Tumbleweed Weddings (8 page)

As she left, Lane winked at Callie. “I was thinking the same thing. But you’re even prettier.”

Did he say
“prettier”
? Feeling warmth rise in her face, she squinted at her watch. “Oh no! It’s after one thirty. Cheyenne is going to have my head.”

“I doubt that.” Lane stood, took out his wallet, and threw a couple of bills on the table. “She seemed to be enjoying her stint as librarian.”

They walked out the door and straddled Lane’s motorcycle.

“Are you going to give my glasses back?” Callie circled her arms around his waist.

“Maybe. Someday.” He started the cycle, and it thundered to life.

They flew down Rattlesnake Road. Callie held on to Lane tightly, loving the feel of the wind blowing her hair back. And now it fluttered against her eyelashes. Her heart gave a happy leap. Lane thought she was pretty, even prettier than her sister.

Oh Lord
, she prayed,
please let something good come from this
. Did she dare pray that Lane would want to marry her?

But was he a Christian? She just assumed he was, but his prayer for the food didn’t give her any confidence about his relationship with God.

Lane slowed down to turn onto Main Street, and Callie smiled at the tall spots of color on the sidewalk who waved to her, even though she wasn’t sure who those people were. The entire population of Fort Lob was probably gossiping about them. After all, a person could hardly sneak through town on a motorcycle, especially on Main Street.

When they arrived at the library, Lane pulled up before the door. “I’ll drop you off here, and you can let Cheyenne leave.”

Callie dismounted.
“Now
will you give my glasses back?”

He gazed at her eyes a moment before he winked. “Not yet.” Revving the motor, he guided the cycle to the back parking lot.

Callie laughed out loud as she walked up the library steps using the handrail as a guide and pulled open the front door. She stepped inside, and her smile froze.

The navy blue blob standing behind the checkout desk couldn’t be Cheyenne. For one thing, Cheyenne had been wearing an orange T-shirt, and for another thing, this blob was as thin as a skeleton.

“Miss Brandt!” Miss Penwell’s voice rang out across the entryway, grating on Callie’s nerves. “Where in the world have you been?”

Even without her glasses, Callie knew Miss Penwell’s lips were pursed.

L
ane jogged up the library steps. Callie’s glasses jiggled in his shirt pocket, and he smiled.
She doesn’t even realize how pretty she is
. He reached for the library’s door handle. How could he give Callie the money for laser eye surgery without offending her? It couldn’t be that expensive, probably a few thousand dollars.
I’ll think of something
.

He stepped inside and stopped short.

“I should have you fired!” Miss Penwell’s arms were folded against her thin chest.

Callie stood in front of the checkout counter, her head bowed.

“You are not to leave this building during your shift, Miss Brandt, and you know that.”

Lane strode up to the desk. “Now just a minute.” He kept his voice low.

“You!” Miss Penwell’s gray eyes widened. “You are the reason! It’s because of you that Miss Brandt is in trouble. She knows better than to leave the premises, and you were the devil’s agent to cause her to—”

“Listen!” Lane held up both hands, feeling his ire rise. He glanced at Callie’s profile. Her head was still bowed, her face pale. Obviously she wasn’t going to defend herself.

He took a deep breath. “Miss Penwell, we need to discuss this calmly, like three rational human beings.”

“There is nothing to discuss. You dragged my employee to Ray’s—”

“All right, Miss Penwell, I apologize. This whole thing was my fault. Please don’t fire Callie over it.”

Callie looked up at him. “Lane—”

“No, Callie. I shouldn’t have asked you to leave your job.” He glanced at Miss Penwell, noting that her lips were pressed together. “It won’t happen again; you have my word on that.”

“No, it won’t happen, young man, because you will not set foot in my library again. I forbid you to come here. No more books for you. I won’t have my employees—” She stopped as two older men walked up to the desk. “Bruce! Vern.” She frowned. “How long have you two been standing there?”

Lane recognized the men who had liked the article by Herbert Dreyfuss the first time he had seen Callie.
I hope they’re on my side
.

The more dignified man, the one from Scotland, stepped forward. “We’ve been here all afternoon, Lucille. We heard you dismiss Cheyenne—”

“The whole library heard you.” The other man pointed to his hearing aid. “Even me.”

Callie winced.

The Scottish man drummed his fingers on the desk. “Lucille, I’ve already discussed this issue with you.”

“What issue?” Miss Penwell frowned at him. “As I recall, Bruce, I have never had to deal with an errant employee who left the premises because some boy—”

“Lucille.” Bruce lowered his voice as he leaned toward her. “I’m talking about your temper. You cannot prohibit people from using the library.” He motioned toward Lane. “And this is not the first time I’ve heard you doing that. The town council discussed your behavior at our last—”

“My behavior! Why, Bruce MacKinnon! How dare you say that my behavior is anything but outstanding? In fact, exemplary. I’ve been running this library for thirty-nine years.”

The other man spoke up. “And the council thinks it’s time you retire.”

“Vern, I’ll handle this.” Bruce turned to Miss Penwell.

“Retire?” Miss Penwell’s voice rose with her words. “And just what would I do if I retired? Sit around my house twiddling my thumbs?”

Bruce sighed. “Lucille, you’re seventy-two years old—”

“I am not!”

He raised his eyebrows. “You’re the same age as me.”

Miss Penwell pursed her lips before she spoke. “I’m seventy-one.”

“Okay, seventy-one.”

“And I’m in excellent health. Excellent, I tell you!” She waved her hands in the air as if she could stop the discussion. “I do not need to retire. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen, I’ll let Miss Brandt take over.” She stalked toward the main room.

“But, Lucille—” Bruce stalked after her. “We are not through discussing this.”

Without a word, Miss Penwell rounded the corner, and a few seconds later a door slammed behind her.

Bruce strode into the main room. “Now, Lucille, just a minute. Open this door.” His voice faded.

Vern shook his head. “We’ll never get rid of her.” He walked to the main entrance. “Someone will have to kill her before she stops working at this library.” He exited.

Callie turned her beautiful eyes up to Lane. “Thanks for defending me, but you didn’t need to apologize. I made the decision to go with you.”

“And I’m glad you did, no matter what Miss Penwell says.”

She sighed. “Poor Cheyenne. I’m going to have to call her.”

Lane reached into his shirt pocket. “Here are your glasses. Sorry I didn’t clean them.”

She gave him a faint smile. “Thanks, Lane. And thanks for lunch. It was fun, even though I had to pay the piper.”

He frowned. “Does Miss Penwell have the authority to fire you?”

“No. The town council hired me, and I know they won’t fire me. Actually, they’ve been trying to get rid of Miss Penwell for a couple months. She’s been so nasty lately.” Callie shrugged. “I don’t know what will happen now.”

“Well, she’s digging her own grave, if you ask me.” He glanced up the stairs. “I should finish that research on Yellowstone. Can I check out five books on my card?”

Callie walked behind the desk. “You can check out as many books as you want.”

“Cheyenne, I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” Callie spoke into the library phone. “That must have been embarrassing when Miss Penwell yelled at you.”

“No problem. Besides, it was my bad. I practically pushed you two out the door.” Cheyenne paused. “Are you sure it’s okay to talk right now?”

“Yeah, no one’s in the building except Lane, and he’s upstairs in the Wyoming room.”

“I bet Miss Penwell scared off all the patrons with her tantrum.” Cheyenne laughed. “By the way, how did lunch go?”

Callie smiled for the first time since she entered the library. “It was wonderful.” She lowered her voice. “I’ll call you when I get home after work and tell you all about it, but I think he likes me.”

“Oh, Callie!” Cheyenne squealed into the phone.
She
didn’t have to keep her voice down. “I’m so excited! I can’t wait until you give me the entire scoop. I just
know
you two were made for each other, and I’m already praying.”

“Thanks.” Callie took a deep breath. “I hope we do end up together, but I want to make sure it’s the Lord’s will. Right now I don’t have a perfect peace about it because I’m not sure if he’s a Christian.” She adjusted her glasses, which she had cleaned. “I think—”

Lane descended the stairs, his arms stacked with books.

“Oh, I have to go, Cheyenne. Talk to you later.” She hung up the phone as Lane approached the desk.

“Seven books, Callie.” He set the pile down and placed his library card on top. “We’ll show that old Miss Penwell who’s boss.”

Several people entered the library as Callie checked out his books. She greeted them, hoping they hadn’t heard about the afternoon fiasco.

Lane made a trip to his motorcycle to place the books in the saddlebags. Coming back inside, he folded his arms on the counter and leaned toward her. “Callie, I want to apologize for getting you in trouble.”

She waved away his apology. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it was. I shouldn’t have asked you out for lunch. In fact, I’m going to make amends. Would you go out to dinner with me on Friday night?”

Her heart leaped into her throat. “I’d love to.”

“Good.” He grinned then reached up and pulled off her glasses.

Startled, Callie stepped back. “Lane—”

“Just wanted one more look.” His smile faded as he gazed into her eyes.

She gazed back, a wistful sigh escaping her lips.

The front door opened, and a group of kids walked in.

Lane set her glasses on the desk. “Until Friday.” He strode to the door, then he turned and winked at her before stepping outside.

At least she thought he winked. His face was so blurry she could barely make out his eyes.

Friday night
. Callie hugged herself. But this was only Monday, and Friday seemed to stretch into eternity.
Oh Lord, please give me peace about Lane
.

Donning her glasses, Callie reached for the phone and dialed Cheyenne’s number. This was too good to keep until after work.

I
t was a trying week for Callie.

She didn’t see Lane at all, but she saw plenty of Miss Penwell. Instead of arriving each day at two o’clock as she normally did, the head librarian came in at one o’clock on Tuesday and criticized everything Callie did. Fortunately, the library was closed on Wednesday, but on Thursday, Miss Penwell arrived at noon, spewing out more criticisms until Callie left at six.

Before going to the library on Friday morning, Callie decided to fortify herself with a cup of coffee at the Trailblazer Café on Main Street. It wouldn’t surprise her if Miss Penwell arrived at ten o’clock today. She probably heard that Callie had a date with Lane after work. In fact, Callie expected the whole town knew about their date by now, thanks to Tonya and her big mouth.

A lot of the locals, mainly retired men, met at the Trailblazer for breakfast every morning. Today, eight of them—old-timers she had known her entire life, including Bruce and Vern—sat at two tables in the corner. Along with swilling coffee refills, most of the men perused a copy of
The Scout
, Fort Lob’s newspaper.

Vern spotted her as she walked by. “Hey, Callie! Did you see the column in today’s paper by Herbert Dreyfuss?”

She stopped beside their table. “I haven’t read this week’s column yet.”

“Another great article about Wyoming.”

“Yeah.” Floyd DeWitt pointed to the paper. “We’ve been discussing it all morning.”

“Really?” Callie folded her arms. “What’s it about?”

“Yellowstone National Park.”

“Yellowstone?”

Vern nodded. “Would you believe, Dreyfuss says it’s one of the best vacation spots in the country. And he tells you all about it.” He chuckled. “That Dreyfuss is a smart one, just like I always said.”

Callie bid the men good day and left to get her coffee.

Yellowstone
. What a coincidence.