Book of Love Read online

  She looked at him coolly, and said, “Can I help you with something?”

  “Can we talk?” His look was gentle.

  “Come on into my office.” As Chris followed her in, she said, “Take a seat.”

  He sat down and looked around and then back at her. She sat with her elbows on her desk and her hands intertwined, waiting for him to say what he’d come to say.

  After a few minutes, he said quietly, “I want to apologize to you for my rude behavior last week. It was wrong, inappropriate, and judgmental.”

  Janice returned his look for a few moments. “Okay.”

  “Did you ever get the oil changed in your SUV?” Chris asked.

  “No.”

  “Why don’t you give me the keys and I’ll take it over and do it today.”

  Janice hesitated for a moment, then finally said, “All right.” She pulled out her purse and grabbed her keys. She slipped the car keys off the ring and handed them to Chris. So this is it? Janice asked herself.

  Chris got up and walked toward the door, then stopped and turned around. “Did you enjoy the dance last night?”

  “Yes, I did. Very much so,” she replied assertively.

  “Good,” he said. When he got to the door, he hesitated, then turned around and walked back into the room. She watched him as she stood up and picked up some files. “Would you go out for dinner with me tonight?”

  She stood there for a few minutes, looking into his deep brown eyes. “Yes.”

  He broke out in a wide smile and started to walk closer to her, but she backed up. He stopped suddenly. “I’ll pick you up about six. Is that okay?”

  “Yes,” she replied briskly.

  He looked at her gently, his eyes soft, and then turned and walked out.

  * * * *

  Chris felt relieved that he’d finally apologized to Janice, and his mood lightened considerably. He was going to make it all up to her tonight, he thought to himself as he got into her SUV and drove it across the street and pulled into the garage.

  While Chris was changing the oil in Janice’s SUV, Aaron walked up and said, “You seem to be in a better mood today.”

  “Yes, I am,” Chris replied.

  Aaron looked up from the hole they worked in when they had to get under the autos and noticed that it was Janice’s SUV.

  “Dad, you obviously have feelings for Janice. Why don’t you go and iron things out? That’s what you’d tell me to do.”

  “I did. I’m taking her out to dinner tonight.”

  “Oh,” Aaron replied with a smile.

  * * * *

  “Hi, Janice,” Sandra said as she walked into the library.

  “Hi, Sandra. How are you doing?”

  “I’m fine. I have something I need to get from the library if you have it, and also I wanted to ask you something.”

  “Okay. First, what do you need?”

  “I need a book called I Did It My Way by Grant Williams.”

  “I know I don’t have that book here, but I can get it through the library inter-loan program. It should be here tomorrow. Will that be okay?”

  “Yeah, that’s fine. I’m doing a paper on Grant Williams.”

  “Okay, I’ll order it for you. You wanted to ask me something?”

  “Yeah, we sure did miss you yesterday. Cheryl and I thought you’d be joining us for the holiday.”

  “I had other plans, but it would have been nice to spend time with you,” Janice replied softly.

  “Um, do you know what’s wrong with my dad? I’ve never seen him so moody and angry. He’s been snapping at everyone lately.”

  “No, I don’t really know what’s wrong or why he’s moody and angry. Have you tried to talk to him about it?”

  “Yeah, we all have, but he just tells everyone to leave him alone,” Sandra replied.

  “Then it would probably be best to leave him alone until he’s ready to talk.”

  “You’re probably right. It’s just that we hardly ever remember Dad being moody like this, so we all want to help him out.” Sandra smiled.

  Janice could only imagine what it must be like with all the people that were in his house, everyone coming at him and wanting him to talk. She had to smile at that thought. Gotta love family interactions.

  Chapter 17

  Chris knocked on Janice’s back door at six PM sharp. When she answered he looked her up and down. She had on a pair of tight-fitting jeans that showed off her lovely bottom and a nice turtleneck sweater, which hugged her curves. “You look beautiful tonight, Janice.”

  She smiled. “Thank you. You look good too,” she said appreciatively.

  They left Janice’s apartment and climbed into Chris’s truck.

  “I thought we’d go back to Steve’s Roadhouse in Lame Deer again if that’s okay with you?”

  “Yes, that’s fine,” Janice replied.

  “How are things going at the library?” Chris asked as he pulled out onto the road.

  “Pretty good. The basement is almost done. I’ve been getting estimates on book restoration, which I hope to submit to the council members next week or the week after. We’ve formed some new groups and also added a run to the nursing home and the senior citizen’s home. We’re getting pretty bogged down now, and I’m glad we hired another person. We’ve also got new computers coming in, so getting the one large conference room cleaned out and wired to accommodate the tables and chairs for the eight computers is challenging.”

  “Now how many computers are you getting?”

  “Sixteen computers for public use, and three larger computers for Carly, Robin, and me.”

  “These are going to have internet accessibility, aren’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “How would you go about keeping the public from looking at porn or dangerous sites that would harm the computers with viruses?” Chris asked.

  “We’ll have a firewall that will keep people from looking at sites that are harmful. We will also set it up to automatically run a malware and virus check every evening after the library is closed.”

  “Why do you need eight to put in a conference room?”

  “We plan to offer classes to high school students and adults on learning how to use software and the library resources.”

  “Oh, I see. Where are the other eight computers going?”

  “We’re putting four on the main floor and four on the second floor.”

  “You mentioned new programs. What have you got going on in that area?” Chris asked.

  “We’ve got the ‘Read a Book’ program for teenagers, geared to help them understand more of what they are reading. Barb has approached me about forming a women’s group to read and critique romance novels. She would like the library to have the first meeting, and then all other meetings would be rotated between the group members’ homes. These things take a bit of time to get up and running. I also have to be sure we have the appropriate kind of books for the various groups. We will be having first to sixth grade students coming in from Pine Ridge Elementary each week. The teachers have built a curriculum that includes a visit to the library once a week to get a book and then write a report on it. It worked out quite conveniently. The school is close, so the teachers can walk the students over. We have a huge selection of children’s book. We also have a children’s day on Saturday where the younger children come and each parent takes turn reading them a book and then they get to see a movie. We are nearing the end of getting the card catalog entered into SIRSI Enterprise, so I’m getting ready to do the next step with that.”

  “Boy, you do have a lot going on, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, we do, but I enjoy it.”

  They rode in silence for a while, and then Janice said, “It seems like the council members put on some sort of activity every month. What will you be doing in October, November, and December?”

  “We try to do activities every month because many of the people in this town are poor and have no money to entertain themselves.
It seems to work pretty well. In October we have the Octoberfest HayRide and Barn Dance.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m going to be one of the ‘dollar dancers.’” Janice smiled.

  Chris didn’t return her smile. He did not like that at all, but it was for a worthy cause. “We raise money to put food in the Food Bank,” he said quietly.

  “What’s for November?”

  “The week before Thanksgiving we have the Holiday Parade and Santa comes to visit, and then we light the Christmas tree downtown in front of the courthouse. In December we don’t normally do anything because everyone is busy, but we do have a New Year’s Eve event downtown where we drop a small ball at midnight and then have fireworks. And the schools have events going on in January, like the Father-Daughter dance and the Mother-Son dance. February is our Valentine’s Day dinner and dance at the community hall. In March we don’t do much, as all the bars are busy with St. Patrick’s Day and green beer. Then we’re back to April.”

  They arrived at Steve’s Roadhouse. As they walked into the restaurant Chris placed his hand on the small of Janice’s back, gently guiding her to the door. The hostess seated them and took their drink orders.

  “What’s been happening at the shop? Anything new or interesting?” Janice asked Chris, gazing into his eyes.

  “It’s been busy. I’ve been toying around with the idea of either adding on to my existing building, or building another oil change garage somewhere in town.”

  “Really? That would be quite an undertaking, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but either way, I need to get a couple more garages as business is really busy and I’m out of room. Plus, I don’t have enough parking spaces available to park all the cars that need repairs and that are already repaired.”

  “Sounds like you’ve outgrown your current space.”

  The waitress returned with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order.

  Janice and Chris placed their orders and the waitress said, “Okay, I’ll put this order right in.”

  When the waitress left, Janice looked at Chris and asked, “Do you have any idea where you might want to put this building if you decide to build a new place?”

  “Not really. There are a couple of vacant lots in town that might work. I have to go to the county courthouse and see who owns the lands and find out if they’re willing to sell. It’s a big decision and not one that I will make overnight.” Chris let out a sigh. “If I do build another place, I have to be reasonably sure it will generate a profit. I don’t want one place to drain all the money from the other place.”

  “Have you gotten an estimate of how much it would cost to just add onto your existing building?”

  “I got a ballpark figure. The man that owns the land to the south wants forty thousand for the land, and the man that owns the land between me and the strip mall wants twenty thousand. I feel I’d have to buy both properties in order to get a bigger parking lot, and to have two extra garages built. I don’t know if the prices are negotiable yet or not. Those were just rough estimates that they threw out to me when I talked with them briefly about it. I’ve called a couple of construction businesses and will be getting estimates on the construction cost soon.”

  “Now that you don’t have me and my car from hell coming over and bothering you, I’m surprised that you have that much business.”

  “Hey, honey, I didn’t mean that.”

  Janice smiled slightly. “But you said it,” she answered back, then went on, not giving Chris a chance to respond. “While you’re in the process of either upgrading the current building or building a new one, you need to think about integrating and updating your computer system.”

  The waitress brought the food to their table. “Is there anything else I can get you?”

  “No, thank you,” Janice replied.

  “Nope,” Chris said.

  Janice continued on with the conversation between bites. “You may want to consider a two- or three-way computer system. Have a database developed where all three systems can be automatically linked together, and conduct your business transactions through that so you can run reports and keep track of parts and supplies. You should have a computer in your office where you can just update and enter in your parts and supplies and place orders online, and so on.”

  “Would this be terribly expensive?”

  “That depends on who you hire. If you have someone in your family that’s computer savvy, that would save you some money. There is software available as well, to set up your inventory system. You’d want to house your inventory on one computer, probably the one that would be in your office, and allow the other computers to pull up the information from the one in your office.”

  “Would you consider taking on this project for me?” Chris asked.

  “Hmm, I don’t know if you could afford me,” Janice replied with a subtle smile.

  “Well, I think we could work something out, don’t you?” Chris gave her a big smile. “How is your meal?”

  “It’s fine. Good, in fact,” she said. Finally Janice said, “Chris.”

  “Yeah.” Chris looked up at Janice.

  “Sandra stopped by to see me today. She wanted a particular book for a class, but she said she was also concerned about you. You seemed to be moody and snapping at everyone, and apparently it’s been that way for a couple of weeks. Is there something more wrong that you’re not saying?”

  “I was upset that I found out from Robin that you were going to Aspen. There’s a life out there in Aspen that you haven’t told me about and I still don’t know anything about it. Anyway, I thought you were after some poor guy’s money and I felt that you were going to up and leave town once you got your money.”

  “What made you think I’d do that, and how did you find out about the lawsuit?” Janice wanted to know.

  “We did a background check on you in order to hire you for the library position.” Chris looked at Janice as he answered, watching her closely for a reaction.

  Janice gave him a grim look and said, “I see.”

  Suddenly, in the midst of their conversation, a horn beeped. Janice jumped in her seat and Chris turned with a start. Binky the Clown was standing between them but back a little so they didn’t see him at first until he got closer. Binky was blowing into a long pink balloon, the ones that they bend and make hats with. He’d blow in it a few times, stop to gasp for air, and then repeat the process. Finally, he made the balloon as long as he wanted, and folded it over to form an oval shape and tied the ends together. He stuck the ‘hat’ on Janice’s head while he blew another balloon, shorter this time, and bent it in different places to create what looked like a princess tiara. He took the ‘hat’ off Janice’s head, added the princess tiara to it, and put it back on her head.

  Chris sat back in his chair, chuckling quietly. Binky touched Chris’s ear and then pulled out a quarter from behind it. He put his hand to Chris’s ear and used his other hand to pull out scarves that were tied together in one long string. He kept pulling, and kept pulling. Chris was smiling while Janice was laughing. Binky finally reached the end and pulled out a toy clown that looked exactly like him. When Binky held the clown up close to him and stared at it, he jumped back like he was seeing his double and said, “Eek!” He left their table and went on to another table. Janice took the ‘crown’ off and put it on the table as they continued to eat.

  After they’d finished their meal, Chris asked Janice, “Would you like to share a slice of chocolate lava cake with me?”

  Janice smiled. “Sure.”

  Chris placed the order, and as they were nibbling on the cake, he leaned closer to Janice and said, “Janice...”

  She leaned in closer to hear him.

  “I think I’m in love with you.”

  Janice sat there with a look of surprise on her face. Finally she said, “You think you’re in love with me?”

  “Actually, I don’t think, I know I am,” Chris said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I have to tell
you, I’ve struggled with this for a while. I have issues with your lawsuit, and I have issues with biracial relationships. I was really upset when I found out you were going to Aspen. I thought for sure I was going to lose you for good. But everything else stood in the way.”

  “What is your issue regarding biracial relationships?” she asked.

  “I think I told you already that Cherie died in the hospital as a result, in my opinion, of a lack of appropriate medical care because she was Sioux. The doctor there practically refused to care for her. Those prejudices die hard and are still in existence today. A relationship between us could affect people’s view of you and the library in a negative way, it could affect my business, it could affect whether or not you get good service at any other place of business. There are just things that could make life more difficult. I’ve been through this, even after Cherie died. I’ve been through it with my kids. They all faced prejudices in school, and I was surprised that I even managed to get Alexis to stay in school and graduate. He’s always been a big boy, and still is chunky like his mother was. Being Sioux and overweight did not help his situation at all. Aaron gets mouthy. If someone made a racial slur or insulted him in any way, he’d just get in their face and tell them a thing or two, and I’m always afraid he’ll end up either in the hospital or in jail.”

  They had finished their dessert and Chris paid the bill. They walked out to the truck and got in.

  “So, Chris, you have these concerns, and I must admit, that I never thought of what would happen if we were a couple. I always just figured it was between us. What are you going or willing to do about it?”

  “I don’t know yet. All I know right now is this—I love you and I want you to stay in Colstrip.”

  “I have no intention of leaving,” Janice replied.

  They drove back to Colstrip in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. When they got to her apartment, Janice asked, “Do you want to come in?”