Withered Pages

Chapter 1-2

Ivy just nodded her head. She had heard plenty of stories about the Belmonte crew but didn"t realize it was that bad.

After declining their offer for the hundredth time, Ivy finally headed home.

Most days, she rode her bike to work. She lived two blocks over, so it wasn’t far, but it gave her a bit of exercise. Her truck was a mess, but it got her to work on days like today.

She’d had the truck since she was fifteen years old. It had been her birthday gift from her father, one of the last things he’d given her. She tried to keep up the maintenance on it, but the truck, a 1984 Chevy Silverado, was old when it was bought. She was surprised it had lasted this long.

Ivy pulled into her driveway, which was longer than her drive to work. Her house was one of the reasons she just couldn’t leave this town. It was way too big for her with four bedrooms, two baths, a study and a den, but it was gorgeous and a steal.

She had done a lot of work to the house when she first bought it. After the repairs were done, the house was absolutely beautiful. There were still some things she wanted to work on, but she was satisfied for now. If she was a different person and had a different story, she could see raising a family here.

She parked the old truck under the carport. She hurried inside just as another deluge started to come down.

As Ivy entered the mudroom, her German shepherd, Apollo, greeted her with a soft, “I missed you,” whine and a kiss.

“Hey, bud,” she scratched him behind the ear, “I missed you, too. It’s a flood out there, so we’ll have to get you a bath when you come back in.”

She let Apollo out to do his business. He was a muddy mess when he returned. That was one of the reasons she’d had a dog bath put into the garage. After she washed the grime from his coat and dried him off, she led them both inside into the warmth. Apollo found his bed and went straight to sleep.

Ivy drew the hottest bath she could handle and sank gratefully into the water. She tried her best to let the day wash away with the rain, but Darren’s words danced around her brain like a ballerina on speed.

“Not that one.”

Why not? Wasn’t it her job to take the lost under her wing? As the town librarian, she thought so. Heck, as a decent human being, it was her job. It shouldn’t matter where he came from or who his family was.

She honestly didn’t think Harper was neglected in any way. However, there was something about him that called to her. Maybe it was the haunted look in his eyes even when he smiled. Ivy knew what that was like.

These thoughts were still swirling around her mind later as she lay in bed drifting off. Her last conscious thought was that Harper Belmonte might not be in need of saving, but he might just need someone who listens.

Once a month, Ivy worked the Saturday shift so Darren and Carrie would have a weekend to themselves. Saturdays were busy, but nothing she couldn’t handle on her own. She knew the regulars would come in, but it was rare to have anything out of the ordinary happen.

Harper came in about two hours before closing. He didn’t look like his normal chipper self, but when Ivy asked him about it, he just shrugged it off and went to the Young Adult section. She thought about asking him what was wrong, but then another patron came in and she didn’t have time.

It wasn’t until she was closing up that she realized he was gone. She felt like she had let him down. Here she was telling herself she was going to reach out, and she didn"t even ask him how his day was. She was off to a brilliant start.

Ivy finished locking up and made her way to her truck. The rain was still falling in steady sheets, bouncing off her umbrella, when she noticed someone sitting on the bench. It wasn’t an abnormal event. Patrons would sit out front, using the free Wi-Fi to check emails or f*******:. However, they didn’t tend to do it in the rain, and they never looked that small.

She took a few steps toward the figure with the hood pulled up. She recognized the jacket.

“Harper?” she called, walking up to him.

The young boy sat on the bench, shivering. The awning was hardly a shield from the onslaught.

“Harper, what are you doing out here?” she asked him, bracing herself against the cold.

“I just…needed to leave.” He stared out at the wet street.

“Come on, Harper,” she touched his shoulder, “Let’s get you home.”

“I’m fine,” he responded, pulling his hood down over his eyes. He had been crying.

“I can’t leave you out here,” she told him, gesturing toward the rain. “Come on.”

He sat there for a second longer, but then followed her to the truck. When he got in, he gratefully warmed his hands with the truck’s mediocre heater.

“Alright, where do you live?” she questioned as she turned the heat up.

“My brother is going to be so mad at me.” He looked worried.

“Maybe not,” she offered, patting his shoulder. “Do you want to point me in the right direction?”

He said nothing for a moment.

“The sooner we get you home, the better,” she prodded.

“Take a left on Winter Crest,” he finally said. “It’s the last house on the right.”

Ivy nodded her head and drove out of the library parking lot. Harper wasn’t lying when he said he lived within walking distance to the library. It took them only two minutes to pull into his driveway.

The house was an older structure, just like hers, but in immaculate condition. This was a street that had been constructed when the town was first built. Harper’s house was a classic Victorian home with sharp arches and a wide porch. The only thing modern about it was the workshop that had overtaken the garage.

“Did you know that the Chevrolet pickup’s sister truck, the GMC, or ‘Jimmy,’ was originally produced to be the luxury version of the Chevrolet line, but as Chevys offered more options and appointments through the years, both trucks became almost identical except for the badge identification?”

Ivy looked at him for a moment. He was delaying the inevitable.

“I didn"t know that, Harper,” she smiled at him gently, “Let’s go.”

Ivy got out of the truck and walked up the porch steps with Harper. She could have let him go by himself, but she felt it was her adult and professional duty to speak to his brother.

She knocked on the door, and it immediately swept open. A tall, hulking figure filled the doorway. Ivy stepped back slightly in shock as the man’s features came into view once the porch light was on.

His black hair was wild, wavy, and narrowly touched his broad shoulders. It looked as though he had been running his hands through it repeatedly. There was a fierceness in his green eyes. It must have been a trademark of the Belmonte family, those expressive eyes with depths she couldn’t fathom. He looked from her and then to Harper, his face going from mad to livid. He had a phone to his ear and flicked a Zippo in his other hand over and over.

“Harper!” He grabbed the boy by the shoulders and shook him, dropping the phone. “Don’t you ever...Dónde diablos has estado? Huh? What were you thinking?”

“Mr. Belmonte,” Ivy interrupted. “Harper was…”

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing with my brother?” He stood up to his full height, which felt well over ten feet. Ivy could tell he was a man that was used to intimidating others. It wasn’t something he tried to do; it just came naturally to him. Well, it would not work on her, not after doing the right thing by bringing his brother home. She squared her shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

“My name is Ivy Newton, Mr. Belmonte,” she said sternly. “I’m the local librarian. Your brother was sitting outside when I left tonight. I offered him a ride home since, as you can tell, it is raining and cold. Now that he’s back home, I"ll leave you two to discuss matters on your own.”

She nodded to Harper and turned on her heels and marched back to her truck. By the time she got home, her head was pounding, and she was beyond angry. Of course, Harper’s brother had pissed her off, but she was more upset with herself for nearly losing her cool on him.

She thought she was doing the right thing, taking care of Harper. And then his brute of a brother looking at her as if it were her fault.

“Maybe he should keep a better eye on his brother and this wouldn’t have happened!” she said aloud, tossing her purse on the counter.

She didn’t tell Carrie or Darren what had happened when she got to work on Monday. She didn’t want to hear a lecture, and they were too busy telling her about their amazing Saturday, anyway.

Carrie was raving about this new Italian restaurant they’d gone to and the cute server who she exchanged social media contact information with.

“He’s a Virgo so I know he’ll be kind and sympathetic,” she said, checking in books from the drop box. “We’re going out Friday night.”

“Hopefully not at the restaurant he works at, right?” Ivy teased.

“What? No, of course not.” Carrie had taken her seriously. “We’re going to watch that new Chris Hemsworth movie and eat at the restaurant in the theatre.”

“Well, try not to drool over Hemsworth the entire time,” Ivy said, giving her a wink. “You might give the guy a complex.” She stood up and stretched. “Hey, listen, I have to get this report done, so I"ll be back in Reference if you need me.”

“You got it, boss.” Carrie saluted her.

Ivy spent most of the day working through her report. Apparently, there were a lot of reference materials that hadn’t been returned to the appropriate branch within their system. That meant going through each volume of the report to make sure everything they had actually belonged to them.

She could have gotten Carrie or Darren to do it, but she needed something to distract her mind. Besides, she liked tasks like this. It helped her see parts of the library that needed updating or rearranging.

The only problem with starting this today was she had worn the wrong outfit. She was moving up and down a ladder wearing her snug black skirt, a crisp white shirt, and her mustard yellow sweater over that.

Before she knew it, she was sweating. Ivy took off her short black boots and sweater. She untucked the white shirt and rolled up the sleeves. She put her golden locks into a bun on her head and went back to work.

Around 2:30, Ivy heard, “She’s back here somewhere.”

She turned from her place on the ladder just in time to see Carrie leading Harper and Roman Belmonte down the aisle.

“Ah, there you are,” Carrie said, giving her one of her ‘What the?’ looks. “Ivy, you have visitors.”

“I see.” She immediately felt defensive at the sight of the broad-shouldered man.

Ivy began making her way down the ladder when her tights slipped on the bottom rung. She nearly lost her footing, caught herself, and straightened her rumbled shirt as she stood to face them, her face beet red.

“Should we go to my office?” she asked, gesturing toward the front of the library.

“No, this won’t take long,” Roman answered.

Carrie excused herself as Roman pushed Harper forward.

“Uh, Ms. Newton,” he began, his eyes darting from her face to the shelf behind her. “I just wanted to apologize for the situation I put you in the other night. That was irresponsible of me. It won’t happen again.”

“Thank you, Harper.” She smiled down at him. “I"m just glad you’re alright. I hope you"re feeling better.”

“I am, thank you.” He gave her a slight smile.

“Harper, go find a book to check out,” his brother said. “I need to speak to Ms. Newton.”

Harper looked at his brother for a moment and then left for the Young Adult section, if Ivy had to guess.

“Look, Mr. Belmonte, when I brought Harper home—”

“I appreciate what you did for Harper,” he interjected.

“I’m sorry.” She wasn’t sure she’d heard him correctly. She expected that same aggressive attitude, so it threw her off by how easy-going he sounded.

“Harper is a good kid,” he told her. “He’s a bit different, but hell, who isn’t? He didn’t mean to put you out the other night. Sometimes he gets in these moods and runs off…and…anyway, I hope he’s still allowed to be here. He loves this place.”

“What? Of course, he is!” she exclaimed with a small, worried laugh. "He"d have to do a lot more than that to be banned from the library. We enjoy him so much. He"s a wonderfully bright child.”

“Thank you.” Roman looked nervous suddenly. “And I wanted to…uh…apologize for my behavior as well. I was scared out of my mind, so when I saw him…I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”

“Oh, I understand.” She waved him away. “You were worried.”

“I wanted to give you this,” he handed her a business card. “It has my number on it. I would appreciate a call if Harper has a mind to do anything like this again.”

“Of course.” Ivy took the card from him.

“And thank you,” he told her, catching her off guard once again. “For bringing him home. That was very kind of you.”

“You’re welcome, of course, anytime,” she told him, her mind flooding with a flurry of thoughts.

They stood there for a moment longer, not sure what else to say. Thankfully Harper came down the row just then, saving them from awkwardness.

“I found something.” He held up a Manga book.

“Great,” Roman said. “Have a good day, Ms. Newton, and thank you again.”

The Belmonte boys walked away from her, leaving her confused and a bit jilted at the fact she couldn’t hold on to her anger. She wanted to be mad at Roman Belmonte with his untamed hair and knowing eyes. She felt she had the right to be, but now that he had apologized, she felt cheated and almost a little guilty. He was just being a brother. His anger wasn’t toward her last night.

Ivy made her way up front just as Harper and Roman were having the book checked out. They both waved good-byes. She waved back and noticed she was smiling.

“What was that about?” Carried asked after the Belmontes left.

“I thought I said not him, Ivy,” Darren chimed in. “What happened? And your bun is all lopsided.”

Ivy tried to ignore them and retreated to her office. She fixed her messy hair and put Roman’s card in her purse. They followed her, waiting for an explanation.

Ivy sighed and told them about Harper running off to the library.

“And he apologized?” Carrie wondered, looking back at the door as if she would still see Roman. “I’ve known Roman since high school, and he doesn"t apologize to just anyone.”

“Well, he was just being an adult.” Ivy shrugged.

She remembered the fierceness in his eyes when he had looked at her that night. Only love made people act that way. It was undeniable how much Harper meant to him and Roman wasn’t afraid to show it. And the sincerity of his apology also struck her as rather refreshing. He wasn’t one to hold back on what he was feeling, it seemed. Ivy shook her head and got back to work. There was a lot to do, and she didn’t have time to unravel the mystery of Roman Belmonte.