Jenn McKinlay - Due Or Die

Of course, a lot of that would depend upon whether Marjorie showed up and tried to do anyone an injury or not.

BRIAR CREEK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

Lindsey was working the reference desk on the adult side of the library when the first members of the Friends started to arrive for their meeting. They waved as they passed by and she waved back. She kept an eye out for Bill and Marjorie but didn’t see either of them arrive.

She wondered if they had quit the group in protest and figured she could ask Milton after the meeting, as he seemed to be in the know about these things. She thought perhaps it was for the best if they had. Tension in the group couldn’t be a good thing.

“Excuse me, can you help me find out when National Pie Day is?”

Lindsey turned away from the hallway to see a young woman standing in front of the reference desk. She looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was carrying a laptop under her arm and looking pretty cranky.

“Sure, is that all you want to know, when National Pie Day is?” Lindsey said.

“No, I have a whole list of events and I need to find out when they are. I’m student teaching at a preschool and they want me to come up with all sorts of activities and stuff.”

“Oh, okay,” Lindsey said. She rose from the desk and headed for the ready reference bookshelf adjacent to her desk where they kept their favorite reference books.

The young woman let out a put-upon sigh, as if walking five feet and cracking open a book was the equivalent of hard labor. “Can’t you just google it?”

“I could,” Lindsey said. “But since you have a list of events, using a book is actually going to be faster.”

The girl grumbled as she followed her, and Lindsey had to suppress the urge to smile. She reached for her favorite book and placed it on top of the shelf.

“This is Chase’s Calendar of Events . It should answer all of your questions. There is an index in the back so you can look it up by the type of event. For example, you might want to start with pie. The pages are also broken down by day, so you can look up any day in the calendar year and find out what is special about it.”

“Really?” the woman asked, looking suspicious.

“Indeed,” Lindsey said. Now she did chuckle. “It’s a great book, one of my favorites. And now I’ll tell you a secret. When you google things, you have to be able to verify the website. Otherwise Joe Shmoe could put up a web page declaring National Pie Day is October fourth, when everyone knows-and Chase’s will verify-that National Pie Day is January twenty-third.”

The woman looked at her with rounded eyes as if she’d never thought of that. Lindsey smiled and walked away. She loved Google for doing searches as much as the next person, but really, it wasn’t all that and it certainly didn’t verify its sites. It was just one tool out of many in the quest for information.

When she got back to the reference desk, Mimi Seitler was standing there, fretting her lower lip.

“Hi, Mimi,” Lindsey said. “Is everything all right?”

“You haven’t seen Carrie, have you?” Mimi asked.

“No, not since the last meeting,” Lindsey said. “Isn’t she here yet?”

Lindsey glanced at the clock on the lower right-hand corner of her computer monitor. It was fourteen minutes past the hour. It wasn’t like Carrie to be late, and certainly not to her first meeting as president.

Just then the main glass doors slid open and Carrie rushed in. Her coat was hanging off her shoulders, she didn’t have on a hat or gloves and her cheeks were brightly flushed. Lindsey would have thought it was from the cold but she looked agitated.

“Oh, good, she’s here,” Mimi said.

Carrie was rushing through the main room toward the back and Mimi hurried to join her.

Lindsey thought she heard the words car trouble and was relieved that at least it hadn’t been Bill or Marjorie causing Carrie grief.

The rest of the evening passed quietly, and Lindsey and her two remaining staff members were just shutting down the equipment when the Friends adjourned for the night and trooped through the library on their way to the exit.

“So, you must be the notorious Ms. Norris,” a voice said from behind her.

Lindsey spun around to see a very handsome man in a long overcoat standing behind her.

“Notorious?” she asked. “I don’t know about that.”

“According to my uncle Bill, you are quite the femme fatale.”

Lindsey sighed. She had a feeling she knew to which Bill he was referring. “You’re related to Bill Sint?”

“He’s my uncle,” the man said and held out his hand. “Edmund Sint at your service.”

He was a few inches taller than Lindsey and he had the whole-milk, grain-fed, clean-cut appearance of a model in a Brooks Brothers’ ad. With a pang, she realized he reminded her of her former fiancé, John Mayhew, as he had the air of an academic about him with the same ruddy-cheeked good looks and charming manner.

She shook his hand. “I know your uncle is unhappy with me. I’m sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” he said. “Uncle Bill can be a bit taciturn, but he generally gets over it. He has a horrible cold right now. He sent me as his emissary to make certain no one thought he’d been driven out of the Friends.”

He grinned at her, and Lindsey couldn’t help but smile back. Whatever Bill Sint lacked in good manners, Edmund made up for by the bucketful.

“Tell me,” he said as he leaned close, “is it true he told you to get stuffed?”

He wiggled his eyebrows at her and Lindsey had to laugh. He had the look of someone who did not take life too seriously. She liked that.

“He did,” she said. “It was quite shocking.” She imitated his eyebrow maneuver and he laughed. It was a good, deep laugh that rumbled up from his chest without restraint. She was glad Ms. Cole wasn’t here right now, for she surely would have shushed him.

“Good night, Lindsey,” Carrie called as she passed them.

“Good night,” Lindsey said.

“Oh, Mrs. Rushton,” Edmund called to her. “Won’t you join us for a moment?”

Carrie looked uncertain, as if she wasn’t sure if Edmund was friend or foe.

He must have sensed her reluctance, because he said, “Don’t worry; unlike my uncle, I don’t bite.”

Carrie smiled with relief and joined them.

“As an apology for my uncle’s behavior, I’d like to invite you both to lunch at the house,” he said. “It will give us a chance to get better acquainted and encourage my uncle to get over his hurt feelings. I’ll even give you a tour of the estate. You can admire all of the family’s various collections. What do you say?”

“Well, that’s very nice of you.” Carrie hedged.

“We’d love to.” Lindsey accepted for the both of them. This was just what Carrie and Bill needed to let bygones be bygones.

Carrie gave her a wide-eyed glance while Edmund grinned at her. “Excellent. I’ll give Uncle a few days to recover from his cold and then we’ll set a date.”

Lindsey liked the way his gray eyes darkened when he said the word date . Not that she thought it was a date or that he was implying that it was a date. She just liked his eyes, really.

She and Carrie watched him leave with a good-natured wave.

“What was that about?” Carrie asked.

“I’m not sure, but I suspect Edmund wants Bill to get back into the good graces of the Friends and he’s trying to facilitate a reconciliation.”

“Yeah, or he’s warm for your form,” Carrie said and gave her a teasing close-lipped smile.

“Why that’s just, well, silly,” Lindsey spluttered. There was no denying the warmth that heated her cheeks, however. She turned and headed for her office. “I’ll call you if I hear from him.”