Featured Author: Sarah Monzon
“Were you able to find the last title you need?” Evangeline asks as I approach the circulation desk, her eyes bright.
I hold up the book in my hand, adrenaline thrumming through my veins as if I’d just discovered buried treasure instead of a misshelved romance novel. Anticipation bubbles in my bloodstream. I’ve never been a man prone to anxiety, but there’s a little knot of worry tangling itself just behind my breastbone. Even though I’m fairly confident in tonight’s outcome, I can’t help that small thread of what if she says no? that’s trying to weave itself into my stream of consciousness.
“Can I just say again how much I love that you’re doing this here, Caleb?” If Evangeline were a cartoon character, she’d have hearts for eyes right now.
Everyone in town knows her obsession with love and romance. What everyone doesn’t know is how far she let that obsession go—to the point she stepped over her ethical boundaries as a librarian and invaded her patrons’ privacy to play matchmaker using their checkout histories. People could’ve been hurt. She could’ve been fired.
Thankfully, neither of those things happened, and I’ll never stop thanking her. Because even though she turned out to be horrible at matchmaking, her problematic meddling was the best thing that ever happened to me.
“Do you have the other books I requested?” I ask.
Her grin widens as she lifts a large stack of books from behind the desk and sets them on the wooden surface. I quickly scan the spines to make sure they’re all there. After considering and discarding a number of ideas, I’d finally settled on something I hope will show Stacey how much I love her.
After double-checking a few details, Evangeline locks the door behind her, leaving me alone in the library. The smell of paper and ink permeate the air while the silence is punctuated by my heart knocking against my ribs.
Taking a deep breath, I meander through the bookshelves, scattering the flower petals I’d brought with me. Once the floral path has been laid, I retrace my steps. Every foot or so, I set a book stand on the ground and position a paperback so the title on the spine can easily be read from above. Once the last book is in place, I glance back. A river of flower petals with stepping stones of spine poetry in its current, all, hopefully, bringing Stacey to me on bended knee, a waterfall of yeses binding our futures together.
I fish the velvet box out of my pocket and crack open the lid. The sunset hues outside blush through the window, making the diamond sparkle. The lock of the library entrance disengages, the sound of the deadbolt sliding against the strike plate echoing across the rows of paperbacks. I fall to one knee at the end of a row of books, but my hands are shaking so badly that the ring box spills from my fingers. I watch in horror as the ring dislodges from its padded resting place on impact with the floor, flies through the air, then is swallowed beneath a wall of books.
“What’s going on?” Stacey’s voice trembles near the entrance of the library.
My palms sweat as I throw myself prostrate onto the public carpet and frantically swipe my hand beneath the bookshelf, praying my fingers will land on more than just dust bunnies.
“Go see,” Evangeline encourages softly.
Where’s the ring? It couldn’t have rolled far.
“One Kiss Alone,” Stacey reads the first title I’d set out softly. Continuing with, “Never Enough. On Wings of Devotion. Fly Home to Me.”
With every title she reads, her voice gets shakier, and my pulse quickens. Time is running out. I want her to reach me on bended knee and not with my cheek pressed into well-worn carpet.
“Me Before You. Carved in Stone. Love’s Unfading Light. The Heart’s Charge.”
I swallow against the lump in my throat, knowing she’s getting closer. My fingertip brushes something hard and circular. A breath of relief punches out of my lungs. Dragging the ring out from under the bookshelf, I quickly cram it back in the velvet ring box then position myself to kneel at the end of the spine poetry path.
“Never Let Me Go. Hold Me Close. Say You’ll Be Mine. Always and Forever. Marry Me.”
Stacey is standing in front of me now, her beautiful eyes glistening with unshed tears. My vision swims as I blink back tears of my own. I grasp her fingers and look up into the most precious face in all the world.
My throat is thick with emotion. “Stacey Lawerence, even if I used every word printed in all of these books surrounding us right now, there still wouldn’t be enough to express how much I love you. I never could have imagined a matchmaking librarian would find my true love, but she did, and now I can never imagine my life without you in it. Please make me the happiest man alive and say you’ll be my wife.”
She’s nodding her head even before I finish speaking. She falls to her own knees and wraps me up in the best hug of my life, chanting “yes” into my ear.
We stay like that a moment, holding each other, our hearts beating out a conversation between us. Then I pull back enough to seal my love and devotion with a kiss. Finally, I slip the ring over her finger and help her stand.
She looks into my eyes, but then her gaze snags on something over my shoulder, and her lips twist into a sly grin. Reaching past me, she plucks a book off the shelf and holds it up.
You, Me, and Forever the title reads.
I smile wide then dip her into a kiss, recreating the cover art.
Somewhere in the background, Evangeline sighs wistfully and mutters, “And they lived happily ever after.”
She is the author of nineteen books, including the Book Nerds and Boyfriends novella collection. Her Checking Out Love series from Bethany House Publishers includes An Overdue Match and Hearts in Circulation (releases in November 2025).
Sarah loves connecting with readers on Facebook, X (Twitter), and Instagram.
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