AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d have thought they’d have more willpower or common sense, but I saw several milling around in the crowd pretending it was perfectly normal to be spying on the local librarian.
It was all ridiculous, which was probably why Stefan was studying them all curiously and trying not to smile. He might’ve liked the attention, but I had a feeling he was marveling at all the people he was getting to stare at.
Did any of them realize he knew?
Was that what the insanity was about?
I wanted my questions answered, but to do that I’d have to walk the gauntlet and go up to talk to Stefan. That was a problem, however, because I was currently carrying our lunch.
Fuck it.
I wasn’t ashamed to be dating him and I didn’t think he needed us to hide it either.
Making my way through the groups of people just standing around trying to eavesdrop, I ignored the handful that braved a smile to try to distract me and simply headed for Stefan. Just as I reached the desk, though, he actually started checking out a confused young teenage dragon who was trying his best not to snicker. “Thank you for helping me with my project, Mr. Librarian.”
God, Kenzie had the whole town doing it.
“You’re welcome, Chris.” Stefan started talking to him about some kind of school paper, so I tuned out and stepped away to give them privacy since it was a legitimate library issue.
It gave Kenzie the chance to finally notice me and I could see the relief on his face as he buzzed right over to me. “I didn’t do it.”
Lovely.
Ignoring the snickers around us, I tried to look calmer than I felt. “I know. You like Mr. Librarian and you wouldn’t cause chaos for him.”
That earned a few guilty looks from some of the eavesdroppers, but they weren’t feeling bad enough to actually leave.
“I do.” Kenzie rocked forward on his toes and back to his heels like he was barely holding his little side in. “I came in to give Mr. Librarian the book I thought I lost but I found, and there were so many people here. They keep asking him about his weekend and his day and what he thinks of interesting animals.”
Oh.
Well, that had certainly been subtle.
“Mr. Librarian wasn’t sure what to say and no one wanted to leave.” Kenzie shrugged like he wasn’t sure what they were doing. “I forgot my phone and I don’t have Daddy’s number memorized.”
That answered a few of my questions in one go.
“Thank you for doing your best to take care of Stefan.” He was insane but a wonderful friend in a lot of ways. “I’m sure everyone is getting ready to leave since they know the library is closed.”
“So he gets to eat lunch.” Someone from the other side of the room called that out, which would’ve blown ourof coursewe’re humancover all to hell if Stefan hadn’t already figured it out. There was no way a human would’ve been able to hear our conversation from that far away.
“Did you bring our librarian lunch?” One of the older mages in town who lived to cause chaos and get attention couldn’t seem to help himself today and stepped closer to us. “That’s not a council duty. I think that’s personal.”
He needed a fucking hobby or a few more great-grandkids to chase after.
“Yes, that’s definitely enough food for two.” A slightly younger nosy neighbor couldn’t resist helping.
“Did you bring him dessert? Kenzie says littles always get dessert.” That wonderfully fascinating question came from another older resident and really pointed out to me that too many of them had nothing else but gossip to occupy their time.
Kenzie had the grace to look slightly guilty at having his words used to torment Stefan, but my cute librarian went five different shades of red as Chris was smart enough to realize he should probably escape while he could.
So as he waved to Mr. Librarian and nearly ran out the door, I turned toward the crowd. “The library is closed. Please bring your book to the circulation counter right now if you want to check out. Everyone else needs to leave before I call the sheriff and have him send over Kenzie’s Daddy. To help you remember your manners.”
The whole situation had gotten out of control.
We made progress, though. Two women who had legitimate library business pushed their way to the front and started talking to Stefan, and several people inched toward the main door. But there were always a few stubborn old men in every group that I just wanted to toss out on their asses.
“We’ve got to make sure Mr. Librarian is being taken care of. He might be confused about things.” Mr. Kennedy had to step up and keep pushing. “He likes information and we need to take care of him before…well, before they keep him. He’s ours, you know.”
