Just Friends: A Sweet Lesbian Romance Read online

  I loved it as much as I loved everything else about this place. A lot of people I grew up with had shot off to the city like a rocket as soon as they could, but even while I was off at college I couldn’t wait to get back here.

  I know that made me the crazy one, but I didn’t care. I flipped on the radio and turned it to my favorite country station. In my opinion there was no other genre of music you could listen to when riding through rows and rows of fields in a pickup truck. Classic rock would be a sacrilege. That was the one big difference between me and dad, and the one tradition I was willing to do away with.

  A lot of this farmland used to belong to our family. Now it was just down to a couple of acres around the house, which was a damn shame, but it’s not like there was anything else to do after dad died. I might love this area, but I wasn’t going to go so far as to become a farmer.

  Ten minutes later I pulled into the library. The place was still mostly empty, especially for a Friday. I looked at the clock and smiled. I’d gotten in just ahead of the after school rush. Good. I only made this trip once every couple of weeks as mom cycled through her romance novels, and I always tried to time it so I was in during their off hours. I’d been in here when the place was teeming with kids who just got done with school over at the middle school, and it wasn’t pretty or easy to get through here.

  “How’s it going Ethel?” I asked.

  “Pretty good. How about yourself?” she asked.

  “Can’t complain. Just hitting the romance section for some new material for mom.”

  Ethel sighed and shook her head. “Damn shame about her sickness. Any good news from the doctors?”

  I frowned and shook my own head. “Afraid not. There really isn’t any good news when you get COPD. Just trying to be as normal as possible while you can.”

  “Still a damn shame. Do you need any help with that list?”

  “Nah, I’m fine,” I said.

  To be honest I always felt awkward about having Ethel along to help me. She was so old and frail looking, though I knew that betrayed a toughness. I also felt awkward about having her help me ever since the library stopped offering to reserve people’s books. I felt like it was breaking the rules even though she didn’t seem to mind. Besides, at this point I felt like I knew the romance section better than Ethel.

  “Oh, have you seen the new girl?” Ethel asked. “I have a feeling the two of you might get along.”

  “New girl? Did you get someone to help with shelving or something?”

  “Nope. Shiny new director with a fancy degree from the city,” Ethel said.

  I fixed her with a flat stare. “You say that like it’s almost a bad thing. You do remember I came back here with a fancy degree from the city, right?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Big fancy nursing degree that you don’t use because you’re taking care of your mom. But that’s not the same. I haven’t been doing your job since your daddy was a little boy without a degree.”

  “Jealous much?”

  “Not at all. She’s actually really good. They hired her a month back, but I don’t think she was in the last time you were in to get your books.”

  “Didn’t know about that. I’ll be sure to say hi if I run into her,” I said.

  “You definitely should,” Ethel said, peering at me from under her glasses in a look that said I was going to do as she said or we were going to have words later.

  Already I was picturing this new library director. Probably as ancient as Ethel with a hairstyle that had gone out of style a few decades prior and cat eye glasses. No doubt with the same dismal fashion sense that I’d come to expect from most librarians as well. Yeah, I was sure I’d know her as soon as I saw her, but I figured it would be good to introduce myself. I found it never hurt to be on the librarians’ good side. Especially when I spent so much time in this place.

  I made my way into the library proper. Not that there was much room. This was an old Carnegie library from around the turn of the last century. They’d just had the centennial celebration for the thing a couple of years back with all sorts of celebrations. That meant that while it was nice in an old school stone sort of way, it was also small.

  The path was so well worn that I was surprised there weren’t shoe prints in my size leading back to the romance section. Past the director’s office, through the small computer lab, past the children’s section where it looked like the new librarian was doing a story time. She was busy, so I figured I’d just glance in and…

  Damn.

  Okay, so it looked like the new librarian was like nothing I’d expected. In short, she was gorgeous. I wondered if she was from out of town or if she was just old enough that we didn’t go to school together. Because I would’ve remembered a girl like that. I would’ve had one hell of a girl crush on her.

  Most likely an unrequited girl crush, at that. It seemed like all the girl crushes I’d had in this town had been of the unrequited variety. When they didn’t just plain result in disaster. I shivered as that got close to the memory of the single worst experience of my life, and I quickly chased those thoughts away.

  Best not to think about that, or that staying in this town and helping my mom was basically accepting an end to my admittedly already unsuccessful love life.

  Still, a girl could look and admire, and this new librarian was something worth admiring! Brown hair that fell down past her shoulders. Beautiful brown eyes to go along with. An easy smile to go with a pretty face. She even knew how to dress herself, and she had the kind of body that looked very nice under everything.

  The girl paused in her story and looked up. Noticed me for the first time. She blushed and smiled, and I immediately melted. God was she hot! It wasn’t fair for a librarian to look that good. She was supposed to be a frumpasaurus with questionable fashion sense, not a temptress in business casual!

  “Can I help you?”

  It took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. I blinked. Right. I was standing looking down at the children’s area in the middle of a story time like an idiot. If I was a dude that would probably be grounds for calling the cops or something. As it was she just smiled up at me.

  “Um, sorry, could you tell me where the romance section is?”

  Idiot! It’s like my brain and my mouth were connected to two different systems. I knew exactly where the romance section was, but it’s not like she knew that and it seemed like as good an excuse as any to be standing there looking like an idiot. But what if she talked to Ethel later and found out that I knew exactly where it was?

  I was letting my mind get away from me. I was getting distracted by the unexpected sexy. Unexpected sexy that was probably strictly off limits considering you didn’t run into many girls who were into girls in this town. No, most of those go the hell out of Dodge as soon as possible and never came back.

  I was an outlier in that sense.

  “They’re right on the other side of those shelves right in front of you,” the girl said with a smile that melted my heart and got me hot and bothered at the same time. Damn. Having a smile like that wasn’t fair. She should have a concealed weapon’s permit, because she was making me weak in the knees just from a simple look!

  No, I was being crazy. I turned and moved back towards the romance section. Girls like that weren’t into girls. At all. I sighed as I thought of the bane of my dating life. Or lack thereof because no one in their right mind was willing to relocate to small town America considering they’d either escaped their own small town once upon a time or they’d heard horror stories from other girls they’d dated who’d escaped.

  I thumbed through the romance novels. They were helpfully divided up by author and my mom had been very specific about what she was looking for. It amazed me that she could figure out a computer well enough to look up new novels coming out by her favorite authors, but she still refused to use an ereader. Only dead trees and ink for her.

  I peered around the edge of the romance shelves and over to
the new librarian. I still didn’t even have her name, though I’d be sure to fix that when I made my way up to chat with Ethel again. She was so gorgeous. I had to get to know her better.

  Though I knew that was a dangerous game. Indulging in girl crushes with straight girls could be a dangerous thing. I’d learned that one the hard way in my teen years back when I still made the mistake of confusing best friends for romantic partners.

  No, I wasn’t going to play that game anymore. What I was going to do was concentrate on getting all the books my mom wanted and worry about my own love life later. It was a damn shame I couldn’t pick out some romance books to tide me over, but they didn’t even stock that sort of romance book at this library. No audience.

  I needed to take my own advice and get a damn ereader. At least them I’d have some outlet.

  3: Night Life

  I let out a sigh and a heave as I finished with the last big pile of books for the day. The kids who came in after school really did a number on the place. I’d considered complaining to the board that we were basically a glorified and woefully understaffed babysitting service in the afternoon, but I figured that was a fight for when I’d been on the job for a little longer.

  “Long day?” Ethel called from her perch up front.

  “You have no idea,” I said. “I caught a couple of teenagers back in the romance section getting frisky with each other.”

  “Well at least they were in the right section for that sort of thing. That’s the only place in this town you’ll stand a chance of getting a decent sex education,” she said.

  I barked out a laugh. Sometimes Ethel could really surprise me with her view of the world.

  “I suppose you have a point there,” I said.

  “Besides, finding a couple of kids making out in the romance section is nothing compared to some of the things I’ve found over the years. Would you believe your friend Darcy Thomas was conceived right in front of those encyclopedias you’ve been weeding?”

  I grimaced and shook my head as I moved up to the front desk. I leaned on it and looked at people walking past in the town square outside. A few cars drove by as I thought of that unpleasant image. I knew Darcy’s parents, and that wasn’t an image I needed in my head.

  “Thanks for that, Ethel,” I said.

  “If I have to live with the horror of finding them en flagrante then I figure I should share the pain with someone,” she said. “You do use hand sanitizer after you’ve touched the books, don’t you?”

  “Always,” I said. “Though I’m guessing anything left over from Darcy’s conception a couple of decades back has long since disappeared.”

  “Right. Tell that to the unfortunate products of the sex ed they offer in this town,” she said.

  I laughed again. “I didn’t know you were so progressive about that sort of thing.”

  “I am when you see how many kids are getting knocked up because they don’t know any better,” Ethel muttered.

  “Well I think I’m going to go over the budget numbers you put together today,” I said. “Any surprises in there?”

  I glanced back through the library, going over a mental list of everything I needed to get done before we opened the doors tomorrow. I was supposed to be off tomorrow, but it was a weekend and that meant I had to be here manning the desk if I wanted the library to be open for the four hours we were supposed to be open.

  I glanced over the children’s area and thought to that girl earlier in the day. She’d been striking with her red hair that was almost orange. She had freckles and green eyes that caught my attention and held it. She’d also seemed distracted while she was staring at me, and I’d almost thought she was a mom come to pick up one of her kids from storytime early, only there were no kids in the group that looked like her.

  To say that she was distracting would be one hell of an understatement, though. That girl was gorgeous, easily the hottest woman I’d seen coming through the library since I started here a month ago, and I couldn’t get her out of my head. Looking over at the romance section or the children’s area was enough to bring her back to the forefront of my imagination. I thought of a few things I wouldn’t mind doing with her.

  And promptly chased all those thoughts out of my head. The girl was going back to look at novels in the romance section. I knew for a fact that we didn’t have any LGBT romance books back there. Partly because no one had ever asked for them and partly because I’m sure anyone buying books worried about their long term career prospects the moment one of the overly religious nutters in this town discovered that sort of thing was back there.

  I still remembered a protest from when I was younger with an honest-to-goodness picket line out in front of the library because the people from one of the more evangelically inclined churches in town thought romance novels was the equivalent of stocking pornography.

  I wondered what they thought of what they could find on the Internet.

  “Kirsten? Are you still with us?”

  I blinked and turned back to Ethel. Came crashing back to reality, is more like it. Thoughts of that girl were very distracting. More distracting than any one girl had any right to be.

  “Sorry about that Ethel,” I said. “Got distracted thinking about all the stuff I have to have ready before we open tomorrow.”

  “You really should have more of a social life, you know. It’s not going to be the end of the world if everything isn’t perfect around here. Especially with the way they’re bleeding us dry on the tax budget.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “I know all about your theory of giving the public what they pay for, but the big secret is that’s probably more likely to get us closed down for good than it is to get us the money we want.”

  “You’re the one with the big fancy graduate degree,” Ethel said in a tone of voice that clearly communicated she thought her practical experience in such matters was worth more than any amount of book learning I might have.

  I grinned. I wouldn’t expect Ethel to be any other way.

  “So do you know anything about that redhead who was in here earlier?”

  If I could’ve put my hand over my mouth I would’ve. As it was I figured that would give it away that I was surprised I let that out, so I schooled myself to what I hoped was an impassive and disinterested look. Except I was very interested in learning more about that beauty, even if what I learned was she was a pretty cheerleader type who married young to her good old boy farming boyfriend from high school.

  That seemed to be the common story for girls that pretty who were still in this town. Yours truly excepted.

  “Savannah? Did she introduce herself to you earlier?”

  “Not exactly. She was having trouble finding the romance section so I interrupted storytime to point her in the right direction.”

  Ethel barked out a short laugh. “You must be mistaken. That girl knows exactly where the romance novels are. She comes in and gets a new dozen or so every couple of weeks for her mother. The poor dear smoked a lot when she was younger and doesn’t get out much now as a result.”

  “Really?”

  Now that was interesting. If she was in there all the time looking for romance books then why would she ask me where they were? Why would she be standing there staring at me otherwise? I felt a hopeful flutter rising in my stomach that I stomped down on. Getting those kinds of hopes up were counterproductive at best, and potentially heartbreaking at worst. Maybe she’d just gotten turned around, though it was hard to imagine getting turned around in a building this small.

  “Savannah.” I chuckled. “You can’t get more country than that name, can you?”

  “Her mother was from Georgia. Told me she wanted something to remind her of home,” Ethel said. Then she fixed me with a look that was far too sharp for comfort. “Any particular reason for this sudden interest in Ms. Savannah?”

  I blushed and barely managed to turn away in time. Ethel was staring at me over her glasses with a look that said she knew e
ntirely too much, or at the very least she suspected something. Either way, I didn’t want her to suspect anything along those lines. Better to look away!

  “No reason. I’d just never seen her before and wondered,” I said.

  “You never asked me about anyone else you’ve never seen before,” she said so quietly that I wondered if I was even supposed to hear her. Damn it. I was being too obvious. This was dangerous territory.

  “So does she have any siblings or anything? I could swear she looked familiar.”

  Good one Kirsten. Deflect while also making it seem like I was interested in her for something completely unrelated to the real reason I was so totally into her at the moment. Getting up in somebody’s family business was a common enough theme in this town, and one that would distract Ethel faster than catnip distracted a house cat.

  “Oh no. Nothing like that. She would’ve been starting at the high school around the time you were starting in college though. Her dad had a farm out north of town, but they sold all that off. Heart attack, very tragic and…”

  Ethel droned on and I nodded at what I thought were the right moments. She could chatter on for days about the family history of just about anyone born and raised in this county, and some of the families in adjacent counties as well.

  “Kirsten? What do you think of that?”

  I shook my head and came back to reality again. Ethel was looking up at me expectantly. Shit. She’d just said something that required a response, and I had no idea what it was. Yeah, sitting there and nodding along with her had been a great fucking idea.

  “I’m sorry. My mind was somewhere else for a minute there. What were you saying?”

  “I was saying that all this talk about these families reminded me that I’m having a small cookout at my place in a month or so. I was hoping you might be able to make it?”

  I smiled. “I’d be happy to come out to your cookout. How small are we talking?”