Complete Me (Book Three of The Kirkland Family)

Complete Me: Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Rose sat down on the floor, spreading her skirt around her legs and pulling one of the bigger cardboard boxes toward her. Cole sank down beside her and propped his back against the wall. She popped open the top and sneezed as a plume of dust followed.

"Bless you," he said and handed her one of his neverending handkerchiefs.

She wiped her eyes and nose. "The best dust is book dust, I suppose," she said.

"I agree." He frowned as she began stacking books next to her hip. "I have nothing against your curiosity, but is this really how you want to spend our evening?"

Rose blinked up from a photography book of treehouses. "Don't you know you can tell a lot about a person by the books they read?"

He smiled. "Then you're looking in the wrong box. Those were all gifts from clients and co-workers." He rose up on his knees, reached around her to grapple with another box of similar size. "Try this one. But...if you're going to do this, then I have a proposition."

"Proposition?"

"For every box you empty, I get a dance," he said, resuming his spot on the wall and crossing his arms casually across his chest. "Deal?"

Rose grinned, said, "Deal," and ripped into the box. The first book she saw was a dog-eared, worn copy of the King James Bible. Three bookmarks stuck out from the top, and before Rose could open up to see where Cole saved his place, he pried it from her fingers. "That one goes on the bedside table."

He stood up, walked away and dropped the bible on his bed.

"Which of Books are you reading?" she asked, wondering if he liked to scribble notes in the margins, or underline certain verses...

"First Kings, Proverbs, and Titus," he answered.

"At the same time?"

He smiled.

"Favorite verse?" she asked, digging out another book. This one, a copy of 1984.

"What is yours?" he said instead.

Rose had to think about that. "Um... 'And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.'"

"Ephesians," he said. "That's a good one. I like, 'Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.'"

"First Corinthians," she replied, he nodded, and she added, "Do you attend church regularly?"

"Is this part of the Getting To Know You stuff?"

"I suppose. You've never mentioned much about your faith."

He gazed off into thin air for a moment, that look of a person collecting their thoughts. "Faith, I have," he said. "A base religion...not really. I took a few classes in college that studied the major religions of the world, and I've read through the English translations of the Vedas, the Sutras, and the Quran. They all have their merits, I think, but I always go back to the Christian Bible. Especially the King James version. I like the prose...the romanticism of the wording."

Rose frowned slightly. "I never thought of the Bible as romantic."

He smiled at her. "And I never thought I'd enjoy watching someone dig through my personal collection this much."

She hesitated with her fingers wrapped around another one of his books. "I'm not normally this snoopy. Does it bother you?"

"Of course not," he answered. "I said I'm enjoying it. Go on. What's next?" He nudged his chin at her hands. Rose lifted up a thick volume of Mark Twain stories, and after that came Lord of the Flies and Three Men in a Boat. Then The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The World According to Garp. She flipped through time travel fantasy and steampunk fictions, political suspenses, biographies about entertainers and presidents, and memoirs. The stack on the floor grew larger as she emptied the box, adding Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and The Republic by Plato.