I laughed as she spoke and looked into the room, curiously. So this is where Miss had written her letters to me. “What’s so funny?” Lexi looked at me in confusion.
“Oh, nothing.” I shrugged my shoulders. “I just had a friend who used this computer lab a lot.”
“Oh, okay.” She looked like she wanted to ask me a question, but she didn’t, which I was grateful for. I didn’t want to share Miss with anyone, not until I knew who she was and what had happened.
“So what’s in that room?” I pointed to another door.
“That’s a study room.” She opened it and we looked inside and saw a table with some chairs. “We have six different study rooms that high school and college students can reserve to work on projects.”
“Oh, that’s cool.”
“Did you never use them in High School?” She cocked her head and looked at me quizzically and I laughed.
“No.”
“Oh, wow.” She seemed surprised and I knew why. She was wondering how I had gotten through high school with a 4.1 GPA and never been a member of the library.
“So this is the fiction section, huh?” I looked at the rows of books and smiled.
“Yeah. We have a large collection of books.”
“What are you doing on Saturday, Lexi?” The words burst out of my mouth quickly, like lava flowing from an active volcano. I couldn’t stop myself and I looked to see her reaction.
“Saturday?” She had a faint blush around her face and I could tell that she felt uncomfortable. Her face looked frazzled and her long hair was now in her face, as if she were trying to hide behind it.
“Yeah, well my dad is having a party for me, to welcome me back to town and I thought you’d like to come. You and some friends, of course,” I finished, lamely.
“But you don’t even know me or my friends.” Her words trailed away and she looked at me, embarrassed.
“I know,” I sighed. “I just thought that maybe you’d like to come.” I paused and grabbed a book from the shelf. “Now that I’ve got the book I wanted to read I figured I’d be going, but if you want to come hang at the party, you are more than welcome.”
“Thanks.” She looked at me in surprise again, but this time she had a huge grin on her face. I was surprised at how pretty she looked when she smiled. She was prettier than I remembered.
“So you’ll come?”
“Yeah. It sounds like fun.” She pushed her hair back behind her ears and I studied her face, thoughtfully. If she looked anything like her mother, then I understood my father’s attraction.
“Good.” I turned away, annoyed that I had thought of my father again. “What’s so funny?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking as she looked like she was going to burst into tears.
“I was just admiring your book choice.” She pointed to my hands and I looked down and saw ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. I felt my face go red and I squared my shoulders.
“Well, you know. I’m just trying to see what women like in the bedroom now. I have to keep up,” I grinned, as she bent her head, flustered, and walked up to the front desk to check out with a huge grin on my face. She hadn’t expected that answer from me, I was sure. But one thing that I wasn’t was a prude. I was a virile man and if Fifty Shades could teach me a trick or two about pleasing a woman I was going to read it. I checked out and walked to the front of the library with a new confidence. One bird down, one more to go I thought. Now I just needed to find out who Miss was. I was afraid that that was going to be a much harder task than asking Lexi Lord to my party.
***
I argued with the lady at the post office for about fifteen minutes before she finally got frustrated with me and asked me to step aside.
“Sir, I cannot give you personal information.”
“I don’t want their home address,” I sighed. “Just a name. Please.”
“Sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave now.”
“Please.”
“Sir.”
“Fine.” I scowled at her and walked out. If it had been the me of a few years ago, I would have tried to have pulled rank and asked her if she knew who I was. Who my father was. Once people knew my dad was Mayor, I commanded a lot more respect—but I wasn’t going to do that anymore. He didn’t deserve that automatic respect and neither did I. I was going to have to think of another way, even if it meant waiting outside the post office and hanging out by the mailboxes until someone finally came to her mailbox. I was going to find out one way or another. I just had to.
Chapter 7
“Anna, you are not going to believe what happened today!” I squealed into the phone, unable to contain my excitement.
“Luke proposed?”
“What?” I paused and then laughed. “Good one, but I’m being serious.”
“So was I,” she mumbled and I hesitated.
“Are you okay, Anna?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks for asking,” she replied, testily.
“Sorry about yesterday. I hope you weren’t upset.”
“You guys acted like I wasn’t even there.”
“I didn’t mean…”
“And then I tried to call you last night to talk and your mom said you were out.”
“I stayed over at Luke’s.”
“I figured,” she sighed. “Thanks for the invite.”
“But you had to go home and cook for your dad.” I didn’t understand why she was so upset. She knew that Luke and I had sleepovers a lot. They meant nothing.
“Yeah, that’s my life,” she sighed. “Anyways. What’s your good news?”
“We got invited to Bryce’s party this weekend.”
“Wait, what?” Suddenly her voice seemed happier and brighter. “How did that happen?”
“He came in the library today.”
“No way,” she gasped. “Bryce Evans in a library? Someone call the police because the end of the world is coming.”
“Anna!” I laughed. “That’s mean.”
“Come on, Lexi, you know it’s true.”
“He’s a smart guy, Anna. He got into Notre Dame.”
“He’s not as smart as Luke.”
“No one’s as smart as Luke,” I laughed. “So I need to go to get my hair done. Want to come?”
“What are you getting done?”