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Almost there . . . Don’t quit . . . The cat won’t explode . . .

Proud of herself for maintaining her focus, Alice pressed into downward dog, just in time for Gaston to burst into the room and leap onto Alice, flattening her into the mat.

She squealed and squirmed as a wet nose pressed against her ear. The dog had her pinned. And all she could do, as the first rays of the morning sun illuminated the cloud of dog hair suspended in the air, was greet the day with a middle finger.

It wasn’t a typical gesture for Alice, but her finger was the only thing she could move.

Chapter

Six

Alice had half an hour before the library opened. She’d done her guided meditation in her car, which was not how meditation was supposed to be done, but she could only squeeze in so much self-care before it was time to leave for work.

She checked it off her to-do list and leaned back in her chair, breathing in the scent of books. There was absolutely nothing that smelled better than books.

Her phone vibrated with a text from Carmen.

Would you like to meet for lunch?

She’d planned to pick up a sack lunch from the Corner Café and eat at the Rio Verde Park with a book as her companion. But meeting Carmen sounded better.

Don’t you have to work?

Chateau Bleu wasn’t open for lunch, but usually Carmen was busy all day getting ready for dinner.

The Bleu is closed on Mondays.

Alice hadn’t known that. She hardly ever ate at Chateau Bleu, even though everyone raved about it. It was kind of a date place. Not really the type of restaurant you’d take a cozy mystery to.

I’ll be free at 1:00.

It only took a second for Carmen to text back.

It’s a date!

Her day might have gotten off to a rocky start, but things were looking up. At the top of her calendar, she’d written Don’t forget to schedule self-care! Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.

Her self-care had nearly killed her this morning. She needed self-care to recover from her self-care. Lunch with Carmen would fit the bill.

The first thing on her morning schedule:

1. Grant applications

Like most libraries, they were perpetually underfunded. And since Alice wore all the hats, she was the official grant writer. She sighed. Grant applications were not fun, and this one required a bit of information she had yet to gather. She moved it to the afternoon.

2. Order books for the children’s collection

Yay! She had a small budget to work with, but ordering new books was absolutely one of the greatest joys of her job.

3. Circulation desk

Yay again! She and Janie Ramos, the library assistant, worked the desk in shifts, and it was the most enjoyable part of the day. The people of Big Verde weren’t at all shy when it came to telling her what they thought of a book. And when they loved a book that she’d recommended, it was the best feeling in the world.

Her afternoon schedule showed an appointment with a sales rep and a meeting with the city manager.

She had just enough time to check email, and ooh! There was one from someone with the Austin Public Library. Interesting.

A couple of years ago, the library had been destroyed in a flood, and there had been some doubt over whether it could be rebuilt. The building had been underinsured, and it hadn’t had full flood coverage. Alice had preemptively applied for library positions in Austin, just in case the worst happened and she no longer had a library to call home.

Luckily, the community had come together to save the Big Verde Public Library, building a facility that was even better than the one before. But now, there was a job posting for a managing librarian of a lovely branch in Austin. It was much bigger than her library, and holy guacamole, it paid a lot more.

The person contacting her, Ms. Wilson, said they didn’t normally keep an applicant pool, but that Alice had stood out because of the circumstances—Big Verde had been all over the news at the time. She wanted to know if Alice would like to update her résumé and apply for the job.

This was a lot to take in so early in the day.

The door opened, and at the familiar sound of Janie’s bangle bracelets, Alice guiltily minimized her email. “Good morning, Janie,” she called out.

Janie had been working at the library longer than Alice, and she was the only other full-time employee. The two of them were an excellent team. They had their routines down, and neither of them liked to vary from them much.

Brittany, on the other hand, who would unfortunately be skipping in around noon, was another story. She wanted to try a million different things at once. And the fact that she was an intern, and not a full-time employee, didn’t slow her down at all. Luckily, wedding drama had saved them from redecorating the reading nook, rearranging the conference room, and researching mobile libraries, activities Brittany had been completely determined to supervise until her bridesmaids’ dresses had arrived in yellow instead of peach.

There was a pretty big difference between yellow and peach, but Brittany had eventually adjusted, and now the decorative theme was sunflowers. She’d had a harder time adjusting to the reality of her venue—she’d wanted a destination wedding—which ended up being a somewhat rundown dude ranch outside of Austin instead of the Bahamas.

“Do you want me to open up?” Janie asked, stopping at Alice’s door.

Alice rose from her chair. “I’ll do it.”

“Did you hear about Brittany?”

“What now?” Alice asked. Maybe the dude ranch had burned down. Or the cake-topper didn’t look exactly like her and Zachary.

“She broke her foot. She’s in a boot.”

“Oh no! How?”

“I don’t know. She said it was a stress fracture. Maybe from all the stress of the wedding,” Janie said with a wink.

“How long does she have to wear the boot? Because if she