Hold Fast

by Nora Vale

June Callahan is the new children's librarian in Harbor Point, Oregon, hired to save a branch the county wants to close. She talks to strangers in line, names the spider plants, and has never once been able to leave a sad person alone. Her first program is a fire-safety story hour, and Station Nine sends the one man who least wants to be there: Lieutenant Gray Donnelly, who lost a probationary firefighter two years ago and has been a locked door to everyone since. He answers the children in single syllables and leaves. She sends a thank-you card to the station. Then another. Then she starts bringing the crew books she thinks they'd like. Gray tells her to stop. She does not stop. When the only apartment in town she can afford turns out to be above the garage of the house he's slowly rebuilding—for a reason he won't say—the town, the crew, and a county board vote all start closing in. Grumpy meets sunshine on the Oregon coast. Steamy, never explicit; the door closes.

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