Page 47 of No Headlines Please

"Right. But everything's pretty automated." She gave a self-conscious laugh. "Well…other than the writing and ad design, obviously."

I almost smiled. "Obviously."

"And there are times – most of the time, actually, when I'm super-busy, especially when I'm writing. But once I finish a book and get my ads running, I have a little downtime, but—"

Abruptly, she stopped to study my face. "I'm not telling you more than you want to know, am I? I mean…it's probably pretty boring hearing all the nitty-gritty."

Not even close. "Trust me, I'm not bored." I meant it, too. I was a detail kind of guy. Plus, I was obscenely curious what kind of stories Delaney wrote. "Go on. I'm listening."

"So…I end up charging a lot of money on my credit card."

"How much is a lot?"

"Okay, maybe the amount isn't a lot to you. But last month, I spent almost nine thousand."

She was right. It wasn't a lot to me. But that didn't mean I wasn't impressed. "And you make that money back?"

"Well, that's the idea. And yeah, sometimes my credit card gets pretty close to being maxed, but then it's all paid off when the royalties roll in."

Already, I had a sickening feeling where this was going. "And this month?"

She grimaced. "Well, that's where it gets tricky."

"Tricky how?"

"So, yesterday morning, I think everything's humming along just fine, like it always does. Except it wasn't."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd scheduled a big credit card payment. And honestly, this shouldn't have been a big deal." She glanced down at her cup and murmured, "I mean, the money was sitting right there in my bank account." She lifted the cup to her lips and took a lingering sip before saying in a rush, "But then, it suddenly wasn't."

My jaw flexed. "Because the money was borrowed."

"Right. But I didn't realize it at the time. So you can guess what happened next."

I could. And I didn't like it. "That credit card payment – it didn't go through."

"Yup." She winced. "And by then, the card's officially over the limit."

"How far over?"

"Enough so I had to pause all my ads, but this isn't even the worst of it."

"So what is?"

"My bank account. It's now at zero." She gave an unconvincing laugh. "Okay…less than zero, because the credit card thing wasn't the only payment I'd set up."

This was no laughing matter. "It wasn't?"

"No. I mean…I've got my phone bill, health insurance, and you know…other stuff. I can't remember the last time I used my actual checkbook." She scoffed. "And that's probably a good thing, because those checks would be bouncing like crazy."

"You never said…how much money did she borrow?" That last word – borrow – felt like broken glass in my throat, but getting pissed off would only make this worse.

For Delaney.

Not me.

She blew out a long, ragged breath before giving up the number. "Eight thousand."