Books Can Be Deceiving Read Online Free PDF Page A

had her long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. She looked to be about college age.
    “Hi, Miss Stanley,” she said.
    Beth tipped her head and studied the girl. “Oh my, is that you, Eva?”
    The young woman nodded.
    “But you’re all grown up,” Beth said. “Lindsey, this is Eva Hernandez. She was one of my first teen volunteers at the library ten years ago. Eva, this is Lindsey Norris, the new library director.”
    “Hi, Eva.” Lindsey held out her hand, and the young woman gave it a firm shake.
    “It’s nice to meet you,” Eva said. “You’re much younger than Mr. Tupper, like, by a century.”
    “I don’t think that’s been a selling point with Ms. Cole,” Lindsey said.
    “No kidding?” Eva asked, her tone light and teasing. “With her being so hip and all? Shocking!”
    Both Lindsey and Beth laughed.
    “So, are you still in school?” Beth asked.
    “I’m graduating next May,” Eva said. “But there’s been so much going on, it’s really hard to concentrate.”
    “Like what?” Beth asked.
    Eva gave them a small, close-lipped smile and waved her left hand in front of them and said, “Oh, this and that.”
    A person would have to be stone-blind not to see the rock sparkling on the ring finger of her left hand—or be a man, Lindsey thought sourly.
    “Oh!” Beth let out a squeal and jumped out of her seat to examine the ring more closely. “Princess cut and in a platinum band. It’s gorgeous.”
    “Very nice,” Lindsey agreed in a much more subdued manner. She thought it spoke well of her that she didn’t advise the girl to run while she had the chance.
    “Have you set a date?” Beth asked.
    “Next June,” Eva said. “Right after graduation. We’ve only been together for a year, but when you know, you know.”
    “Eva! You have an order for pickup,” a passing waitress said.
    “Oh, right,” she said. “What can I get you two?”
    Beth placed their order, and Eva dashed off, promising to bring their wine as soon as possible.
    “How old is she?” Lindsey asked.
    “Twenty-two,” Beth said.
    “Awfully young to be getting married, isn’t she?”
    They both smiled when Eva returned with their wine and watched as she hurried back to the kitchen.
    “Well, like she said, when you know, you know,” Beth said.
    “Really?” Lindsey asked. “Because sometimes you think you know and you even have the Harry Winston on your finger, but then you come home and find out someone’s been sleeping in your bed. And you really wish it was Mama Bear and not Goldilocks because then she might at least have ripped the head off of the rat bastard who’s been cheating on you . . . but I digress.”
    Beth hid her smile by taking a sip of her wine. “I am really glad your breakup with John hasn’t made you bitter.”
    “A little tart, perhaps, but not bitter,” Lindsey assured her.
    “Have you talked to him at all?”
    “Not since I gave him his ring back, packed up and left. It was all sort of cosmic since I’d just been let go and the position here opened up. Sometimes, I think it was the universe at work.”
    “Milton would certainly say so,” Beth said. “I still can’t believe John asked you to marry him and then turned around and cheated with his graduate assistant. What a jerk! You can do so much better than him.”
    “Bleah. I’m not interested,” Lindsey said. “Now, enough about me and my cheating ex-fiancé; how are you and Rick doing?”
    “Good . . . really good,” Beth said. She ran her hand through her short black spikes, and Lindsey knew she was full of baloney. Beth always fussed with her hair when she was feeling edgy; besides, she was a horrible liar. She always broke eye contact.
    “Good?” Lindsey repeated. “Good is having a slow leak in your tire instead of a blowout, a migraine instead of a stroke or a nibble on your fishing line instead of catching the big one . . .”
    “All right, enough with the metaphors,” Beth cut her off. “I get it. Things