“What gave it away?”
She waved the little white book. “No one keeps a Strunk & WhiteThe Elements of Styleunless they have a love of writing.”
“Guilty.”
At least I used to. Now it was just a wide open void of silence. Words usually filled my head at all times of the day. After talking to her earlier, the ideas had burned in my mind like a fever, but when I’d opened my notebook they dissipated like ash.
She turned back to the bookcase, then crouched to look through the books at the bottom.
“Atticus Dutch.” She squawked loud enough that Mouse popped up from his snoozing. She turned with three of my books in her arms. She held one up with my photo on the back with the foggy Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
“Pretentious photo. Pretty sure my agent convinced me to use that shot.”
And the food I’d managed to eat roiled in my gut.
Christopher always had an angle for my career. At least when it suited him.
Until it hadn’t.
She set the books on the coffee table, then sat down right in front of me dragging me back into the now. “Successful author seems like a pretty great job.”
I stared into her eyes of moldavite. The deep, rich green luring me closer.
I could get lost in her.
Maybe I’d feel something again.
I leaned into her.
Her gaze dropped to my mouth before she licked her lips. The flash of pink and her honeyed scent lured me closer.
“I’m about to do something stupid.”
She touched my cheek. “Does it cancel it out if I’m willing to do something stupid too?”
I cupped the back of her neck, my fingers twisting into her silky hair as I met her in the in between. Where the air was warm from our dinner and her scent wrapped around me like a promise of softness.
It had been so long since anything like that had touched me.
I was bound to mess it up, but maybe just this one time.
For a minute.
“Just one,” I whispered against her mouth.
ELEVEN
Phoebe
The strengthof his grip on my neck zinged up my spine with something akin to a warning.
Danger?
My heart raced in my chest and buzzed in my head like a hive protecting the queen.
My breath stalled in my chest as his lips hovered a millimeter away from mine.
It wasn’t danger.
