A Broom With a View by Rebecca Patrick-Howard Read Free Book Online Page A

sweatshirt with a picture of a chubby pig. The shirt read “Bobbie’s Buffet Barn: Don’t Stop ‘til You’re Happy as a Pig.”
    It listed a Kudzu Valley address.
    Liza immediately thought of all the jokes comparing buffets to troughs and wondered if the owner had even considered that when naming their restaurant after a structure that housed farm animals.
    Who was she kidding? That’s probably why he’d done it.
    “Can I see a photo ID?” Cotton finally asked as he deftly wiped his big, meaty hands on a tiny napkin and then daintily dabbed at his mouth.
    Liza poked through the knock-off Coach bag she’d bought from a street vendor in Boston while Cotton sat by and watched her, occasionally huffing with impatience. “Here you go,” Liza declared at last, sliding the card across the desk. She watched as the man glanced at it, brought it closer to his glasses, and frowned.
    “Oh, I know,” Liza said in a hurry, leaning over the desk and pointing at her picture. “I had black hair back then. I had that done back over the summer when I was going through my divorce. Got a tattoo, too. Cheaper than therapy,” Liza joked.
    Cotton did not look amused so Liza slowly let her own smile fade. “I’m back to my original red now. I promise that’s really me, though.”
    Like he hadn’t even heard her, Cotton held the card up to the light and examined it from all angles, as though trying to determine if it was counterfeit.
    Yeah man, Liza said to herself. Because there’s obviously a lot of people who want to open fake library card accounts. It must be your biggest percentage of crimes here.
    She plastered the friendly, polite smile back on her face, though, and reminded herself that she was in a public place and not everyone appreciated snark. Still, she’d kind of thought that small town places would be a lot friendlier than their Big City counterparts. So far Cotton was not rolling out the welcome wagon. 
    “It’s just that your address here says Massachusetts ,” Cotton replied sternly. He sent Liza a hard, withered look then, as though trying to determine what kind of scam she might be trying to run on the county.
    “Yeah, well, I just moved back here,” Liza explained. “I’ve only been here a few days so far and I am still trying to settle in and everything.”
    Cotton narrowed his eyes until they were thin little slits. “Do you have anything with your local address? A utility bill? Renter’s contract? Cable bill?”
    “I own my house,” Liza said in return. “My grandparents left it to me.” She had no idea why but now she was slightly miffed that the man would assume she was renting, although she wasn’t sure why that would bother her. She’d been a renter until they’d bought their house and, up until recently, she’d been renting her condo.
    “Well, I’m sorry but I just can’t issue one without at least a photo ID with a local address,” the insufferable man sniffed self-righteously, handing Liza back her card. Liza felt like she’d just been called out at the video store for trying to rent porn with a fake ID.
    However, Liza Jane knew the surly librarian wasn’t being honest with her as soon as their fingers touched. In a single meeting of skin, Liza was able to read his mind like a book, no pun intended.
    She could feel the aggravation in her growing as she pulled herself to her full height and let her eyes bore into him. “Well that’s not true, is it?” she asked, hardly recognizing her own steely voice. “There are things you can do for me today. For one thing, you can offer me a temporary card for thirty days, until I get my new license. I just have to leave a credit card number with you.”
    Lightning flashed through Cotton’s eyes. “No ma’am,” he sputtered, his face growing hard and her fingers tapping nervously on his desk. “We don’t do that here . Now you’ll just have to come back later. I can’t do a single thing to help you.”
    Liza didn’t know why