Page 8 of Holidate Fail
“Warn me next time you want to pull a Usain Bolt,” she said to Heath.
“Sorry.” He grinned at her, not looking even remotely sorry. “It was the thrill of the chase!”
The librarian behind the resource desk eyed them between beeps of her scanner, brows raised and her face open and curious. Several arches leading to other parts of the library branched out from the lobby like spokes on a wheel. A hint of floral perfume fought with the overall smell of commercial disinfectant.
“Oh, my. Look at her,” Dahlia said. “She’s amazing.”
The librarian’s long locks were dyed different shades of blues and purples and flowed like shimmering water, catching the light as she pulled some books up from under the counter.
The elevator doors dinged and a man pushing a stroller exited, making his way past an oversized Oxford English dictionary on a wooden reading stand. The child’s hands splayed in the air, her fingers bending and extending as they got in line to check out.
“What do we do now?” Heath ran his hand against the smooth wood of a display table set up with popular fiction. “Split up? Look for something out of the ordinary?”
“Maybe we should see where the gargoyles are actually looking on the stone steps,” Lacole suggested.
“Not a bad idea.” Dahlia finished pinning the end of her errant braid into place.
“One of your flowers…” Kelly straightened up the loose decoration, resisting the urge to smooth the locks between his fingers. She’d worn it just brushing her shoulders in high school. It must be at least halfway to her waist now. “Let’s go.”
He went outside to the stone steps with Dahlia, Heath and Lacole following. He shaded his eyes against the mid-morning sun. Dahlia did the same, while Lacole put on sunglasses.
Let’s see. The gargoyle seemed like it was looking at the stairs…no, more like, the street sign? “First Street probably isn’t a clue,” he said.
“Yeah, this one looks like it’s staring at the third floor of the courthouse,” Lacole added.
Heath shrugged after a few more minutes and spread his hands in defeat. “I don’t think it’s out here. Let’s go back inside.”
“I’m going to take a picture of the three of you walking in. For our Georgia Adventures social media,” Kelly said. “That okay?”
“Absolutely!” Heath linked arms with the two women and strode back inside.
Kelly snapped a picture of the t-shirt backs, then caught up with them in the lobby. Lacole approached the resource librarian while he uploaded it to social media, hashtags TriCountyStillsAndDash and GeorgiaAdventures. He added a link to the rock-climbing videos he and Vin had taken over the past few months. Anything to drive traffic and help with discoverability.
“Is there a water fountain?” Lacole asked.
The librarian pointed to an alcove tucked next to the elevators. “Near the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED that’s right over there.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m Crissy. Let me know if you need help finding anything else.”
Dahlia followed Lacole to the water fountain, but ducked inside the alcove to the rest room. When she returned, she had taken off her purple shirt, leaving the Georgia Adventures one on.
“Okay,” Kelly said when they were all together again.“What’s the plan?”
Dahlia cleared her throat. “We have the establishment that takes reservations, authors on different stories, and though we didn’t silently walk up the stone steps, we did walk up them.”
“Maybe we should walk in again, but quietly this time,” Heath said.
Lacole laughed. “You’re too funny, Heath.”
“I don’t think it will make a difference,” Kelly said. “What’s the last part of the riddle?”
“We have to find where tomorrow comes before yesterday,” Dahlia answered.
The librarian cleared her throat.
“Were we being too loud? Sorry about that.”
