Free Ask Me by Laura Strickland Page A

buttoned-down to me.”
    “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Anyway, that particular book could be a treatise on early settlement in the colonies. You’ll be bored.”
    “I might well be interested in early settlement. Listen, why don’t you ask the clerk if there are more books?”
    The same impulse that had brought Leo in from the street kept his fingers fastened tight. “I’m not letting go. You ask.”
    “We’ll go together.”
    Connected by the mysterious tome, they sidled to the circulation desk, where the clerk gave them an appraising look.
    “Are there any more blind-date books?” Leo asked.
    “I guess that’s the last one. The event was a big success this year. The library’s filled with other books, though I must warn you we’re about to close.”
    “Be a gentleman,” the black-haired woman told Leo, “and let me have the book.” She already had her library card out, clutched in her other hand.
    “Why don’t you share it?” the clerk suggested impishly. “See what happens.”
    The black-haired woman laughed a bit nervously. Before Leo could speak, the clerk snatched the library card from her hand and wanded the book. “There you go. Oh, and every book comes with a little bag of candy hearts. Have a happy Valentine’s Day.”
    Leo frowned and snatched the small red bag the clerk pushed across the counter at him. Elsewhere in the building, lights dimmed. They had little choice but to leave.
    Yet the woman still clutched her side of the book.
    “Who gets to take it home?” she asked.
    Leo smiled suddenly. “Pretty ridiculous to be negotiating over an unknown book for company tonight, isn’t it?”
    “Pitiful,” she agreed.
    Leo hesitated, impulse nibbling at him once again. He could suggest they get a coffee or a drink together. Sure, she was a far cry from the kind of woman he usually dated, almost diametrically opposed. But it beat being alone, right?
    She gave him a provocative look. “Maybe the candy hearts hold the answer to who gets the book first.” She dug into the bag in his hand to draw forth a single heart, and Leo saw her fingernails were painted black. She opened her palm with the heart on it, words facing upward.
    Ask Me , Leo read.
    Well, then. He drew a breath. “Want to go somewhere for coffee?”
    ****
    Outside, wet snow splashed down to strike the pavement. Geraldine cast another look at the man beside her—tall and lean, he had a thatch of well-cropped brown hair and, as she’d seen in the library, eyes the color of warm chocolate. Gerri liked chocolate, but he definitely wasn’t her type—far too clean cut and, as she’d said, buttoned down. She usually went for the wild-child variety of man, off-leash and slightly dangerous.
    And how’s that working for you, Gerri girl? She’d been notoriously unlucky in love, witnessed by being alone on Valentine’s Day, reduced to a blind date with a book.
    “Is the coffee shop down the street all right?” she asked, casting another look at him. He appeared nearly as uncomfortable as she felt. Why had he asked her for coffee, anyway? Just because the candy heart suggested it?
    “Yes, fine.” He had a nice voice, well-modulated, even cultured. A bit sexy. “What’s your name?”
    “Geraldine Webb. Yours?”
    “Leo. Leo Rankin.”
    He’d surrendered the book to her as soon as they reached the sidewalk, and she tucked it into the crook of her arm.
    “And, Leo, what series of sad and wrongful events brought you to the library on the evening of Valentine’s Day?”
    He laughed, and it sounded nice in the frosty dark. “I’ve learned books make decent, steady companions. They rarely let you down.”
    “Don’t say that till you’ve read old Spiney, here. He was the last one on the shelf—might be a real stinker.”
    They reached the brightly lit coffee house and he opened the door for her. Gerri couldn’t remember the last time that had happened.
    The place—busy and fairly noisy—offered few empty