“Oh,” I say, realizing he’s holding it for me, “thanks.”
Grinning awkwardly at him, I hop in the front and reach for my seatbelt. The gesture mimics something Wade would have done and I can’t help but wonder if it’s a guy thing, or if Colton is hoping it will put him in my good graces.
Colton nods silently as he closes the door for me and gets in the back.
Cat exchanges a significant glance with me, her eyebrows popping up in surprise.
Mental note: introduce Colton to Wade. Just to be sure.
“Okay, so to the Grove County Library we go…” she says, turning the vehicle on and putting it into gear.
“Guess so,” I say, buckling my seatbelt.
Silence floods the vehicle for the first few minutes on the road, but eventually, Cat leans over and flips on the radio.
“Too quiet,” she says, shrugging at me.
“Agreed,” I laugh.
The music is a weird combination between ’90s pop and techno, and I have absolutely no idea what on earth they’re singing about.
“Who…uh, who’s this?” I ask, pointing at the radio.
Cat shrugs, “No idea. I was hoping you’d know.”
Colton snickers in the backseat.
Twisting around, I grab hold of my seat and ask, “What about you? Any idea who this is?”
He shakes his head. “I couldn’t even wager a guess.”
“Lord, woman, why on earth are we listening to music none of us have a clue about? Yeesh, leave this to me,” I say, cracking my knuckles outward and reaching for the dial.
After flipping through damn near every station in the vicinity, I shut off the radio entirely and lean back in the seat.
“There is literally no good music out here,” I declare.
Cat laughs. “There really isn’t, is there?”
“Next time, I’m grabbing my aux cable and we’ll plug into YouTube or something. Because that was ridiculous.”
“Oh, YouTube… Good point,” Cat says, her eyes suddenly wide, like a lightbulb had gone off inside them.
Colton snickers under his breath and I can’t help but laugh, too.
“Well, luckily, we won’t have to endure anymore awkward silence. We’ve arrived at our destination,” Cat says, splaying one hand out above the steering wheel and dashboard.
As she pulls into the parking lot, I lean as far forward as I can, trying to take in the architecture of the library. The old, damn near ancient stone façade instantly reminds me of the academy and my mouth drops open.
“Wow. This is the library? It looks more like an out-of-place castle,” I say in awe.
“It’s not big enough to be a castle,” Colt chuckles, opening his door.
I kick open my car door and get out.
“Well, good point, but the stonework sure does remind me Windhaven Academy—and that looks like a castle, too. I mean, look, it even has gargoyles like the school,” I say, pointing to the creatures atop the uppermost parts of the building. “I bet the same architect who built Windhaven Academy built this, too.”
“Very true,” he says, nodding his head. “It probably was.”
I grin triumphantly.
Cat walks over, clicking the button on her car remote. It beeps loudly as all the doors on her Torrent lock.
“The two of you are adorably dorky,” Cat says, walking past us and up the stone steps.
My eyebrows tug in at the odd phrasing, and I shoot Colt a sideways glance. He runs his hand along the backside of his neck and rolls his eyes.
“Okay. Uh, come on,” he says, following her.
The double wooden doors groan as he pulls them open for us to enter. The open entryway is adorned with a mixture of stone and wood, continuing on the semi-castle motif. Beyond is a large desk with only one station for a single librarian to sit. It’s nothing massive, but certainly impressive.
“Wow, back in Mistwood, they had at least three librarians working all the time. Kinda quaint in here, huh?” I whisper.
“Three? How big was your library?” Cat gasps.
I shrug, “Not super big. But they did a lot of community outreach stuff, though.”
“Well, here, our library does books. Old books. And that’s about all…” Cat whispers back.
“Alrighty then…” I say tipping my head in acknowledgement.
“Come on, I’ll show you the section you’ll want to start digging into,” Colt says, walking out in front and leading us past the librarian’s desk and deeper into the library’s depths. The smell of old, musty books and papers assaults my senses, but I breathe it in deep, like it’s a familiar scent of home.
“I love that smell,” I say, inhaling deeply. “Don’t you love that smell?”
Cat cocks an eyebrow, but Colt’s lips curve into a genuine smile.
“I do, too,” he says, leaning in close. He smells like aftershave and a hint of something else…burnt wood? Cinnamon? Colt straightens up, adjusting the collar on his jacket and picking up speed again so he can show us the best place to research.
Oddly enough, we leave the confines of the normal-looking library, as we take a set of stairs in the back, leading down to the lower bowels of the building.
“Okay…because this isn’t creepy at all,” I mutter, taking the stairs slowly so I don’t trip.
“You’ll see why everything’s down here in a minute,” Colt says.
Cat wraps her arms around her body, but doesn’t say anything.
As we enter the lower level, the old-books smell gives way to ancient-books smell. The thickness in the air actually borders on decomposition.
Colton flips on a light switch and a series of low-hanging incandescent bulbs flicker to life.
“Jeez, are we even supposed to be down here?” I ask, taking in the shelves of old tomes, newspapers, and goodness knows what else.
“Yeah, I come down here all the time. It’s where the old histories of Windhaven are kept,” Colt says, clearing off some space on a dusty table in the center of a small enclosure of shelves. “Well, anything older than the turn of the millennium, anyway.”
“Well, that’s good to know. Because it kinda looks like an old person’s attic or something,” I
