The circulation desk marked the transition to the adult shelves and reading area. Mission-style chairs covered in a subtle print were grouped in front of the fireplace. A whole wall of shelves held DVDs for checkout. Alana stopped to straighten the furniture and reshelve the day’s newspapers. All of the e-readers were checked out, with forty-one names on the waiting list, but she checked the lock on the storage cabinet out of habit.
“Thanks for coming,” she said to the parents as they collected their children and escorted them out the front door. Cody snagged his bag from her office and turned out the lights. He’d filled out a little in the year she’d been back, but it would still be several more years before he gained his adult weight. He had a girlfriend now, a sweet, shy young woman taking nursing classes in Brookings who loved his younger brothers almost as much as he did.
“Nicely done,” she said when he came up beside her. “How’s the book coming?”
“Almost done painting the final sketches,” he said. “The little kids have so many ideas about what Growler should look like, whether he should be tomato red or fire engine red or black. I sent the proposals to the agents and a few of them have asked to look at it.”
“Good.”
The Chatham County Spring Fling Carnival was in full swing as people made their way to the food tent for a barbecue dinner before the dance started up. Cody waited at the bottom of the steps while Alana locked the library door behind her.
“I’m meeting Jodi at the food tent after she finishes her shift at the nursing home. You want to join us?”
“No, thanks,” she said. “I’m headed home first. Duke needs a walk, and Lucas had court today. We’re going to meet there and walk over together.”
“He’s not such a bad guy, once you get to know him,” Cody admitted.
“I like him,” Alana said with a smile.
“I guess you do,” Cody replied. “See you there.”
She tipped her face to the setting sun, then set off for home, making her way slowly through the people crowding Main Street. She knew almost everyone by name now, and was slowly learning the family connections stretching back nearly a hundred and fifty years. Lucas would be waiting for her. There was no need to rush, no need to worry. The Spring Fling celebrated the completed library renovation. In a few weeks, Mrs. Battle and Lenore would staff the library while she flew to England for Freddie’s wedding.
Then she’d come home.
When she rounded the corner to her block, Lucas’s truck was parked in the driveway. Her steps quickened as she looked forward to her own reunion with the man she loved. Duke always stepped aside and watched the hello kiss with his tail wagging. It had taken months before he stopped getting worried when Alana got in her Audi alone.
She took a few moments to check the rosebushes for blooms. The canes had buds on them, but while several showed promise for blooming, so far none of them had. Tomorrow, she thought. If not tomorrow, the next day. She would be here to see them. Every spring for the rest of her life, she’d watch these roses bloom.
Lucas stood at the sink, washing his hands. She gave a happy little sigh and dropped her bags by the door. Duke scrabbled to his feet on the slick hardwood floors and came over to nose at her skirt. “Hello, stranger,” she said.
“I’ve been gone twelve hours,” he said with a smile as he dried his hands.
“Twelve hours, but there was the four-day hiking trip last weekend . . .” she murmured, and tipped her mouth up for his kiss.
“That’s better,” he said, and slipped his arm around her waist.
“I still love it,” she said. She studied the cream-painted beadboard cabinets and sage green walls. The color scheme soothed Alana’s soul every time she walked through the door. The kitchen renovation took a fair bit of the fall and turned into a total replumbing of the house, but Alana figured if their relationship could survive a kitchen reno, it could survive anything.
“Even if it took longer than it should have?” Lucas asked. He wore a navy suit and red tie suitable for a court appearance, and an American flag pin on his lapel.
“Unplanned delays here and at the library gave us a good reason to take a weekend off to go camping. All work and no play makes for tired cops and librarians.”
Mayor Turner rehired her as the contract librarian, then formally offered her the library director position after finishing the search process. She’d thought she’d known what she was getting into, but after a particularly contentious board meeting in November, Alana announced she couldn’t face another weekend of taping and painting, and they both needed a break. Lucas packed climbing and camping gear for a three-day trip to the Black Hills. Alana spent her days sitting under pine trees by a lake, drinking tea and reading thrillers while Lucas scaled rock faces. On the drive home Lucas looked like the boy she’d seen in the pictures. Happy. At ease. Alive.
He’d started taking groups of kids on snowshoe, cross-country skiing, and rock-climbing trips, and loved every minute of it. She loved seeing him back in the sports that meant so much to him. They’d both come back refreshed and ready for the next set of challenges.