Here’s a preview of The Librarian’s Wish first chapter.
Alistair Johnson braced his forearms against the baluster of his rooftop balcony, the cool night air playing over his skin.
“Did I make a mistake, Lord?”
After years of dancing around the pretty single mother, it seemed time for him to make his interest known. His boldness had been deliberate—debonair, even.
He’d all but declared his intention, making it clear he wouldn’t back down, that he was determined to pursue her. A smile broke through his tension as his muscles hummed with the memory of dancing with Naomi; of her arms looped around his neck, and in that one second where their eyes had connected, she’d gazed at him the way a woman did when she was interested in a man.
For a fleeting moment, she had forgotten their differences, the seven-year gap, everything but him—Alistair Malik Johnson, the guy who wanted to be her man so badly he could taste it.
Then, just like that, she’d vanished. She had a new excuse not to linger every time she picked up Chloë from the library and ducked into stores if she glimpsed him elsewhere. It was downright insulting, the effort she put into avoiding him.
Perhaps he should take her advice and ask Cara out. A dull ache settled in his chest, and he rubbed at the spot through his shirt.
“Is that what I should do, God? Let her go?” He’d been pining over that woman for so long, he couldn’t visualize the first step to moving on with his life.
His head snapped up as the sharp, acrid scent of smoke stung his nose. Sniffing, he scanned the nearby buildings.
“Is that smoke?”
A bright, unmistakable orange glow to the left caught his attention.
Fire.
Without hesitation, he ran to the balcony exit and down the steps without stopping for shoes. The rough asphalt bit into his soles.
“Please, Lord,” AJ pumped his arms, his chest aflame as he ran. “Don’t let anybody get hurt.”
Not knowing where the fire was, he followed his senses, bolting toward the heat and smoke.
Help, Lord.
He hadn’t even stopped to pick up his phone. Surely a neighbor would call the fire department.
“Fire! Fire!” The word tore from his throat as he pumped his legs harder.
Veranda lights flickered on, and doors opened as his neighbors came out to see what had caused the uproar.
“Call the fire department!”
Please let someone realize he wasn’t crying wolf. Rounding the corner, his heart stuttered at the sight before him.
“Oh, no.”
Moving faster, he peered toward the woman in a printed cotton nightgown and a silk bonnet.
“AJ!” Tessa Tomlinson’s voice was high-pitched with worry, arms slung around Mattie and Chloë’s shoulders.
“Where’s Naomi?”
Tessa’s eyes widened. “She went back inside the house, something about papers for her business.”
Ignoring the rest of Tessa’s words, he lunged toward the smoke-shrouded house with stones nipping at his bare heels.
“Naomi!” AJ held his T-shirt up to cover his nose as he plunged into the house. “Please, Lord, protect us both.”
Hacking coughs caught his attention, and he strained his ears, lungs searing from the lack of air.
Following his instincts, he lunged right. Through the shifting haze, Naomi appeared, half-bent and clutching a plastic satchel of papers to her chest. Heat pressed against his face, stinging his eyes until they watered.
“Let’s go.” Hooking an arm around her waist, he anchored her to him, his grip firm as he hauled her through the gray smoke.
“No.” She clawed weakly at him, coughs rattling her body. “I have to get Chloë’s doll—it’s the one she sleeps with. She won’t—” Another cough wracked her. “She won’t sleep without it.”
Tightening his grip, AJ pulled her flush against his side despite her straining against him.
“No, you stubborn woman. Chloë needs her mother, not a toy.”
Her fight ebbed, his words cutting through where his strength alone hadn’t.
Two firefighters grabbed them as they stumbled from the house and shuffled them toward the waiting ambulance.
Thank You, Lord.
That could have been a lot worse.
***
Coughs tore through him, and he leaned forward while the EMT rubbed his back.
“Here,” Jay Sanders slipped an oxygen mask over AJ’s face the second he stopped coughing. “How long were you inside?”
With a shrug, AJ pictured oxygen flooding his lungs and held up five fingers.
“Five minutes?” Jay’s brow furrowed as he examined him.
Another shrug. AJ had no clue how long he’d been in there.
His sole intent when he rushed into that house had been to get Naomi out. He pulled away the mask, eyes doing a frantic search for her.
“Naomi is fine.” The EMT slid the mask back into place.
“See?” Jay pointed to a cluster five feet away. “They’re checking her over, administering oxygen, and verifying if she needs to stay overnight at the hospital.”
The knot in his stomach loosened.
“Do you know how long she was inside?”
A shake of his head was all he could manage. Judging by the depth of her coughs, she’d been breathing that gray haze twice as long as he had.
What could have started the fire? Arson?
That possibility didn’t hold up.
No one in their tight-knit community would set fire to someone’s home, especially not to one as well-loved as Naomi.
Had she left the stove on? Had Chloë struck a match and forgotten about it? He pushed himself to his feet, needing to burn off some of his excess energy. But the paramedic eased him back into a seated position.
“Relax. A few minutes more, and then you can go see your girl.”
His eyes snapped to Jay’s teasing stare.
Frustration and longing tangled in his chest. “She’s not… my woman.”
The mask muffled his words.
“No?” The EMT quirked his brow. “You weren’t holding on to her at Ella’s reception as if she were a life raft and you were a drowning man?”
A sharp glare was AJ’s only response to the man he’d known since high school.
“Sorry,” Jay snickered. “Rescue puns are my thing.”
Biting his tongue, he forced himself to breathe deeply, the scent of new plastic tainting his oxygen intake.
After an eternity, Jay removed the mask. “You should be fine, though your throat may be sore for a few days.”
“Thanks.”
Jay smirked. “Don’t go rescuing any more damsels in distress.”
AJ drew in a breath of the smoke-tinted air, holding his breath to test if it would set off another coughing spell.
When it didn’t, he turned his glare on Jay. “Stick to your day job.”
Pushing to his feet, AJ headed toward Naomi, the man’s laughter ringing in his ear. She wasn’t his woman yet, but he couldn’t help the question that looped through his mind.
Had the fire finally broken down the wall between them?
The Librarian’s Wish (The Hummingbird Chronicles Book 4)
Table of Contents
She rejected his heart to protect her own. Now, a devastating fire is forcing her to let him in.
Librarian AJ Johnson is done waiting. He opened his heart to single mom Naomi Hodges—only for her to shut him down. She believes they’re too different, that he deserves someone easier to love. But AJ knows the woman behind her walls is worth fighting for.
Fiercely independent, Naomi runs her own business and raises her daughter alone. AJ may be kind and selfless, yet she’s learned the hard way that love can’t be trusted—even if her heart aches for the man she keeps pushing away.
When a fire destroys Naomi’s home and threatens the business she’s fought to build, she’s forced to rely on the one man she swore to keep at a distance. As the tension between them sparks into something neither can ignore, their connection threatens to melt every defense she’s built.
With her livelihood on the line and her walls crumbling, can Naomi finally trust the man she once rejected—and believe that God’s perfect plan has no limits on age or love?
A tender, faith-filled small-town romance about second chances, unexpected grace, and a love that refuses to give up. Perfect for fans of Becky Wade, Denise Hunter, and Toni Shiloh.