"What about Schwarzenegger?"
"The Govenator?" Sinclaire rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I'd give him a 50% chance."
"That's pretty low," Glenn argued.
"Crowded state," Daryl pointed out as he stretched his legs down the steps.
"Big target," Sinclaire added.
"Hollywood jackass," Merle called from the kitchen.
"You can't enter the debate from outside visual range!" Sinclaire shouted back.
"Miss lookin' at me?" Merle drawled as he stepped into the doorway.
"It's been positively unbearable," she answered with a grin. "The minutes when you're away making soup drag interminably. Then you show up and I realize that it was probably just hunger pains."
Merle snorted and handed her a beer glass full of venison stew.
"Anyway, I don't think he's a Hollywood jackass," Glenn said, steering them back to the subject.
"Hell, ya talk like ya know him," Merle scoffed.
"Okay, okay. What about Steven Segal?" Glenn persisted.
"Maybe twenty years ago," Merle said. "Didn't he go all pussy Buddhist?"
"Maybe. I mean the Buddhist part, not the pussy part. Although his career has been kind of off for a while if you ask me," Sinclaire said. "And he did that song."
"A song?" Daryl and Glenn repeated at the same time.
"It wasn't bad," Sinclaire said. "The video was a little creepy. The girl was way too young for him and there were elephants. I don't like elephants."
"Sing it," Merle demanded before she could get off track about elephants.
"No!"
"Come on!" Glenn chimed in. "It not like we can go pull it up on YouTube."
"No dice. Besides, I don't even remember it. It wasn't on my ipod or anything."
"Ya didn't have no ipod," Merle said as he took a sip of his own soup.
Sinclaire sighed and said, "Fine. It was the Walkman version. How'd you know?"
"'Cause yer cheap, Yank," Merle said with a grin.
"What about Vin Diesel?" she asked to change the subject.
"Gay," all three men chorused.
"What? No way!"
"'Fraid so," Daryl said with a sage nod.
"He has a kid!"
"So did Clay Aiken. And Ricky Martin. And—"
Sinclaire stood up in righteous indignation and Glenn stopped listing celebrities.
"I will not listen to these wild allegations!" she said firmly. "I'm going."
"Goin' where?" Merle asked as she flounced past him into their bedroom and snatched up her fatigue jacket.
"To the library," she informed him.
"Oh."
"Don't look so disappointed. You're not invited."
"The hell I ain't! Ya don't go nowhere without me, Yank."
He followed blandly as she stormed out.
"Wait!"
They both turned at the truck to see Dale waving them down.
"What is it?" Sinclaire asked.
"I'd like to come too," he said.
"What the fuck for?" Merle growled.
"Different people enjoy different things," Dale said patiently. "I enjoy reading as much as you enjoy…whatever it is you enjoy."
"I'm coming too," Glenn said. "I'm getting cabin fever. So is someone else I know. But he won't invite himself."
Sinclaire looked at Daryl, who was still on the porch steps looking morose.
"Bow hunter," she called.
"Yeah?"
"Get your ass over here."
Daryl stood up and walked over casually as if it didn't matter one way or the other to him. Merle rolled his eyes.
"I got shotgun," Merle said.
"The front seat's big enough for three people," Glenn pointed out.
"Like I give a shit."
Sinclaire cranked the truck and said, "Let's move ladies."
Glenn and Dale climbed into the back when Daryl lifted the sliding door.
"So I'm thinking that when this is all over we should make a celebrity zoo," Glenn said, as if they'd never left the topic of celebrities. "People would pay for sure."
"To see zombiefied celebrities?" Daryl asked in surprise. "What the hell kinda sick fuck—"
"Literally everyone!" Sinclaire interrupted. "I want 50% profit and I'll round them up for you Glenn."
"40%," Glenn said. "It was my idea."
"Ya oughta know better'n to go into business with a Chinaman," Merle said. "Ya gonna give her 60% 'cause she's the one riskin' her ass."
"Fine," Glenn groused.
"From now you're managing all my business endeavors," Sinclaire whispered as she gave Merle a smile.
"I want some of yer take," he said with a shrug. "Figured the more ya get, the more I get."
"Always altruistic."
"I ain't sure what that is but I bet I'm all that and more."
She laughed and flicked on her blinker for the turn into the library parking lot.
They were careful on the way in but Merle and Sinclaire could tell no one had been there since they had graced the building with their presence weeks ago.
"You actually brought some of the books back?" Merle asked when Sinclaire stacked them on the desk.
"Just the ones nobody liked," she defended herself. "I am no thief."
"Lord of the Rings," Daryl said absently.
She shot him an approving smile. Dale ignored them all and made for the card catalog. Sinclaire headed for juvenile fiction. She'd promised Sophia another bagful of Boxcar children books. She grabbed the Inkheart trilogy too. Sophia was a smart kid; she'd probably like it just as much as Sinclaire did.
She could hear Glenn and Dale talking about favorite authors as they perused the catalog. She also heard Merle and Daryl talking in low voices as they stood by the desk stubbornly. Like they hadn't hung onto every word of the last book.
Although…Merle had been pretty pissed at the ending. Maybe he needed something with a guaranteed happy ending. She drifted over to the adult fiction and pulled out some of Robert B. Parker's westerns. They were easy to read and the good guy always came out on top…and alive to gloat over it. Sounded like it should be Dixon brother approved.
Sinclaire wandered the stacks trying to find something for herself. She bypassed Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, and Nicholas Sparks with a curl of her lip. Love stories. Practically Victorian. Love for the sake of love. She snorted under her breath.
"Love is a carnivorous fish."
"The hell does that mean?"
She managed not to jump, but only because she forced herself.
"Bow hunter," she said with an embarrassed chuckle. "I didn't hear you."
"Yeah well, you're not supposed to."
"So you were sneaking up on me on purpose?"
"No! I mean ya know…I was just lookin' and I thought that ya seem to know yer way around the place…and…"
"Relax," she said. "I was just teasing you. And anyway, I've already picked out some books for you and Merle."
She handed him the westerns and he glanced at the covers briefly.
"Looks all right," he acknowledged.
"Did you want something different?" she asked.
"Nah, I don't much care. Just been damn bored lately. Winter's usually when I catch up on my movies."
"Oh," she walked through the stacks and pulled down several Jane Austen books. They were love stories too, but at least they made sense and they were funny. "Don't worry," she said when he gave them a double take. "These are mine. Maybe this whole thing will get worked out soon and you'll be able to borrow some DVD's."
"Yeah maybe."
When she turned to walk to the next row Daryl hadn't moved back and she bumped into him. He caught her when she stumbled.
"Sorry," he said immediately.
"It's okay."
"You sure?" he asked.
That weird feeling shivered through her again. The same feeling she'd had the day they met. She shrugged out his grip.
"I said its okay," she snapped before she spun around and walked off the other way.
Dale walked past him and Daryl followed him through the stacks.
"If I said love is a carnivorous fish what would you say?" he asked awkwardly.
"I'd think you'd been reading John Donne," Dale said. "And I'd be pretty impressed."
"So it's in a book?"
"Well, not exactly. It's a poem. And that isn't how he put it, but it's a generally accepted…"
Daryl waved his hand and said, "That's enough. Got any book suggestions?"
It was worse than asking Sinclaire. By the time Dale walked away Daryl had an armful of books and his head was spinning with further suggestions. He looked down at the book on top. The Shining. Well…the movie hadn't been the best thing he'd ever seen, but he'd give it a shot.
"Everybody ready?" Sinclaire called from the front desk.
"What?" Merle asked when he saw her flinch after she yelled.
"Still feels weird to yell in a library," she admitted.
She handed Merle two bags of books and picked up two more when she saw Dale, Daryl, and Glenn approach from different corners of the library. Leaving was no more eventful than arriving had been and soon they were all settled in the truck. Dale pulled out one of his books and began to read. Glenn had started to do the same thing, but then he began shifting around.
"The fuck ya doin'?" Merle asked as he glanced back.
"I'm sitting on something," Glenn said as he dug through the blankets they'd left back there in case of an emergency. "What is this anyway?"
Sinclaire wished Glenn had just moved over when she glanced in the rearview and saw what he was holding. A bright red plastic box that she knew contained enough morphine to put half the camp down for a winter's nap. The same one Merle had taken from the Army base.
"Emergency supplies," she said shortly. "Put it back."
Merle faced forward without comment but he felt Sinclaire's eyes on him. He swallowed hard and wiped the palm of his hand down his leg; it had suddenly become sweaty. How the hell did he not remember that he'd taken that shit with him?
The rest of the night was average for him; they took the books in and received general fanfare over it. They had supper and Sinclaire started reading one of the Westerns she'd brought back. He thought it was probably a good story. He didn't hear much of it though and when he closed his eyes to try to sleep all he could see was that little red box.