“The problem with being entrusted with a book on contract without the publisher seeing anything other than a loose outline, is that there are only two people who have the original manuscript.”
This time she did twist in my arms. “No.”
I touched my forehead to hers and pushed off my shirt. I just needed to feel her under my hands to get the rest of it out. The warm silk of her skin grounded me. “Every book I’ve ever written went to Chris first. Implicit trust. Why would he ever break that? He was my best friend.”
“There has to be a contract in there. Ethics, even if not just your friendship.”
“You’re right. But Chris knows my process.” I leaned back and pointed to the walls of black paint. “The chaos of my notes stay in my head for the most part. It goes from scrawls to the neat and tidy blackboard over there.” I stepped away from her and pulled out the rolling piece of slate. “I use it to keep on track, but I don’t have any other copies of my work. And I’ve never been the type to be precious with my notes. They change as the story evolves anyway, that’s why I use blackboards and chalk. I save the final when I write it, of course. I have a few backups because all authors have that fear we’ll lose our words to technology. But I never thought I’d have to worry about one person stealing them.”
“Christopher,” she said in a wobbly voice. Her moldavite eyes were already overflowing with tears.
“Yes. Why would I worry? He has just as much invested in me as I do with him. We were a team. Hell, it’s my career that gave him his.”
“That makes no sense.” A flash of fire flinted in those dark eyes as she dashed away the tears. “Your voice is so incredibly strong in your books.”
My eyebrows shot up.
“What? You don’t think I would read your work? It’s the only way I could know you, Dutch.”
I stared at my feet. “I’m sorry, Phoebe.”
“I don’t want apologies.” She rushed over to me. “I want to kill him.”
I laughed. My little ball of sunshine had teeth.
“Don’t you laugh.”
I drew her in closer and framed her face in my hands. “I’m lucky to have you in my corner.” I lowered my lips to hers, tasting salt in the tracks of her tears that had fallen, in the warmth of her that always called to me.
She sighed into my mouth for a moment. The combustion that was never far away, already building between us. Then suddenly she was gone. On the other side of the room. “Don’t you distract me. Tell me the rest.”
I laughed. Even in my confession.
Was it any wonder that I was falling for her?
My smile fell away, slowly aware that it was far beyond falling.
I’d already fallen.
Maybe it was right then.
No, I knew when it happened. I was too stubborn to know it at the time, but it was in the snowbank where she’d convinced me to make a snow angel.
Before I even knew her body, I’d fallen. Because she brought me peace even in the chaos.
And knowing that, I stood taller and knew I could tell her the rest.
TWENTY-ONE
Phoebe
I wantedto cower into myself because I could feel the betrayal in the air like a fine mist. But watching him draw breath into his lungs and expand right before my eyes rattled me.
I understood the anger and disloyalty Dutch must have felt in not only having his work stolen, but the fact it was his best friend. The one person who was supposed to be in his corner. It told me so much and hurt me in a way I wasn’t sure how to handle.
“The first time I realized it, I thought I’d been mistaken.”
The directness of his gaze arrowed into me.
