stillness. For the first time all night, the first time since he’d bulldozed back into my life, I felt an overwhelming wave of nerves, something fidgety coating my skin as I risked a glance up at him.

“Well?” I asked quietly. “You ready?”

Griffin gestured to my office, where he knew I’d set my canvas. His was resting against the wall near where we stood, and he picked it up in one hand and followed me. My office was lit with only the small lamp on my desk, and because the sun had already set, there wasn’t much of a view out the windows along the far wall.

But he stood in front of them anyway, humming in understanding. “That’s how you saw me so quickly earlier.”

“It’s my favorite view,” I told him, settling a hip onto my desk and staring out into the dark, where I could see a shadowed glimpse of the bench and the weeping willow tree, the branches dancing lightly in the breeze. “And I hope it stays just like that.”

“When does the land go up for sale?” he asked, wandering over to the other side of my office to study the framed renders of what we’d planned should the land become ours.

“Soon. Probably next week,” I told him. “There’s an important place in any town for development, of course. It’s good for the economy when a city gets new restaurants and shopping and nice places to live.But I want this library to serve a different purpose. People come here for the sense of community it brings, as much as they do for the books. Like tonight,” I said. “We’ve known all those people for years. Watched them get married, have kids—some of them bring in their grandkids to get books now. And I love the idea that they can stay and play outside too. Watch for birds and butterflies, go for a walk, play with some interactive art.”

I sighed, fighting a tug of defeat that it might not happen. “That land could be a legacy that’s just as important as any of the books inside this building, and I want to know we’re using that land as something good for this town. Someday, we’ll all be gone, but that beautiful place could still be here, you know? Proof that we did something good.”

Even now, well past my school years, I wanted to have something to show for all the work we’d done. It wasn’t a test hanging on a fridge or a project to be admired, but I wanted to know that someday when I was gone, there’d be somethinggoodleft behind.

Griffin had gone still listening to me, his eyes tracing my face. “Why do you look so sad?”

My nose was burning from the press of tears, and I pulled in a sharp breath to will it away. “I’m not sad, I’m ... frustrated, I guess. There’s only so much I can do.”

He leaned a shoulder against the wall. “Sounds like you’re doing it.”

“I suppose.”

Griffin cleared his throat, tapping the edge of his canvas with two fingers. “I know what’ll make you feel better.”

“What’s that?”

“Me kicking your ass in a painting competition.”

I laughed. “It’s not a competition.”

“Says you,” he answered on an exhale. “I’d say that, too, if I knew I was outmatched.”

With a roll of my eyes, I grabbed my canvas. “Fine. Are we showing them at the same time?”

“Oh no. Ladies first.”

“Okay.” I shrugged, sucking my bottom lip into my mouth as I turned the canvas around.

Griffin didn’t move.

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