“As long as I’m with you, I don’t mind.” He caressed her face then leaned in to kiss her.
As he started to pull away, she took hold of his face and sealed her lips to his for another quick kiss. “Mmm.” She licked her lips. “Thank you for being understanding. I really appreciate it. We could go somewhere after the library if you like.”
“I’d like.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. I took a picture of the photograph Thomas found. Let me show you.”
She stood up, reached for her cell, and searched through her pictures to find the one she wanted. Unfortunately, it was a really bad picture and didn’t really show the faces. She must have taken the picture just as Thomas removed it from the table when Lucas appeared.
“Damn, this is totally crap. Look.” She passed her cell to Dean.
“You can take another one, Mack. In fact, when we go to visit my grandfather, I’ll bring my laptop and portable scanner over, and we can get a better copy for you.” Dean stood up and grabbed his jacket from the back of the kitchen chair.
Mack followed him out of the cottage. “That would be great. Thanks.”
He put his arm around Mack’s neck and brought her in close to him before he placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “Come on, the library awaits,” he said, not wanting to let her go.
As Dean pulled his bike into a parking space outside of the Thomas Memorial Library, Mack wondered if it was the same library where Rose had worked all those years ago. Parts of it certainly looked old enough, although it looked like new sections had been added over time.
They climbed off Dean’s bike and removed their helmets. Mack reached up to him and pulled his head down to hers for a sizzling kiss, and then pulling away, she gave him a saucy grin.
“What was that for?” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer to nuzzle her neck.
“I can’t resist you.” She groaned.
A car suddenly backfired, which brought them back to their senses. Dean took a deep breath and moved her away from him so he could think clearly. “We’d better head inside before I bend you over the bike and take you back to the cottage.”
She giggled when she caught the look on Dean’s face. They were acting like lovesick teenagers. Mack opened the door to the library and stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for him to catch up. “Coming?”
“I’m not answering that.” He ushered her inside.
Dean leaned against one of the pillars in the middle of the library and just watched his woman walk over to one of the library assistants. She’d put more of a sway into her step, which she’d done deliberately to get a reaction out of him . . . Hot damn!
Last night when Mack took matters into her own hands, literally, it was a very nice, pleasurable surprise. He hadn’t been expecting that, although he’d hoped. What guy wouldn’t?
Yesterday, when he’d listened to Mack read about his grandfather’s love life, he’d found it kind of creepy and hard to imagine the Jacob from the diary, who was in love with Rose, to be his grandfather who was in love with his wife, Eliza.
Mack waved him over to follow her. He straightened from his slouched position and followed her to an archive room. She seemed to be in deep discussion with the male library assistant, who was ogling her. Ogling his girl . . . Dean’s woman.
Dean placed their helmets on top of the large table in the center of the room, and his leather jacket on the back of one of the chairs. He walked over to Mack, wrapped one of his arms around her waist, and pulled her in close to stake his claim. She didn’t let him down either. She placed one of her arms around his waist with her hand going into his back pocket to squeeze his butt. The little minx! Dean leaned over and placed a kiss on top of her head as he pulled her in tight to his chest.
The assistant seemed to get the message because, after he’d finished telling her to come get him if she needed anything else, he dashed from the room.
She grinned, reached up, and pulled his head down to hers for a quick kiss as she walked off toward the shelves where a lot of rather large books were stored.
“The newspapers we want are over here. Apparently, each page is laminated for protection, so he didn’t have any problem leaving us alone in here.” Mack looked back to Dean.
“Alone? For how long?”
She laughed. “Get your mind off body parts and come over here and help. You’re taller than me.”
“Yes, ma’am!” He sauntered over, laughing.
He lifted the volume down that covered the week of April 14, 1947, and set it down on the table, while Mack took her denim jacket off and placed it on top of his on the chair.
She was really excited, hoping there was something in these papers about what happened to Rose. It appeared to have been awhile since anyone had looked through them because they were caked in a few layers of dust. She blew it off the best she could, then turned the page to April 15th. They both eagerly scanned each page closely to try to find something.
As they carefully looked through the 19th, Mack started to lose hope of finding anything. It was five days after the event, and surely, it would have been covered before then.