Summer wasn’t exactly shaping up to be exciting for Seth Moretti. Working at the town library wasn’t the most glamorous plan in the world, but it meant being surrounded by books, air conditioning, and a comfortable kind of quiet… most of the time.

He’d been shelving books for over an hour, lost in his own thoughts, when he noticed someone he hadn’t seen before. She was sitting by the window, completely absorbed in a book as if nothing else existed. He blinked, trying to remember if he’d seen her walk in—but no… and that unsettled him a little.

Seth wasn’t exactly the type to start conversations with strangers, but there was something about her—maybe the way she turned the pages, or the calm that seemed to wrap around her—that made him pause just a second longer than usual.

That was the moment when, without realizing it, the quiet routine of his summer began to change.