Heathcliff hopped up and wagged. He did love spending his days with Nancy. Since Heathcliff’s arrival the previous winter, he had chosen Lindsey as his primary caretaker, but Nancy and Charlie had quickly become a part of his pack as well. It made Lindsey feel much less guilty when she had to be at work all day.

• • •

When Lindsey arrived at the library to start her shift, she found Ms. Cole already at the circulation desk checking in the materials from the book drop. She tried to reconcile the forbidding-looking woman at the desk with the one who had been sharing coffee with Milton. It was almost as if they were two different people.

“Good morning, Ms. Cole,” Lindsey said.

Ms. Cole nodded at her, which Lindsey knew was the best she could hope for. She shook her head and headed into her office. She had several book orders to submit and had been thinking about offering an e-reader class at the library, since they had been spending more and more time trying to help patrons use their e-readers to download books.

She owned an e-reader herself, but the book-loving part of her felt the same surge of panic she always felt at the thought that all books in the future would be in electronic form and there would be no more cloth bindings and paper pages to be held, but then she shook it off.

The electronic book was not going to eradicate hard-copy books. There was an art to the book that would never disappear, and the mere fact that it didn’t require batteries would keep the book alive. She was sure of it . . . mostly.

The morning passed in a blur of e-mail, book orders and program planning. Lindsey wasn’t sure how they could teach a class when there were so many different types of e-readers out there. Frustrated, she decided to take a break and went out to the library to see what was happening.

The library was eerily quiet. In fact, as she scanned the room, there wasn’t a soul to be seen. Not even Ms. Cole.

“Hello?” Lindsey called out.

The sound of applause was her only answer. Frowning, Lindsey followed the noise to the story time room in the back of the children’s area.

Lindsey glanced through the window in the door and saw that the room was packed with kids, parents and staff. At the front of the room, Robbie Vine was giving a performance for the kids. The overhead light shown on his reddish-blond hair and his dimples flashed as he grinned at the kids, who squealed with excitement.

Lindsey eased the door open and crept into the room to watch. Robbie was magnetic. Even on this small stage in this cramped room with an audience of wiggly toddlers, he commanded his audience’s attention, giving off an energy that made it impossible to look away.