Fuzzy Logic (10 page)

Joel gathered her up in his arms and kissed her. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Chapter 4

T
he next day at the library, Jan sat at the front desk entering book data into the computer. In a way, the mindless data-entry work was soothing. It was a good thing she hadn’t drunk any wine last night. Maria had looked somewhat shredded by the time she disappeared down the stairs. But she didn’t have to return to work the next day, so presumably she could sleep it off.

The front door of the library opened and Jan glanced up from her monitor. Michael was walking toward the desk. What was he doing here? Her heart raced and she sat up straight in her chair. She’d hoped she’d never see this guy again. So much for that idea. She hadn’t been exaggerating to Kat and Maria. He definitely was as good-looking as she remembered. Today, he was even wearing a cowboy hat, so he really
did
look like the Marlboro man. Maria would have had a heart attack.

Jan smiled at the thought. “Hello, Michael. What brings you to the Alpine Grove library?”

With an amused glint in his brown eyes, he said. “You weren’t kidding, huh? You really are the librarian here.”

“I have no reason to lie.” She fidgeted with a pencil in her hands. He hadn’t answered her question. What
was
he doing here?

“Oh, come on. People lie at weddings. They’re like high-school reunions. You think, ‘hey, I’ll never see these people again and they’ll never know I’m really a janitor in Petaluma.’”

“I never asked you what you do. Are you a janitor in Petaluma?”

Michael grinned. “Actually, no. I work in advertising. That’s why I’m here. My agency is shooting a commercial and I need to look something up.”

“What kind of commercial? I didn’t know Hollywood was interested in Alpine Grove.” Cowboy hat aside, he certainly didn’t seem like the type of person to be hanging out in a small town.

He lounged casually against the desk. “I don’t think Hollywood is interested. But we’re saving money by driving out here to the sticks because we need some pine trees in the background. The ad is for men’s cologne and we needed a more outdoorsy, Wild-West look than we can get in San Diego.”

Jan inclined her head slightly toward his. “I guess that explains the cowboy hat.”

Michael took the hat off his head and turned it around in his hands. “We all have them. The client gave them to us. Actually, Ron, the actor doing the commercial, has a much cooler one. No real cowboy would be caught dead in these things. Mine is already falling apart. But it works to keep the sun off my face.”

“Skin cancer is always a risk. Particularly if you were badly sunburned when you were a child.”

Michael placed his elbows on the desk and leaned over the counter toward her. “I know you weren’t sunburned. Anywhere.”

Jan leaned back on her stool. She could feel the flush rising in her cheeks and she crossed her arms in front of her. “That was when I was eight. I have seen sunlight in the intervening years. So again, why exactly are you here?”

Michael widened his eyes and stretched his body over the counter so his face was close to hers. Jan noticed again how long and thick his eyelashes were. Giving her a penetrating look, he said, “Maybe I just missed you.”

Jan shook her head. “I doubt that.” It was a good thing she took her job seriously. He had the most gorgeous eyes. Up close, she could see that chocolate-brown color was flecked with tiny specks of gold.

Michael stood up straight again and placed his palms on the counter. “I told you. I need to look something up. Ron is having a meltdown and says he can’t do the commercial. He needs to understand his motivation. So I need information about the Wild West and cowboys. Can I borrow some books?”

Taken aback by his sudden return to business, Jan picked up her pencil again and attempted to look businesslike. “This is a library. That’s what we do. But you do need to have a library card. Please fill out this form.”

He frowned. “Oh come on. Really? I don’t live here. Do I really have to fill out a bunch of bureaucratic forms just to get a book on cowboys?”

“If you want to check them out, yes. However, if you prefer, you can go to the history section over there and see if you can find what you need. Try 978—that section has the history of the western states in North America. Bring the books to the desk here and I can make copies of the pages with the information you need. But each copy does cost ten cents.”

Michael glanced up at the clock on the wall behind the desk. “How long will that take? I’m in a rush. I need this now. Yesterday, even. Every minute Ron is whining about his motivational angst is costing the agency a lot of money.”

Jan looked at her watch. “Do you take a break for lunch? Maybe you can distract him with some sandwiches. It’s not very busy here today. If you give me an hour or so, I can look up some information for you while the actor eats. There’s a deli just around the corner.”

The muscles around Michael’s lips relaxed and he smiled widely. “Would you do that? He reached across the desk and grabbed her shoulders. “I could just kiss you! You have no idea how much this helps me out.”

Jan jerked back, away from him, and put her hands up in front of her. “That’s not necessary. I do research for people all the time. In fact, I enjoy it. Are there any specific questions that the actor wants answered?”

Michael paused for a moment and said, “Well, Ron is worried that his clothes don’t look authentic and he wants to understand why his character is there. I told him that he’s selling cologne and that’s why he’s there, but he’s not buying it. He says he wants a better understanding of why he’s standing around with his horse in the trees. I can’t believe this guy. Do you know how expensive it is to hire a trained horse to stand around in trees? It’s killing me!”

Jan nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Michael raised his hat in the air with a flourish and yelled “Yee-HAW!” At the outburst, several people quietly reading magazines in the row of chairs along the wall looked up and glared. A gray-haired woman glowered at Michael and hissed “Shhhh!” in his direction.

Glancing at the woman across the room, Michael said in a stage whisper, “Oops. Sorry. But thank you! I’ll be back in an hour.”

Jan adored doing research and she had a lot of fun researching cowboy locations, activities, and motivations. It was like a treasure hunt or mystery story trying to find out why a cowboy might be standing around in a copse of trees. Pleased with her finds, she made copies of relevant pages, highlighted important information, and placed the stack of papers on the desk. When Michael walked through the door of the library, she waved at him.

At the desk, Michael looked down at the stack of paper. “Did you find anything? Please tell me you did and that big pile of dead trees is mine. The sandwich distraction only took me so far. Ron is getting antsy again.”

Jan was eager to share what she’d learned. “It was so interesting. Cowboys led a fascinating life.”

Michael was nodding as he riffled through the papers. “That’s great. What do I owe you for all these copies? I have to get back right now before Ron blows a gasket. The guy is so temperamental. Even the potato chips weren’t right. Sheesh. Dealing with actors drives me nuts.”

“Don’t you want to know what I learned?”

“Not right now. I’ll read it. I’ve really got to go.” He poked around in his wallet and proffered a bill at Jan. “Here’s a twenty. I’ll come back for the change later. I’ve really got to run. This shoot is going to blow my budget and my boss is freaking out. Thank you, though. I’ll be back later.”

Disappointed that she wouldn’t get to explain more about cowboy life, Jan took the money and smiled. “Oh, this is more than enough. I’ll have your change waiting for you when you return.”

Michael leaned across the desk and wrapped Jan in a bear hug. “You are amazing. Thank you!” He gave her a loud smacking kiss on the cheek.

Startled by the impact of the sudden embrace, Jan squeezed her eyes shut. “You’re welcome,” she said weakly.

Michael’s body was yanked away from Jan’s, and she opened her eyes to find Steve standing in front of the desk with one of his beefy fists clutching Michael’s shoulder.

“What are you doing making out with my girlfriend?” Steve said.

Michael turned his head to look at Jan. “I take it you know this gentleman?”

Jan nodded. “Yes. He’s my fiancé, actually.”

Steve narrowed his eyes at Michael. “So why are you messing with her?”

Michael shook his shoulder out of Steve’s grip. “Unhand me, you brute.”

Jan giggled. Michael didn’t seem to find Steve particularly threatening and she hadn’t heard a reference from old Popeye cartoons in a long time.

Steve’s face reddened. “Are you making fun of me? Who are you, anyway?”

“I am a patron of the library,” Michael said slowly, as if he were explaining something to a sleepy three-year old. “And I’m an old friend of Jan’s. I was her neighbor a long time ago. And then I saw her last weekend at her mother’s wedding.”

Steve whipped his head around toward Jan. “You didn’t tell me about this guy. Are you running around on me? And here you were accusing me the other night. You’ve got a lot of nerve.”

Jan waved her hands at the two men and whispered, “You both need to calm down. And for heaven’s sake, be quiet. This is a library. You’re making a scene. Steve, Michael really is here at the library for research. This pile of papers is for him. He was just picking them up. And yes, I saw him at the wedding last weekend, but that’s because his father was marrying my mother. Which you would know if you’d been there.”

Michael smirked. “But I have seen her naked.”

Steve’s fist whirled around. Michael ducked to the side, and the momentum of his swing caused Steve to half-fall across the desk so the punch glanced across Jan’s cheek with a great smacking noise. She shrieked and her hands flew to her face.

The two men stood in shocked silence for a second and then Michael ran around to the other side of the desk and tried to pull Jan’s hands away from her face. “Are you okay? Let me see.”

Jan shook her head. Hot tears were streaming down her face, fueling her anger. “What is wrong with you? This is a library, not a bar.”

Michael looked into her eyes and smoothed her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t taunt someone like that. But I couldn’t help myself.”

Jan snuffled. “Someone like what? He’s my fiancé.”

Michael gently ran his fingers across the red mark that was developing on her cheek. “I’m sorry about that, too. Are you going to be okay?”

“I think so. I need to go get some ice from the refrigerator. And call Jill and ask her to come in. I’m the only one here.”

Steve leaned over from the other side of the desk and said, “Listen buddy, I told you before. Don’t touch my girlfriend.”

Michael lifted his hands from Jan and backed away from her with his palms facing outward. “Okay, not touching anymore.” He walked back around to the front of the desk and leaned his face close to Steve’s. “For the record, I’m not your buddy. And maybe you should check and see if your
girlfriend
is okay.”

Jan could feel her mascara running down her cheeks and wiped her eyes hurriedly. She probably looked like a demented raccoon at this point. “I think you both should leave now.” She handed Michael the pile of papers. “I hope this is what you need.”

Steve grabbed Michael’s shirt collar. “I don’t want to see you in here again, pretty boy. Stay away from her. I mean it.”

Jan took her hand away from her cheek and smacked the counter with the palms of her hands. The row of readers all jumped at the noise and glared at her in unison. Jan didn’t care. She was sick of these two testosterone-laced morons. “Steve, stop it. Both of you. Get. Out.
Now
.”

Clutching his papers tightly in his fist, Michael glared at Steve. “Let’s go.”

The two men walked out the door and Jan exhaled the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. She could feel the bruise blooming under her skin. Her cheek hurt and she wanted to cry not just from the pain, but also from embarrassment. She smiled weakly at the people reading magazines. “I’m very sorry for the noise.”