Page 45

Mindy

My phone rings, waking me up from the restless nap I was semi-forced to take. The hospital bed disappeared between when I left for work and when I arrived back. In its place is the comfiest California King-sized bed I’ve ever seen, let alone slept in.

The ten thousand pillows on top of it made it even dreamier.

I don’t want to move, but my hand tunnels through the blankets blindly reaching for my phone on the nightstands that appeared too.

They both have fresh flowers in them!

Who spends money on fresh flowers in the middle of winter?

Maddox!

That man.

“Hello,” I kind of croak into the phone.

“Hey,” Dahlia answers. “Maverick says that you’re living on Willow Street now. Isn’t it fabulous?”

Kind of, but not the why.

“Anyway, Maverick needs to visit with Maddox about something, so we’re heading over. Wanna meet up?”

No. I wanna hide in this bed, but I need to be a grownup and deal with my problems. “Sure.”

“Maverick suggested the library.”

“Sounds good. I’ll meet you there in like twenty.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be waiting. Don’t rush. You know how I am when I get around books.” Dahlia clicks off.

Absorbed would be a good word. I cuddle down in the blankets. They smell a bit like Maddox, which is comforting.

Can he really fix this so there’s no blowback?

***

Willow Street Library lives in a world all its own. Someone made this into a wonderland. If all libraries were like this, I would have actually become a reader.

How do the children leave this place? There must be a dozen or more of them spread out on rugs, beanbags, and couches with their noses stuck in a book.

It’s tempting to walk up to one of the shelves and pull one off to read.

But that would just prolong the inevitable. I need to talk to Dahlia.

There she is with a book in her hand, staring at a knife handle sticking out of the wall.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” she says as I walk up.

Knives aren’t my thing, but as they go, the jewel-encrusted handle is pretty. “Are they real?”

“Yup. That knife is probably worth millions.”

“And they just left it here? That sounds like something Louisella would do.”

Dahlia laughs. “That’s because it is. Her now husband gave her a pair of them as a wedding gift. On her wedding day, she threw this one at the wall, and it’s been there since then.”

“Someone would have to be crazy to steal from her.” But leaving millions on a wall in a public library is still crazy.

“Exactly my thought.”

You’re looking for excuses to avoid talking to her. Just do it. “Can we sit down and talk somewhere?”

“Oh, of course, I forgot how tired you must still be.” She walks over to a comfortable-looking couch in a little alcove. “What was wrong with you?”

“Adonis beat me up.”

“What? When? I shouldn’t have left. Why didn’t you say something? It was all my fault. I should have called Maverick. He wouldn’t have let that—”

“Stop.” I place a hand on her arm. “None of this was your fault. I told you to go.”

“But I shouldn’t have listened. I knew he was drunk and bigger than you.”

I did this all wrong. “It wasn’t you. I know how to take care of mean drunks. My mother taught me how to protect myself.” She even demonstrated it several times with random men who didn’t turn into boyfriends. “When he got his hands around my neck, I froze. All I had to do was kick him, and I would have been free.” But I froze. I’d like to blame it on shock, but it was fear, plain and simple. I’ve never seen someone that wrathful.

“But you didn’t kick him?”

“No.”

“How bad was it?” she whispers as tears fill her eyes.

“I passed out through most of it. Small gifts, right?”

She pretends to smile to match mine.

“Dahlia.” Maverick’s voice echoes through the library.

Uh oh.

I stand up and turn towards him.

“Tell me that an honorable man is lying to me. Tell me he is lying, and that you weren’t sexually assaulted when I was there.”

What? No! This man isn’t treating my friend like that. I step in between the two of them. “Don’t you talk to her like that.”

Rage builds inside of me. “When a woman has been abused, she gets to choose when she shares and who she shares with. You don’t get to bully her.” I get really close to him, which probably is asking for death, but that’s not going to stop me. “I don’t care how scary you are. Or that you’ll probably smush me like a bug. You need to step back and change your tone.”

“Who hurt you?” Maverick asks in the softest tone.

One I’ve only heard reserved for Dahlia. “Adonis.”

“No. I mean before that. Who hurt you?”

“How… How did you know?”

He steps closer. “Tell me their names.”

“No. She’s mine.”

What did Maddox just say?

“She lives on The Street. Mindy is my responsibility.”

Those words confirm that all of this isn’t because he has a thing for me. I’m his responsibility, like all the other people around here.