“You find them, you keep them away from me. I won’t be responsible for what I do if I get near them,” she threatened in her soft, sweet voice which made Chace smile but he didn’t let his amusement become audible. This was because he thought she was cute but she was also being very serious.

When he could keep the humor out of his tone, he promised her, “They’ll be sorted, Faye.”

“I hope so,” she muttered, wiping down the cutlery.

“They’ll be sorted.”

She nodded to the sink, rinsed the cutlery and put it in the drainer. Then she moved to the stove to get the skillet and it occurred to Chace she felt this depth of emotion for a kid she didn’t help create, she didn’t carry in her womb, she didn’t bring into the world.

Which meant when they eventually got down to making a family, she’d give this and likely more to their brood.

Something she had, always.

Something he never did.

Something he’d always wanted.

Something their kids would take for granted.

He’d fucked up, not sharing his secrets, not trusting in the strength she’d displayed since he met her, transferring on her in her shyness his mother’s frailty. It might have been an understandable fuck up but it was a fuck up.

But they had it out, she helped him let it go and then she let it go. The next day it was Chace and Faye, no rehashing it, no searching comments, no penetrating looks. She was over it, she’d helped him over it, she was moving on and she took him with her. Except for the fact that they both understood the depth of their feelings for each other, their commitment to their relationship and that bringing them indelibly closer, drama over, onward.

That was going to be his life. Faye at his side. Faye at his back. Dramas, fights, they’d happen, they’d end and they’d move on. And his kids would have that too, all of it, her devotion, her strength, her brand of quiet but fierce protection and her ability to sort through the shit, lay it out and move on.

He put the last plate away feeling his lips tipped up as she scoured the skillet and he grabbed the cutlery to dry it as he watched her rinse the skillet, the water running over her hands.

Naked hands.

Yeah, he needed to put a ring on her finger.

Soon.

* * *

“I’m uncertain why you have a voice in this meeting, Mrs. Maxwell, you don’t even live in Carnal,” Mary Eglund asked, snippy and impatient.

It was eight seventeen in the evening and Chace was sitting in the Town Hall next to Faye and trying with decreasing success not to laugh his ass off.

This was because it was no longer a mystery and also not a surprise that it was Mary Eglund, known as a Jesus Freak and not the handing out daisies and pamphlets kind, was behind the attempted library closure. This was also because, after a few opening comments by Cesar followed by a few inflammatory remarks from Mary, the floor was opened up.

Krystal Briggs got there first and tore the Council a new one, swiftly and succinctly and managed to do it without any cursing.

On her heels stepped up Nina Maxwell whose wrong side Chace decided never to get on because she might be passionate but she was also eloquent and she had an English accent so all that sass was tied up in some serious class.

She was also very pretty and when Chace could stop watching her, he watched Max watching his wife. Most of the time, Max was grinning. Some of it, he was shaking his head but doing it grinning. Some of it, he was trying to control the active toddler he had at his knee at the same time holding a sleeping baby cradled in his arm. All of it denoting he was pussy-whipped in that good way like Tate, Ty and now, Chace.

Cesar, Chace noted right off the bat, was playing this smart. He had no intention of shutting down the library. Mary had minimal support from the other Council members, none of whom had said that first word. He was keeping his mouth shut, letting Mary have her meeting at the same time letting her dig her own grave.

Mary was digging it but Nina had handed her the shovel.

“You sit on the City Council,” Nina retorted. “Therefore I can only assume, as part of your duties, that you are aware of the funding sources of local amenities including the fact that taxpayer dollars from the entire county go to Carnal in order to keep the library doors open. Therefore, the citizens in Gnaw Bone, Chantelle and every town in this county have a right to be heard at this meeting.”

“This is true,” Mary shot back. “But the bulk of the funding comes from Carnal.”

“I’d hardly describe the funding provided by Carnal as ‘bulk’ in any sense of the word considering your library is drastically under-resourced, needs new computers, is unable to keep on top of periodicals, purchasing books at the time of their release and their DVD collection is woefully dated,” Nina returned. “If public records and my calculations are correct, the Town of Carnal will have a surplus in their budget this year so as I see it, they shouldn’t be closing down a resource but funneling more funds into the resources they already have.”

“Jeez, she must have taken notes during our conversation,” Faye muttered from beside him and Chace pressed his lips together, using his arm already around her to pull her closer.

“Not to mention,” Nina went on, “We’re extremely fortunate to have a librarian managing our facility who has a Master’s in Library Science. She’s worked there seven years. The Library Board has given her nothing but glowing appraisals and she gets paid on the lower spectrum of the salary range for someone who works five hours a week less than she does.”

“As if she works those hours,” Mary spat and, at this surprising insinuation, both Faye and Chace straightened in their seats. “I’ve been paying attention and, recently, she’s taken an exorbitant amount of time off.”

“Holy frak,” Faye muttered.

“I’ve read her job description,” Nina retorted. “With her tenure, she’s earned three week’s vacation, four personal days and five sick days a year. With your estimation of ‘exorbitant’, are you alleging she’s taken advantage beyond this allotment?”

“I would allege she’s taking advantage of her city-funded position most assuredly considering she’s carrying on a blatant affair with a recently widowed man!” Mary fired back and Faye shot straight at his side as a growl escaped Chace’s throat that he couldn’t but also didn’t try to contain.

“Now see here!” They heard Silas shout and both of them turned to see him standing up from his bench on the opposite side of the room, his face red as a beet, his arms straight down at his sides in fists.

“Mary, I’ll ask, with respect, that you keep your remarks directed to library business,” Cesar cut in before Silas could lose it, speaking into his microphone, his face red as well and he was visibly furious.

“It is library business considering this town through this Council is providing the Library Board with funding to pay the salary of a fallen woman,” Mary returned heatedly.

“Oh my God,” Faye whispered as Chace’s own hands balled into fists.

“Ms. Goodknight’s personal life is not up for public debate,” Cesar shot back even more heatedly. “And, Mary, I’m warning you, one more comment, I’ll close this meeting and re-adjourn later. But that later will be after the members of the Council meet to discuss your behavior here, likely censure you and, personally, if you say one more word, you have my promise that I’ll take steps to have you removed.”

“I think the words she’s already said are enough for the Council to consider taking steps toward her removal,” Nina put in, standing at the microphone up front and her words were heated too.

“Try it,” Mary invited. “I think you’ll be surprised at how much support I have. I’m not the only one who believes Faye Goodknight’s recent behavior is well below reproach.”

“That wouldn’t be me!” Bubba Briggs boomed from the back.

“Or me!” Jim-Billy shouted from the front.

“Me either, you stupid cow,” Stoney, the owner of one of the local bike shops, added loudly.

“Nor me!” Holly shouted.

Lauren shot up from her seat between Tate and his son Jonas and yelled, “You should be ashamed of yourself talking about our sweet Faye like that in front of everybody!”

Faye and Chace’s heads jerked to behind them where Dominic, the owner of the local hair salon, was shouting, “Immediate impeachment!”

Their heads jerked back to the front to see Shambles standing two benches in front of them, yelling, “Dudette, know this, I have the right to refuse service and I never thought I’d do that to anyone in my life. But starting now, you can get your cappuccinos and chunky peanut butter cookies somewhere else! Talking about Crimson Stargazer like that when she’s finally found a hot guy boyfriend is just… plain… wrong but it’s also serious mean.”

“Great,” Faye mumbled.

“I hardly think a hippie endorsement is doing your librarian any favors,” Mary said to Shambles, her lip curled. “You’d do better to sit down, Mr. Shambala.” When she said his name, she said it like it tasted foul.

At that, Chace knew something snapped in Faye and he knew this because she shot to her feet.

“Ms. Eglund,” she called and Chace braced as Mary Eglund turned her venomous eyes to his woman.

At the same time, so did everyone else.

When Faye got her attention, she spoke.

“You are entitled to your opinions about my personal life. You are also entitled to share them. You are further entitled to share them publicly. You doing it, how you do it and what you say actually says more about you than me. As does your snide tone directed at Shambles. But on the matter at hand, threats of the library’s closure started before my relationship with Detective Keaton began and those threats occurred because of your concern about the content of some of the books in our catalogue. On that subject, I’ll say that I have always accumulated a catalogue the Library Board approved as fit for this county. The books you site as those that are inappropriate for our library and thus give cause for its closure are some of our most popular books for adults and children. I find it heartbreaking that these books that open up worlds of reading to children and young adults are not only questioned, but are being threatened with removal. That you would use your personal agenda to eliminate something so valuable, so vital to a community as a library is beyond words. I’ve read to countless children in that library. Those with very little can come to that library and find something that costs nothing to entertain them in lives that are often lonely. The library serves as a gathering place for friends who share the love of books. It further serves as a resource for those who escape the pressure of everyday life, doing it by losing themselves in the written word. It serves as an avenue of gathering knowledge for those who could be planning a trip to Utah or researching their heritage, learning about the history of this country or how to make soap. Those walls and shelves contain works of art created by words and depicted in pictures. There are volunteers who are retired or stay at home Moms who serve their community proudly and do it in that library. My mother took me to that library. Her mother took her to that same library. And I hope to God by the end of this night, I will have a future where I will take my children to that library. I will abide by the wishes of this community. What I won’t do is sit silent while you turn your nose up at a kind man like Shambles and cast aspersions on the relationship I have with a good man who I happen to love. If you close the library, that would be a tragedy. If you close it simply because you feel you have the right to tell others what they can read and see or because I fell in love with a kind, decent man and did it in a way in which you, personally, do not approve, that would also be a tragedy. But it would be a reprehensible one.”