The next twoweeks were a lesson in patience versus relationship. The book finally had a chokehold on me. I’d never been great at the work and life balance, but I tried to make the effort for Phoebe. For us and the tenuous new layer building between us.
Both of us were deep in a project. Phoebe had been spending her afternoon and evenings at Heavenly Bite. Not only had Romeo hired her for the inside, but he had decided to make a big splashy update to the outside of the brick building, which kept her busy.
I’d finally hit my first wall on the book since the day the floodgates of words had been opened thanks to Phoebe. I’d been sticking close to the cottage lately and the walls were closing in. I grabbed my keys off the hook and shrugged into my jacket before opening the door. Mouse scrabbled up off the porch, his tail wagging.
“Want to go see Phoebe?”
His tail went into helicopter mode as I ruffled his ears. On my way down the stairs I heard the truck before it bounded down the rutted lane. March was sprinting by and had been nothingbut rain. I craned my neck and noticed a slim, white boat was strapped to the flatbed. I hustled down the driveway to meet the driver, surprised to see Dylan behind the wheel.
“Hey, Mr. Dutch!”
“Just Dutch,” I corrected.
“Right. Sorry.” He hung halfway out the window. “Hope you don’t mind an early delivery.”
“Not at all.”
“Where would you like me to put this?”
My palm slid across my chest, trying to rub away the tightness. “Uh, the garage.”
“Got it.” Dylan carefully eased his way up the driveway, the engine rumbling.
Unimpressed, Mouse headed down to the beach to sniff around since we weren’t going anywhere yet.
Dylan hopped out, twisting his baseball cap backward against the brisk wind coming in off the water. “I’ve never seen a rowboat like this before.”
“It’s a scull. I did a lot of rowing when I lived in San Francisco. I was on a team in high school and college,” I said absently as I skimmed my hand over the smooth lines.
“Oh, man. I’ve never been to the West Coast. Is it beautiful?”
“More than I can describe.”
Dylan uncranked one of the tie-downs. “And you came here?”
I tucked my fingers into the pockets of my jacket. “I had to for work.”
“Oh, right. Molly was freaking out when she found out you were in town. I’ve never met an author before.”
I resisted the urge to fidget and back out of the conversation. It used to be easy for me to talk to anyone, but everything was too big and complicated in my head with the deadline loomingand facing what was next. Especially since I was the only one aware just how utterly fucked my career was.
And Phoebe.
I did have her in my corner. The quick wash of panicky sweat down my back eased.
I had Phoebe.
“Yeah, I’m using the lake for some inspiration in my new book.”
“Really?” His face lit up before he ran around the other side of the truck to unlock the strap at the opposite end of the scull.
My stomach threatened to heave.Don’t talk about it. Don’t let anyone know.I slowly blew out a breath. “Do you know anything about the car stuck in the lake?”
“Oh, yeah. Me and my brother actually tried to dive down and take a look at it. There’s so much muck at the bottom of the lake that keeps getting moved around because of the change in currents. Especially in the winter. It actually never stops churning enough to freeze over so the car keeps getting covered and uncovered.”
“Is that right? I didn’t have that in my notes.”
“Probably because no one believes us.” He laughed. “When I was a kid, me and Micah used to go down looking with our metal detectors. A storm always seemed to happen right before we were going to go down, or one would come up while we were in the water.”
