Isabel cast him a sharp glance before she turned her full attention to her father. “Dad, I’ve already told you. I am banned for life from the reading circle along with my friends.” She had been labeled a troublemaker and was asked to leave and never come back. All because she’d campaigned for the book club to read her favorite book—The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady. That book had changed her point of view on life and not just because of the sexual content. She had felt so strongly about the erotic diary that she hadn’t backed down when the reading circle selection committee warned her to drop the idea. It was the first time she’d ever been considered trouble and she found the situation both liberating and uncomfortable. “So we have started our own book club.”
Sean leaned back in his chair. “What kind of books do you read?”
He reminded her of a jungle cat who was in a lazy sprawl but could pounce at any moment. Isabel bit her lip, wondering how much she wanted to reveal. “Right now we’re reading a book that’s being challenged at the library.”
Sean’s eyebrow arched. “Who is challenging it?”
She pressed her lips together. How did this man find a way to ask all the questions she didn’t want to answer in front of her father? “A few members of the reading circle want it banned.”
“You are purposely reading books that other people are against?” Keith shook his head. “That sounds like something...” His voice trailed off.
She knew what her father had been going to say. That was something that Charlene, her mother, would have done. When Isabel was twelve, her mother, chafing at small-town living and married life, had caused one scandal after another before she had walked out of their lives for good.
“What business do you have creating this club?” Keith’s voice rose. “It sounds like the only reason you started it was to provoke the reading circle.”
“Not at all,” Isabel said. “We’re reading what we want to read.”
Her father should understand that about her. She had spent most of her childhood with her nose in a book. Her favorite place in the world was the Seedling library. She was more comfortable there than in the home she grew up in. The library was where she had spent hours dreaming. It was a safe place where the librarians hadn’t judged or censored her as she explored ideas and other points of view. Now, as the librarian herself, she wanted to offer the same safe place she’d enjoyed to the community.
“You need to end this book club before any word gets out. Isn’t it bad enough that you were kicked out of the reading circle? Do you not realize how much of a privilege and honor it was to have been accepted into the circle? You’d been on the waiting list from the time you were seventeen until you turned twenty-one.”
Because the town had been waiting to see if she had inherited her mother’s traits or her father’s. “Dad, you wouldn’t understand.”
“You’re right.” He rose from his seat and tossed his linen napkin on the table. “I don’t have a clue what has gotten into you. Hawkins, I’ll be in my study when you’re done.”
Isabel didn’t watch her father stride out of the room but her stomach twisted with guilt. She knew she had been disappointing him recently. She hadn’t been meeting expectations. Not since she’d read The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady.
Isabel wasn’t sure what had made her pick up the runaway bestseller but it had made her look at her life and at herself. She wasn’t living the life she wanted. She wanted to be bolder. Braver.
Isabel looked across the table at Sean. She wanted a life of passion.
“As always, Sunday night dinner was a pleasure.” She got up from her chair gracefully while concealing the emotions churning inside her. “Good night.”
Sean stood up when she did. “I would think that after twenty-eight years, you would know how to talk to your father.”
“After working for him for three years, you’re an expert?” She shook her head. “Who are you to lecture me? You were feeding the fire. And how did you know about the book I’m reading? Or the book club?”
“Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“No, of course not.” But she didn’t want him to be aware of her reading material. It wouldn’t help her mission if Sean was forewarned.
“Maybe you should treat it as such,” he said as he followed her out of the dining room. “Working at the library means so much to you. It’s your home away from home. But your bosses won’t tolerate any scandal and your reputation can’t take another hit.”