Page 105 of Where Roads Lead

I blinked down at her, trying to assess how serious she was.

She couldn’t really be asking me to stay, could she?

“What do you want me to—”

“Stay,” her green eyes implored.

I blinked.

“Please, Will.”

She wasn’t pulling my leg, I realized right away. She really genuinely wanted me to stay. Not for any other reason than to not be alone, but it was enough for me.

“Okay,” I told her. “I’ll stay.”

Chapter Thirty

Elsie

The first week of November brought colder weather, ten thousand added words to my manuscript, and a new dynamic with the man who served me coffee every day.

I hadn’t even been aware of the shift until I noticed it in my characters, who, despite my initial denial, I had to admit were following Mine and Will’s story a lot more closely than I’d intended.

Somehow, despite Hugh and Ellie’s initial hatred of each other, they’d somehow grown into friends. I didn’t really know what type of story could come out of their friendship, but I consoled myself that I’d find the direction along the way.

“You’re here all the time,” Theo noted one morning while I was working in the café.

He slid into the seat across from me.

“Yeah, well, coffee and a show, who can beat that?” I said, gesturing behind the counter where Ava and Will were currently involved in their fourth face-off of the day.

I couldn’t quite hear what they were arguing about from where I sat, but their facial expressions were perfectly adequate at telling a story.

Theo turned and snorted, watching for a minute before turning back to me.

“They’re getting worse lately,” he agreed.

I bit my lip, wondering how much of an overstep I was about to take, before deciding to plunge headfirst anyway.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?” His eyes lit up.

I leaned forward, not wanting my words to be heard by anyone other than our own table. Theo matched my pose until our heads were close together.

He smelled like spearmint gum and aftershave, different from the earthy scent that lingered on Will, which I noticed after taking a nosedive into his armpit on Halloween night.

I stared again toward him and Ava, watching as they stomped off in separate directions.

“Can you tell me the deal between the two of them?” I pried, nodding my head in their direction. “There seems like there’s a lot of background I’m missing.”

Theo’s expression changed, going from curious interest to discomfort in a moment.

“You know, I never really figured it out for sure,” he said, scratching his head as he leaned back in the chair.

“Oh, it’s fine. It’s none of my business, anyway.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just, well, anything I could say would just be my best guess, because they really never told anyone what happened…but—” He cut himself off, and the journalist in me couldn’t help but press him on.