Second Chance by Audra North Page A

and excited to hear a story before the group went traipsing around Wilford Town Center for the annual Halloween Open House. Collin, the most popular boy in high school, who had moved to Wilford from Ireland a month before high school started and had a sexy, lilting accent. Who was kind to everyone and a straight-A student and excelled at every sport. And on whom she’d had an embarrassingly desperate crush for years but never said anything to him because there was no way a god like him would have returned the affection of a bespectacled little bookworm with acne and a twig-like body.
    That might be different now—her skin had cleared and her body had filled out, at least—but it hadn’t mattered. He’d left town for college and hadn’t come back.
    Until today, it seemed.
    One of the children shouted, and Marnie shook herself, coming out of her daydream. She turned her attention back to the children, opening the book to the title page and clearing her throat. “ The Legend of the Wilford Ghost , by Kate Marlowe.”
    She began reading the story, of how a ghost who lived in the Wilford Municipal Library—this very library—played tricks on badly-behaved people to teach them a lesson. At the end, the ghost helped to catch a bank robber and a group of children threw a party for him.
    “The End.” She closed the book and set it back on the display table next to her, and the children began clapping enthusiastically.
    Their teacher, Mrs. Cartwright, came forward then and stood next to Marnie. “Thank you for a wonderful story, Miss Thomas. Class, what do you all say to Miss Thomas?”
    “Thank you,” they chorused, some shouting the words and others barely whispering them.
    Marnie smiled in amusement as much as in appreciation. “It was my pleasure. It is one of my favorite stories. One that the former librarian read to my class when I was a little girl here.”
    One of the kids shouted, “Wow! That book is that old?”
    The adults standing in the back of the room snickered, but Marnie managed to keep a straight face when she replied. “Yes. Some say that the ghost has been living in the library for nearly one hundred years.”
    Another round of impressed noises echoed in the room, and Mrs. Cartwright gestured to the adults. “Class, I am about to release you to your parents and babysitters who have come to take you around town for trick-or-treating. But before I do, Miss Thomas is going to pass out your first treats for your Halloween bags. Please line up here and you may leave with your grown-up once you get your treat.”
    They all scrambled into line with minimal pushing and arguing, and Marnie gave a nod to Mrs. Cartwright in a silent tribute. Lillian Cartwright was twenty years older than she, but was one of those women whose snapping blue eyes made her look forever young.
    Marnie pulled out a stack of bookmarks from her pocket and gave one to each child as they moved forward through the line. It had been an expense that she’d paid for personally, since the library had such limited funding, but she wanted to give the children something fun. Collin’s little girl stepped forward and gasped in delight when Marnie handed her the bookmark.
    The girl smiled when she saw was what was printed on it. A black cat wearing a miniature witch hat, tail curled around a pumpkin, was posed to look as though it were reading a book. “Oh, I love kitties!” On impulse, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Marnie’s neck. “Thanks, Miss Thomas. I’ll use it for all my books.”
    Marnie didn’t dare look over at Collin, but she could see a set of denim-clad legs hovering nearby. Besides, she could feel him. That same, breathless anticipation she would get when he passed by her locker after third period. The tight coil of need that would gather inside her belly every time she saw him hanging out downtown with his soccer teammates.
    She still wanted him.
    While he was waiting for his daughter.
    Marnie waited until