He smiled, and my heart started thumping wildly again.
"Curiosity killed the cat, you know." He said, his voice soft as velvet.
"But the cat also has nine lives... so why not use them?" I smiled back.
His blue eyes gazed intensely into mine. My hand...
A few hours later, Henry and I sat in the records room of the museum, sorting through a file marked "JULY". Henry looked so sweet as he scanned the documents- occasionally he would push his glasses back up the bridge of his nose like he had when he was younger. Same old Henry, just a little older and wiser... and much cuter. He looked up at me, realizing I was watching him. A genuine grin spread across his face.
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"How am I supposed to focus when you're staring at me like that?" he asked.
"I apologize." I smirked back at him. "Please, continue." He slid a piece of paper over to me.
"Here, take this page. Look for anything that may have come from France. It should say it in the 'origin' column. Gotta keep those wandering eyes busy." I laughed but did as he instructed.
I skimmed through each line, looking for anything that mentioned France. I spotted two on that page alone.
"I have two." I said, writing the information down on a piece of paper. He took the inventory page back from me and filed it away.
"Okay, I have three. Let's compare." He stood, bringing his list with him. He came over to stand behind me and leaned over my shoulder. His list was written in a sloppy, almost chicken-scratch type writing.
"How are future historians supposed to decipher that?" I chuckled.
"Hey, don't hate on my handwriting." He laughed. "Think of them like glyphs, rather than letters."
I looked up at him, cherishing how easily we got along. His face was only a few inches from mine, and he closed the distance with a kiss. My eyes drifted shut as his lips grazed against mine. My arms wound around his neck as he leaned further into me. After a minute, he pulled away, biting gently at my lip as he did. A very soft moan escaped from my mouth, and he stared at me in amazement. Who knew that young kid who always tailed me and Katelyn had this in him?
"We should... get back to work. If my boss comes in here and sees me making out with you... that probably wouldn't look so great." He took a step back and turned his attention back to the lists. I followed suit, and I tried to slow my heart rate as we analyzed.
"Looks like an antique chandelier, a ring, a postcard dated 1825, and two items labeled 'various women's accessories'. Those last two are gonna be hard for us to identify, but I'll get us an appointment with Chuck- he's the head of Collections. He can help us find them, and we should be able to track down the first three pretty easy on our own." Henry gathered the two lists and the folder. After he filed everything, we left to get some dinner.
*******************
The next few days flew by in a whirlwind. Henry and I spent every day after school at the museum and the archives, looking at the artifacts and searching for the ancestors of Margaret Parish. We'd found almost all the artifacts- Chuck wasn't totally sure what the 'various accessories' meant, but promised he'd look for them when he had a free day. While we waited for him to locate the items, we dove through old town directories and ledgers. There was even a Census record from the first year it was enacted- 1902. But we had come up empty-handed. It was almost like Margaret and her mom had just disappeared after they hired that witch.
