Page 75 of The Story Between Us

Somewhere in the years of manuscript reports and submission guidelines and being told she wasn’t aggressive enough, she’d lost this part of herself. The part that made things. The part that brought color out of nothing and watched it breathe.

Now she had violet paint under her fingernails and a dragon on the library wall and a life in Maple Lake that felt more real than anything she’d left behind in New York.

She dipped her brush into the pale blue she’d mixed that morning—the exact shade of a robin’s egg—and turned to the corner where a baby dragon was emerging from its egg. The shell was cracked now, one tiny claw reaching through, and she’d spent an hour yesterday getting the texture right. Today she’d add the eye. Just one, peeking out. Curious. New.

Emma would have loved it.

The thought came unbidden but had turned from sharp to simply a companion, even a warmth.

As if she might be watching too.

“It’s magical.”

Livvie turned. Hazel stood in the doorway, hand pressed to her chest, those bright eyes suspiciously wet.

“I’m still working on the baby,” Livvie said. “And the window seat needs the castle mural, and⁠—”

“Livvie.” Hazel’s voice was soft. “Stop. Just…look at what you’ve made.”

She stepped back and looked.

The Storybook Corner wasn’t just a children’s reading area anymore. It was a world. A place where stories could happen. Where a child could curl up in the window seat and believe that dragons could be real and forests held secrets and that somewhere, just out of sight, magic waited.

“Four days until the festival,” Hazel said. “Do you think you’ll have it done?”

“I’ll have it done.”

“The dedication ceremony is on closing night. The lantern release.” Hazel paused. “We’d love for Nate to be there. If he’s…if he’s ready.”

Livvie thought about Nate at his desk, the words finally flowing. Thought about the way he’d smiled at her yesterday, brief and real, before disappearing back into his story.

“I’ll ask him,” she said.

Her phone buzzed on the drop cloth. She glanced down and saw Meg’s face filling the screen—video call incoming.

“I should take this,” she said to Hazel. “My friend from New York.”

“Of course.” Hazel was already backing away, that knowing look on her face. “I’ll leave you to it.”

Livvie wiped her hands on her jeans and grabbed the phone, settling into the window seat that overlooked the lake. She answered on the fourth ring.

“Finally!” Meg’s face appeared, slightly pixelated, with the chaos of a Manhattan coffee shop visible behind her. Someone jostled her elbow. A barista called out a complicated order. “I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. Where have you been?”

“Here.” Livvie held up the phone, panning it across the mural. “Working.”

“Is that a dragon?”

“It’s a children’s reading corner. At the library.”

“You’re painting dragons at a library?” Meg’s eyes widened. “Livvie. What is happening to you out there?”

“I’m helping with a project. Emma—Nate’s sister—she designed this space for the kids. It was never finished. I’m just…” She trailed off. “I’m finishing it.”

“Uh-huh.” Meg took a sip of her coffee, that look on her face—the one that meant she was filing information away for later interrogation. “And how’s Mr. Hot Author? Still grumpy?”

“He’s writing.”

“That’s it? He’s writing?”