Chapter 1
One by one, Tori Sinclair ran through the order once again . . .
Rub eyes. Check.
Blink fast. Check.
Pinch hard. Check.
Yet it made no difference. Dixie Dunn was, in fact, smiling.
At her.
The first part was a rare occurrence in and of itself. But the second part? The part about Dixie Dunn smiling at Tori? Well, monumental didn’t even come close to doing it justice. Especially since Dixie steadfastly believed her earlier-than-intended retirement was 150 percent Tori’s fault.
Her. Tori. The one Dixie was smiling at like the proverbial cat who’d swallowed the—
Tori glanced down at the floor and took note of the carpet beneath her predecessor’s feet, the absence of yellow feathers more surprising than she would have expected. She met the elderly woman’s gaze. “You’re twenty minutes early.”
The woman’s stout frame rose and fell, the smile never leaving her face. “I guess I’m just excited. It’s been a long time.” With a silent clap of her hands, Dixie stepped forward and motioned toward the shelves of books that stood like soldiers in formation. “I was up half the night thinking about the kind of changes we can make while I’m here.”
“Changes?”
“All the libraries are going that way.”
She swallowed. “All the libraries?”
“It’s meant to breathe life into the place and liven things up a little.”
Rub eyes. Check.
Blink fast. Check
Pinch hard. Check.
Once again, Dixie was still there. Only this time the smile was parting to allow foreign gibberish to flow between her pencil-thin lips. Dixie. Dixie Dunn. The same person who had waged a one-woman war against change at the library less than two years earlier.
It was a battle that had ultimately resulted in Dixie being forced to retire—and Tori being hired—as head librarian. Hence, the more-than-a-little-unsettling smile’s effect on Tori.
“Things?” Tori repeated. “What kind of things?”
Dixie nodded, her voice a perfect accompaniment to the unmistakable sparkle in her eye. “First, there’s the matter of chairs.” With a beckoning gesture, Dixie turned on her sensible white pumps and led the way to one of the reading nooks Tori had created shortly after taking the library helm. The high-back armchairs had been found at a consignment shop for a ridiculously low sum, making it easier than expected to replace Dixie’s wooden chairs.
“They’ve already been replaced.”
“I see that,” Dixie mused. “But I think we can make them even more inviting.”
She stared at the woman, unable to think of a single thing to say.
“We want our patrons to feel comfortable here, don’t we, Victoria?”
“Comfortable?”
Dixie nodded. “Of course. That’s what all the up-and-coming libraries are doing these days, isn’t it?”
“Up-and-coming?”
“The more homey the better, I say.”
“H-homey?” She knew she sounded like a squawking parrot but she couldn’t stop herself. Dixie Dunn wanted to enter the age of progress?
“In fact, I think we should talk to the board about opening a little coffee kiosk over there in the corner.” Dixie gestured for Tori to follow, and, once again, she did. “It wouldn’t have to be anything terribly elaborate just—”
“A coffeekiosk?”
Again, the woman nodded. “It’s the wave of the future.”
Tori stopped in her tracks, folding her arms in the process. “Okay. Enough. Who put you up to this?” Periscoping her head from side to side, she strained to make out Margaret Louise Davis’s graying hair and plump form in the mystery section. Or her always-stylish twin sister, Leona Elkin, smirking in periodicals. Or even Rose Winters, in her telltale cotton sweater and penny loafers, glaring at Leona from the local history aisle.
Rose.
A quick check of the wall clock put her morning in perspective. If there was a hidden camera lurking for the sole purpose of recording her reaction to the woman formerly known as Dixie Dunn, its location would have to wait.
“Look, can we pick this back up later? After Rose’s appointment?” At Dixie’s nod, Tori turned and made her way over to the information desk in the center of the library’s main room. “There are no groups scheduled today, and no story time until tomorrow. So between that and the pool weather we’re having right now, I imagine things should be fairly quiet while I’m gone.”
Dixie’s smile slipped momentarily only to return on the heels of a shrug. “That’s okay. Quiet will give me time to make some adjustments.”
“What kind of adjustments?”