Boycotts and Barflies (4 page)

“OK, Ryan, I better go make myself ‘smell good’ for some mystery nice girls that  we probably won’t even meet today. See you soon.” Michael laughed as he hung  up the phone. Jack could really get into things sometimes, so Michael couldn’t  help but wonder where they would be hunting on today’s little adventure. Michael pulled up in front of Jack and Ryan’s apartment a half hour later only

to find them waiting outside on the sidewalk, pacing. Jack hopped up front  while Ryan slid into the backseat. “Hey, Mike, ready for some fun?” Jack as ked  as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

“Where are these nice girl hunting grounds you spoke of earlier?” Michael  asked, playing along with the hunting theme.

He took in a dramatic breath before saying, “To the library, my friend!”

y

After driving in circles for nearly twenty minutes, they found a branch of the

Portland Metropolitan Library not far from their apartment. The guys climbed

out of the car, ran their fingers through their hair, and went inside.

It was relatively empty as they walked through the lobby. A number of senior citizens were gathered in some chairs off to the side for some type of workshop.

Michael elbowed Ryan and pointed. “Look, all the nice girls have gray hair.

Who knew?” Ryan let out a laugh while Jack rolled his eyes in irritation.

21

“Guys, come on, it’s like a nightclub. You have to work the room, see who’s  here, and mingle. You know what I mean?” Jack signaled like a stewardess  showing where the emergency exits were on a plane. “Let’s  check the place out  and find the action.”

Michael and Ryan just shook their heads. “Lead the way, Jack. This is your  show,” Michael said as he held out his arm.

After a minute of looking around at the signs, Jack decided to head off to the  fiction section. Having no real game plan, they wandered aimlessly up and  down the aisles, occasionally glancing at the thousands of books they passed. The only people they crossed paths with were a man in his late forties flipping  through a book on kitchen remodeling, an elderly woman who was looking for  the restroom, and a three -year- old boy who had escaped from the children’s  section of the library and was hiding on a shelf from his now-panicked mother  who was screaming his name.

“Great hunting grounds, Jack. Ryan, you  better call your mom this afternoon  and let her know the nice girls are most definitely not at the library.” Jack and  Michael snickered, imagining the possible conversation between Ryan and  Mama Bartlett.

“This place is so boring!” Jack whined. “I mean, who needs all these books?

Do they have magazines here too?” he asked hopefully, looking to Michael for  the answer.

“Yes, Jack, they have magazines at the library too. A number of different ones,  for your information,” Michael said still laughing.

Jack’s face lit up with a wicked smile. ”Do you think they have Playboys here?” Ryan rolled his eyes. “Jack, I highly doubt the public library stocks back issues  of pornographic magazines.” Jack laughed and slapped Ryan on the back. Michael reached up and grabbed a book off the shelf and briefly flipped the  pages before returning it to its original location. “Why don’t you ask someone  about the Playboys, Jack, if you’re that curious?” he teased, never thinking Jack  would actually do it. Before Michael could stop him, Jack darted out of the aisle  and rounded the corner.

“If he finds porn in this library, I swear, I’ll buy the first round of beers tonight,”

Ryan said laughing.

y

22

After successfully getting the girls to agree to go to the Seahawks game, Grace threw on one of her cozy cardigan sweaters and headed out to pick up the tickets from her friend, Amanda. She had completed her Master’s degree at the university with Grace and had been in most of her classes. Amanda was working this afternoon, so Grace headed over to meet her. Sure enough,  Amanda was sorting through the books in the return bin, making nice, neat piles from the terrible mess at her feet.

“Grace! How are you today?” She gave a weary wave from behind the huge stacks of books in front of her.

“Hey, Amanda! Wow, looks like the book return threw up over here. What’s up?” Grace started gathering books into her arms and placed them up on the counter, trying not to mess up the piles that Aman da had already organized. “It’s that time of the year when we send out our missing book notices. I guess a lot of people did some searching and found books under their beds this week.” She chuckled as she blew a stray piece of hair from her face and continued sorting.

“How’s the PhD coming?”

A half-hearted smile crossed her friend’s face. “It’s sucking the life out of me, but it’ll be worth it, right?”

Grace laughed, once again happy with her decision to take a year off and teach before diving into her PhD  as well. “Yeah, it’ll be a piece of cake. So, I came to grab those tickets from you, if that’s still OK?” Grace asked eagerly, leaning against the counter.

“You actually talked Bianca into going, huh? It was the hot guys in tight pants speech that sealed the deal, wasn’t it?” Amanda asked with a big smile as she tamed her brown curls back into a ponytail.

“Yes, that and the promise of shopping. I just hope she likes Seahawks green!”  Both of them laughed as they imagined Bianca dressed from head to toe in

Seahawks gear. Of course, if anyone could wear it and make it look hot, it would be Bianca.

Amanda reached for her purse and dug around until she found the tickets. “Have a great time. I was hoping to be further along on my dissertation by now, but with things being so busy here, I’ve gotten behind. I’m just glad you’ll be

able to use them,” Amanda said with a smile. She glanced around at all the

books and sighed. “Well, I guess I better get back to sorting.”

“You know what? I have some time before I’m meeting Meg. How about I help

you get some of these back on the shelves before I leave?”

23

“You’re a lifesaver! I have a date with John tonight, and I don’t want to be stuck

here too late.” She pushed the two biggest piles in Grace’s direction. Lucky for

Amanda, Grace had spent so much time at this library, she was an honorary

employee. She knew the Dewey decimal system as well as any librarian in

town.

Grace walked behind the desk, dragged a book cart over, and after checking

each book back in with the bar code scanner, she began loading the cart. Reaching into her purse, Grace searched for her glasses and a rubber band. She  threw her hair up into a tight bun, hoping to keep it out of her face as she  sorted the massive pile. When  her cart was full, Grace headed off to the book  stacks.

The cart was finally starting to look about halfway empty when Grace flopped into a nearby reading chair to take a short break. She tucked a piece of hair that had fallen out of her bun behind her ear.

I must look lovely, Grace thought to herself as she stood up and stretched.

She had started to head down the next aisle when she saw three heads bobbing behind the other side of the bookcase. Grace could tell by the deep voices that it was a few guys, and they were snickering for some reason.

Idiots, she thought as she climbed up onto the stool and got back to work. The thick book about Sherman’s March to the Sea fell off the cart with a loud thud. “Crap,” Grace mumbled as she climbed down to pick it up.  But before she could bend over and get to the book, a large, masculine hand reached down and picked up the book for her.

“I think you dropped this,” a deep voice said in Grace’s ear.

Startled, she spun around to see the massive man standing inches from her face. He was as tall, dark, and handsome as they came, with dark spiked hair and light stubble covering his chin and cheeks. His body was covered with muscles that showed through his tight fitting T-shirt. She took a step back, suddenly feeling intimidated, and removed the book from his hand.

“Um, thank you very much. Glad it didn’t land on your foot.” Grace laughed as she nervously gnawed on her bottom lip.

“No problem,” the big guy  said as he stood there and continued staring at her.

“Can I help you with something?” Grace asked, trying to sound casual.

“Where do you keep the old issues of Playboy?” he managed to ask with a

straight face. Someone coughed loudly from behind the stack.

Grace bit her cheek to keep herself from bursting into laughter. “Sorry, champ,

no Playboys here. I do have some medical books over in the reference section

you could probably see some boobs in, but they’ll probably be pretty 24

old and saggy. Sorry. Do you know where the reference section is?” She pointed

over his head, doing her best to look serious as she took another book off the

cart and climbed back up the stool. While Grace turned her back to hide her

smile, she heard a low, sexy voice begin teasing the big guy.

“There you are! We thought you got lost, this being your first time in a library

and all.”

Grace spun around to see a striking guy with dark brown hair and piercing

blue eyes joke and slap the big guy on the b ack, then casually lean against the

book stack. Grace couldn’t pull her eyes away from him; he was absolutely

gorgeous. His brown hair was longer, with a hint of wave to it, and hung

slightly into his eyes, his smile was breathtaking, and his eyes were deep and

mysterious.

After a few seconds, she realized she had been holding her breath and gasped

for air. As she did, the third member of their party, a tall, slender blond guy

joined them, suddenly making things feel very crowded in the narrow aisle.

Grace  took a step higher up on her stool as she tried her best to regain her

composure.

“Shut up!” the big guy hissed to his friends as Grace grabbed another book and  put it onto the shelf. He cleared his throat. “Um, thanks, but I think I’ll pass on  the saggy,  medical boob books. So, what’s your name?” he asked in husky voice  that Grace assumed he intended to sound sexy, though it didn’t really work for  her. He was way too forward for her liking.

Grace glanced over at his friends and realized the guy with the blue eyes was  smiling at her. Unexpectedly, she felt her heart start racing in her chest. “My  name?” Grace was so flustered she couldn’t think straight. “Wait a minute …” Suddenly, something struck her as odd about this whole situation.

What were three exceptionally good-looking guys doing wandering around in  the library in the middle of the day, which one of them had all but admitted he  had never set foot in before today, unless …

“Did you guys hear somewhere that libraries are good places to try and pick up girls? Was it on the news again? Just so I know … are you actually hitting on me

in the middle of the library?” Grace asked incredulously, now grinning as the

men shifted uncomfortably in their spots.

The look on the big guy’s face was priceless. His mouth hung open while his

friends doubled over in silent laughter, politely remembering they were still in

a library. Somehow, Grace kept herself from laughing. She glanced back at her

cart and realized there were still a ton of books to get through, so sadly, she

decided it was probably time to wrap up this little chat.

25

“Listen, you seem like a nice enough guy, so I have a suggestion for you.

Why don’t you try to find a nice strip club, and then you can get girls and boobs  all at the same time. Not many women here at the library are going to flash you  their boobs, sorry. We library girls like to leave a little something to the  imagination.” Without waiting for his response, Grace took the cart and quickly  pushed it past them,  leaving the big guy speechless and his friends still shaking  with laughter. The guy with the blue eyes stopped his laughing as she passed  by and gave her a sexy smirk, tipping his head to her.

Well done, Grace, she thought to herself. Bianca will love this story.

With her heart still pounding in her chest, and unable to believe she had been  so bold with three complete strangers, Grace hurried off a few aisles away to  catch her breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a very large figure storm  down the  main walkway toward the door. She watched a second longer and  then saw a beautiful pair of blue eyes looking down the aisle at her, obviously  still amused.

Grace didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but before she could stop herself, she winked at him, her mouth turning up into the biggest grin. He returned her smile, waved, then dashed off after his friends. Adrenaline coursed through her veins in reaction to his smile, her whole body awakened.  Grace had to stop herself from running to the end of the a isle just so she could watch him walk away. She took a few deep breaths to clear her head and told herself to stop swooning over the complete stranger, but when she finally got her wits about her, she dove back into the books, still unable to wipe the grinoff her face.