Page 25 of Flights and Sights

“Hey,” I murmured to Paxton. He looked up from the article he’d been reading and raised his eyebrows, so I continued. “Are you hungry?”

His smile, warm and bright as always, made my breath catch again. He nodded. “I could eat one of these books right now.”

I laughed, probably louder than appropriate for a library, and leaned against him. Paxton froze for a moment before his shoulder relaxed against mine and he leaned in, too. “Let’s get food,” I said, standing and starting to collect the resources we had scattered across the table.

The rest of the day went much the same—after a quick lunch at the Blue Star Diner, we made our way back to the library to keep researching and completing applications. Eventually, the librarian made his way over to us. He was a tall guy, stocky, with a shaved head.

“Hey, guys. We’re closing up shop for the night. You have about ten minutes.”

We both nodded and when the librarian sauntered away, I turned to Paxton. “We should probably pack it in, huh?”

He nodded, his lips turned down into a frown. “Unfortunately. I told Tommy I’d be by to relieve him tonight anyway.” He hesitated a moment. “Do you want to… come by the taproom for dinner?”

I did. I really did. But I’d promised Charlie I’d be around for dinner with him, so I had to decline. “I can’t. I promised Charlie I’d do dinner. Do you remember him?”

Paxton nodded. “He’s the cool one, right?”

“The only cool one.”

“Except for you.”

I laughed softly, shaking my head. “Hardly, but thank you.”

We both lingered a bit longer, cleaning up our space slowly, until the librarian came back around and tapped his watch a couple of times.

With a sigh, I turned to Paxton. “Looks like we’re being kicked out.”

“Apparently so.” He hesitated for a moment. “When…” He swallowed, Adam’s apple bobbing, and took a breath. “When do you want to meet up again? Do you have family stuff coming up I can help with?”

“I’ll spend the week working on these and getting them submitted. We could plan on Saturday. It’s Family Field Day.”

He raised his eyebrows and chuckled. “How could I say no to that?”

Another moment passed between us, a little awkward, neither of us wanting to say goodbye. The librarian cleared his throat from the circulation desk.

“Okay. Saturday,” he said finally, with a nod. “See you then.”

I watched as Paxton disappeared through the library doors before I headed to the circulation desk, thanked the librarian, and went outside to my car. It didn’t take me long to get back to my parents’ house, where I found Charlie running around outside, playing tag with two of the younger cousins. When I pulled into the driveway, he stopped the game and waved at me.

“Alright, you little terrors, I have to leave,” he said, ruffling their hair. They both groaned in disappointment before scurrying inside and Charlie made his way over to where I was standing by the car door. He knocked twice on the roof and grinned at me. “Where to?”

“You know this place better than I do these days.”

“How do you feel about tacos?”

“I am very pro-taco.”

He laughed. “Excellent.”

Fifteen minutes later, we’d made our way to Garcia’s Taco Stand, on the outskirts of town in the opposite direction than we’d explored previously. We grabbed our tacos from the stand and settled down at a picnic table to eat. Of course, Charlie also took the opportunity to grill me.

“So,” he said without hesitation. “How’s the boyfriend?”

My face heated. “He’s not—we’re just—” Charlie waited while I stammered an explanation. “Look, he’s just doing me a favor, standing in as my boyfriend for the reunion.”

“Oh?” Charlie smirked.

“We’re friends. I’m helping him with some grant writing and in exchange, he’s helping me dodge Jacob.”