Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack Page B

and putting him immediately in time- out.
    Sadie wondered what Anne had printed and was eager to get back
to the library. But first things first. She looked around the office, feeling
antsy. It wasn’t large or fancy, but it was very cozy and Sadie made a note to
compliment Ms. Gimes on that if she had the chance.
    Sadie had never been very good at waiting. When she went to the
doctor’s office she always took a book. But she’d not anticipated waiting in
the office of an attorney she’d never heard of and the minutes felt like hours.
She tapped her fingers on her purse and tried not to watch the second hand of
the large clock hanging above the reception area, but it was hard not to. After
four minutes she considered making an appointment and coming back, but that was
silly. She was a grown woman, surely she could wait a few more minutes.
    She scanned the waiting room again and saw copies of Time and Working Woman on an end table. Neither one held any
interest for her. She did have the library book in her purse, but there was no
way she was going to read that in public. It had been a lot of years since
she’d read a romance novel and she wasn’t sure she was prepared for other
people to see her with it. Then she remembered the book list the library had
printed for her. That was something she was planning to go over anyway. With
anxious relief to have found something to do, she reached into her purse and
dug out the list.
    After scanning half the list, one title stood out to her:
My Father’s Eyes. Sadie
fumbled in her purse for a pen and underlined it, even though she was
unsure why it had caught her attention. She read through the rest of the tape
and found at the bottom, where fines or unreturned items were listed, that My Father’s Eyes had never been
returned—Anne had paid for it before it was even overdue. Sadie
stared at the title again. There was something familiar about it but she
couldn’t think what it was. Had Sadie read the book? Not likely.
    After reading through the list again and determining there was
nothing else that stood out, she folded the list and returned it to her purse,
ignoring the hidden romance novel for a second time. However, her nerves
tightened with every second, and she finally gave in. The waiting area was
empty anyway. She unzipped her purse and opened the book hiding inside, careful
to keep the cover in her purse. She had barely gotten through the flowery
description of the buxom main character, when the receptionist interrupted her,
bringing her back to the present.
    “Mrs. Gimes will see you now,” the receptionist said in a tone
of forced politeness as Sadie quickly zipped her purse back up.
    Susan Gimes was on her feet when Sadie entered the office. She
was very tall, at least six feet, Sadie guessed, with black hair cut short and
trendy, and large brown eyes. Her very presence was quite imposing, something
Sadie felt sure was an asset in her line of work. The two women met halfway
across the room and Sadie shook the proffered hand before taking the seat
offered to her.
    “My apologies for my receptionist—we’re in the
middle of updating our files and computer system and we ended up
shorthanded today. Because of that I’m afraid I only have a couple minutes
to meet with you,” Susan Gimes said with a very professional smile as she sat
behind the large mahogany desk.
    “That’s okay,” Sadie said with a nod. “I’m sorry to have
interrupted you, Ms. Gimes, but—”
    “Call me Susan.”
    “Okay, thank you. My name is Sadie Hoffmiller—you
can call me Sadie.” She cleared her throat and opened her mouth to
continue.
    “You headed up the Youth in Action program a few years ago,
right?”
    Sadie blinked and allowed her thoughts to shift. “I did,” Sadie
said with a smile. “Did we meet then?” It would be nice if they had, though
Sadie would be embarrassed not to remember.
    Susan shook her head. “No, we didn’t. But you worked with my
daughter, Laura