Read Trouble When You Walked In (Contemporary Romance) for Free Online Page B

could you find me one of those sexy Katharine Ashe historical romances? She’s my favorite.”
    “Her latest is divine,” Cissie said, and finished checking out Mrs. Donovan’s items.
    When she handed them over—one DVD was An American in Paris —she had a scary yearning to be in Paris herself, eyeing guy candy from her seat at a sidewalk café instead of moldering away in Kettle Knob, swallowed up by a big old desk, lots of expectations, and her share of disillusionment.
    But then the dream disappeared in a flash when she caught a glimpse of her perfectly stacked library cards to be stamped, and she was glad for her old desk. It was sturdy, and she knew who she was behind it.
    Here lies Cecilia Rogers, the best librarian who ever lived. She knew her books and her other media, although she balked at being called a media specialist. No, she was a librarian, the best who ever lived.
    That was what her tombstone would say, minus the second “best whoever lived,” although driving the point across was not a bad thing, particularly when you were dead and couldn’t defend yourself against the onslaught of other librarians wanting to take your Best Librarian title.
    Mrs. Donovan hugged her newly borrowed treasures to her chest and leaned in. “Woman to woman, Cissie”—she looked around at the empty space and crooked a finger at Mrs. Hattlebury, who leaned in, too—“Don’t give it away. That could be the problem.”
    Mrs. Hattlebury nodded sagely. “It’s bad enough when it only appears to be your problem. I was a pariah in my hometown after Easy Come, Easy Go , but luckily the colonel was from New York City and found my staged licentious behavior on Elvis’s set fascinating.”
    “That’s why the legend of the library will be good for you, sugar.” Mrs. Donovan winked at Cissie. “Some brainy stranger will walk in here and not know a thing about your history and sweep you off your feet. Before it shuts down. I feel it in my bones.”
    Mountain people always felt things in their bones. Cissie knew just what she meant. But nothing was happening in her bones.
    She stamped the date on a bunch of small manila cards with fine blue horizontal lines—this was an old-fashioned library of limited means, so technology was slow to come by—and smiled with her mouth closed. She stamped so hard, she was about to lose it—just a little. “I promise you,” she said to both ladies, “licentious behavior is not my problem.” Stamp. Stamp . “I wish it were .”
    Stamp .
    She wished she could go for casual affairs … whenever she flicked through magazines and saw gorgeous male models or watched her favorite Hollywood male celebs on TV or in the movies. But something in her was too much like Elizabeth Bennet. She wanted the real deal: a man to work hard, to think hard, to win her. She wanted the chase, the wooing, the drama, the romance .
    And then Boone Braddock walked into the library again—for the second time in his life.

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
    “You gotta be kidding me,” Boone said to Cissie as soon as he stepped over the library threshold. “You’re holding a sit-in ?”
    “Ssshh!” She put her finger to her lips—a trembling finger, he might add—and her ears turned scarlet.
    Damn. He was being told to shut up. In the library. Like it was 1942 or something.
    “I’ll see you later,” Mrs. Hattlebury told Cissie, then walked around him with Mrs. Donovan in tow.
    They were holding books, but what else were they doing hovering over Cissie like that? Scheming, no doubt.
    “Hello, Boone,” Mrs. Donovan said in a saucy sort of way.
    Mrs. Hattlebury gave him a flirtatious once-over.
    “It’s a fine day, ladies,” he muttered, his eyes still on the person in charge.
    “He’s hotter ’n doughnut grease,” Mrs. Hattlebury whispered behind his back. Mrs. Donovan giggled, and they shut the door behind them.
    Older women had such dirty minds.
    Librarians were—well, they were difficult. Prickly and stubborn.