“No problem.”
“I guess it’s kind of your job, isn’t it?”
He smiled, and her fingers tightened around her pen. No matter how much she tried to imagine him with unkempt hair and beard, his smile was devastating. “I’m usually a decent guy even if I’m not getting paid for it.”
“Hey, at least I was able to be fodder for your safety class.” It came out a little less self-deprecating humor and more snippy than she’d intended.
“I shouldn’t have poked fun at you. I’m sorry. But it was all in fun.” A horn sounded outside and Matt stood up straight. “I’m grabbing lunch with Dave, so I’ve got to run. You want me to grab you anything?”
“No, thanks.”
Once she heard the door close, Hailey sighed and dropped her head to her desk with a thump that sounded very loud in the suddenly very quiet library. She had no idea what she’d done in a past life to deserve being tormented by a scruffy mountain man disguised as a smoking hot guy in a uniform, but she wanted this day to be over.
She ate her lunch at her desk, skimming review sites for the upcoming must-have books, and she was busy helping a patron with a genealogy site when the safety class group poured back in. Glancing up, she saw Matt looking for her and she dropped her gaze before their eyes met.
Time crawled by, and she kept herself as busy as possible. The class moved outside when Sam Jensen started the first aid portion of the class because they had a few patrons on the computer and reading periodicals. According to Matt, kids tended to get a little loud when they were pretend splinting each other’s body parts. Other than that, she had to do her best to ignore the group and the low timbre of Matt’s voice.
Once the usual closing time had come and gone, things got really slow. A few people saw cars in the lot and stopped in, but most of Whitford assumed the library was closed as usual. Then the door opened and Tori walked in.
Hailey realized she should have seen that coming. She shook her head, but Tori just grinned and kept walking until she reached the circulation desk. Then she turned so she could see the class.
“Aw. His back’s to us.”
“You need to go away.”
“Not without seeing the new and improved Matt-the-hot-game-warden.”
Hailey sighed, praying Tori’s voice was low enough so they wouldn’t be overheard. Old buildings tended to have acoustic quirks. “Work Matt might be hot, but we’ve seen not-at-work Matt. Not hot.”
“That’s called potential.”
No matter what Tori had said before, Hailey found herself wondering if Tori had stopped by out of curiosity, or if she was interested in him herself. Not that she cared. “I’m working.”
“I’m not leaving until he turns around.”
“He’s working.”
“That’s okay. You guys can keep working.”
“While you stand there and stare at him?”
Tori nodded. “He’ll turn around eventually. You can feel when somebody’s staring at you and, since he’s law enforcement, it probably won’t take very long.”
Hailey blew out an exasperated breath. “I can’t let you stalk people in my library.”
“Okay.” Tori started to move and Hailey figured she was giving up.
She should have known better. Her friend headed straight for the class and there was no way to stop her without making a spectacle of themselves. Instead, she watched while Tori interrupted and had a few words with the game warden. There were smiles and nods, along with a laugh from Matt, and then they shook hands.
Tori made an OMG face at Hailey as she walked back to the desk, her back safely to the class group. “The picture doesn’t do him justice.”
“Since I was trying not to be obvious, I’m not surprised.”
“You need to claim him before somebody else does.”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “I don’t want him.”
“Bullshit. Who wouldn’t want him? Get that Property of Whitford Public Library stamp and stamp it right on his forehead. Then cross out the library’s name and write yours.”
“Go away.”
“If you don’t want to keep him, then pretend he’s a book. Enjoy him for two weeks, then return him.”
That wasn’t an unappealing idea. Enjoy this Matt and throw him back before he had enough time off to regress to his previous condition. But that’s not what she was after at this point in her life. “I’m not looking for a fling, Tori. If I’m going to find a husband and a father for the kids I’m running out of time to have, I can’t be distracted by a guy who’s all wrong for me.”
“What’s wrong is that you can look at that man down there and not see the possibilities.”