Harlequin Special Edition April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Rochelle Alers

Author:Rochelle Alers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Lindsay was setting up for the Toddlers and Tots story time, positioning thick, colorful pillows in a semicircle on the floor facing the storyteller’s throne—an old red velvet wing chair that someone had donated to the library long before she started working there. Quinn, hanging out at the library as she was in the habit of doing when she was struggling with her writing, had wandered over to the adult section to browse the stacks when Lindsay began checking in parents and children for story time Wednesday morning.

Reading aloud and sharing her love of stories with little ones was one of her favorite parts of the job. An added bonus was that she got to meet a lot of parents and the young children who would go to school with Elliott and Avenlea.

“Heather Foss.” She smiled, genuinely happy to see the classmate she’d lost touch with a lot of years earlier, even before she and Nathan had moved away. But she would have recognized Heather anywhere, because the woman looked just as fabulous as she had ten years earlier. Her platinum-blond hair was shorter now and there were laugh lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth that hadn’t been there a decade and a half earlier, but otherwise she looked the same. “It’s great to see you. How are you doing?”

The other woman’s answering smile was thin. “It’s Heather Dekker now.”

Lindsay winced inwardly at the faux pas even as she nodded. “Of course. I saw your name on the story-time registration.” She scanned the list on her tablet again and tapped to check the attendance box. “Here you are—Heather and Silver. Oh, that’s a beautiful and unique name.”

“Thank you. It’s something of a family name... on her dad’s side,” Heather said.

Lindsay turned her attention to the little girl clinging tightly to her mother’s hand. “Welcome to story time, Silver.”

The child offered a shy smile even as she ducked her head a little.

“How long have you worked here?” Heather asked.

“I just started in the fall. Part-time,” Lindsay explained. “Tuesday and Thursday mornings, full days on Wednesdays and one Saturday a month. It’s a great schedule, because I can take Elliott to school in the morning and pick him up again at the end of the day, and it means Avenlea only has to be in day care part-time.”

“You have two kids?”

She nodded. “How about you?”

“Just Silver for now,” she said, loosening up enough to smile down at her daughter. “But she’s going to be a big sister in about six and a half months.”

“Congratulations,” Lindsay said sincerely.

“Thanks.” Heather hesitated briefly then before saying, “I should have reached out when I heard about Nathan’s passing...to tell you that I was sorry for your loss.”

It was what most people said when she saw them for the first time after her husband’s passing. And in the early days, the words had always hit her like a sucker punch to the gut, knocking the air out of her lungs and making her knees want to buckle.

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