Karina Bliss - What the Librarian Did / LA Cinderella - What the Librarian Did / LA Cinderella

“What? I’m not mad at you.” Devin walked back to him and Mark avoided his eyes. Sometimes the musician saw too much. “Why don’t we get food to go and I’ll give you that guitar session I promised you now?” They were blocking the path through the quadrangle and Devin steered him to one side. “I’ve got an apartment in town and our next class isn’t for a couple of hours.”

“You have another place?” Mark was impressed.

“Yeah, I bought it to stay in the city during week, but found I prefer going back to Waiheke. Mom uses it more than I do.” Devin hesitated. “Do me a favor? A textbook I need has come into the library. Go pick it up while I get the food?” He handed over his library card.

“Is it because you don’t want to see her?”

Devin said evenly, “What makes you say that?”

Immediately, Mark knew he’d said the wrong thing. “Um, because she told me you were a bad influence? Except that … I mean … she said she was going to apologize.”

“She did. Everything’s sweet.”

It didn’t sound sweet. And the guy’s scowl had come back. “So you don’t think she’s—”

“I don’t think of her at all,” Devin interrupted. “Let’s meet back here in ten minutes, okay?”

“Okay.”

He started walking to the library, then hurried back, scrambling in his pocket for change. “Dev … let me give you some money.” He didn’t want the rocker to think he was a leech.

For the first time that day Devin’s expression softened. “My treat.”

Rachel was behind the counter when Mark walked into the library, and her face lit up when she saw him. She always looked so pleased to see him that it made him feel slightly awkward. But he guessed being cool wasn’t in a librarian’s DNA.

Then he caught sight of Trixie in a black leather dress and kick-ass boots and revised his opinion. She’d told him she’d toned down her look for the library job … only one pair of earrings and her most conservative nose stud.

He kind of had a crush on her even though she was three years older and scary. She was dealing with someone but called out, “Have you been to that vegetarian café I recommended?”

He nodded. In the farming community he came from, everyone ate meat. But you didn’t argue with a militant vegetarian, you meekly ate your lentil stew and tried not to be on a bus when the gas hit.

“So you like vegetarian food?” said Rachel. She always sounded like she was filing away information for the FBI.

“Love it,” he lied, and handed over Devin’s card to collect the reserved book. Rachel looked at the name and her smile faded.

“Devin said it was okay for me to collect it,” Mark stated. Maybe they had a policy or something.

“That’s fine.”

She found the book. “He told me what you did,” Mark added, and she froze with the book over the scanner. Gray eyes lifted to his.

“Apologized,” he prompted. “Good on you. Friends shouldn’t fall out.” It occurred to him that he’d helped smooth the way. It was nice to do something for Devin for a change.

“Have … have you seen Devin today?”

“Yeah, we’re heading over to his apar—” He stopped, wondering if Devin wanted him telling his business. “We’re going to hang out for a couple of hours.” He really shouldn’t be so proud of it, but Mark couldn’t help himself. It was such a buzz to be an icon’s friend. Well, not really a friend. But then Devin was encouraging his songwriting and …

Rachel was turning Devin’s library card over and over in her hand. “Did he mention we had dinner last night?”

“No.” Some of his smugness at being the peacemaker dissipated, then Mark laughed. “He stood me up for you, you know that?”

HER SON’S FACE transformed when he laughed. It was like glimpsing land after spending six months in a leaky boat. Rachel swallowed hard. She’d seen him shy, angry, solemn, even a little melancholy, but she knew instantly.

This is who you are.

She started to laugh with him, then registered the implications of what he’d said. He thought she and Devin had kissed and made up.

She’d gone to bed in a rage, tossed and turned until 2:00 a.m., thinking about the cutting things she could have said to Devin, and wishing she’d kneed him harder.

Then she got up and cleaned the grout in the shower with an old toothbrush. Labor-intensive cleaning was Rachel’s cure for insomnia; generally she’d be back in bed within fifteen minutes because she hated cleaning.

This morning the shower was sparkling. So was the range hood.

Mark looked at his watch. “I’m gonna be late meeting Devin.”

He took the light with him. There was no question whose side Mark would be on when Devin told him about their disastrous date.

Even mistrusting Devin, Rachel had been temporarily disarmed by the Freedman charm. She still couldn’t believe she’d fallen for it. Now she would become public enemy number one.

Rachel recalled Mark’s laugh, their shared moment, and tears pricked her eyes. She hurried into the staff bathroom.

Five minutes later, Trixie barged in and found her, sitting on the floor and dabbing at her face with toilet tissue.

“Rach … ohmygod, what’s wrong?”

Her red-rimmed eyes made a denial stupid, so Rachel said what she needed to believe. “Nothing I can’t handle.” She managed a smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

Trixie’s boots squeaked as she crouched in front of her and took her hands. “Says the woman who never cries? I don’t think so.”

“Don’t give me sympathy, please. I’ll get worse.” Standing, she went to the sink and splashed her face briskly with cold water. Defeat wasn’t an option. She’d just have to think of another way to watch out for Mark. “Anyone on the counter?”

Trixie ignored her. “Didn’t the date go well?”

Better for Trixie to think that. Rachel met her assistant’s gaze in the mirror. “Devin saw your text message.”

“About screwing a rock star?” Trixie’s eyes widened. “Didn’t you tell him it was a joke?”

“Egotists rarely laugh at themselves.”

“What a butt-head.”

Rachel remembered the feel of Devin’s butt. “The misunderstanding wasn’t one-sided,” she admitted. “I should never have kissed him back.” In the cold light of day she couldn’t understand why she had.

“You kissed!”

Damn. “Let’s get back to work, hey?” She turned the handle but Trixie leaned against the door.

“Just tell me what the kiss was like.”

Fantastic. “Like kissing a wet dog. Look, the whole date was a bad idea, but no harm done.”

“Then why were you crying?”

“Because …” Unable to tell the truth, Rachel floundered.

“BECAUSEYOUACTED LIKE an asshole, Rachel’s really upset.”

Devin looked down at the baby Goth barring his way into the lecture hall. “You’re the text sender … Trixie, isn’t it? And this is another one of your oh-so-funny jokes. Because Heartbreaker doesn’t get upset, she gets mad.”

The young woman frowned. “No, this time I’m serious. I don’t know what went down, other than the fact that you kiss like a wet dog, but—”

Devin laughed. “You see? Mad.”

“You made her cry.”

“I doubt that.” He tried to step past her; she blocked him.

“I found her in tears this morning. She tried to make light of it, but Rachel never cries. I mean never. Even when her dad died a couple of years back.”

He didn’t need this. It had been enough placating Mark. Devin figured he wasn’t due to make another apology for at least a year. “You’re making too big a deal of this.”