Page 2 of Written with Love

Chapter One

“Hurry up, Juliette,” Sophia said as she put her hands on her hips. Sophia had been her very best friend since high school,

“I’m hurrying.” She gave her bag one more yank to free it from the back seat of the car. The bag sprang loose and almost sent her falling backwards. This seemed to give Sophia a great deal of joy, and she burst out laughing.

“Thanks for helping me,” Juliette said dryly as she threw the bag over her shoulder and fell into step with her friend.

One of the main reasons she and Sophia had hit it off was their love of art and film. Sophia had shocked everyone in their class that first week when she’d arrived as a new student with her bright blue hair and matching Doctor Marten’s. Well, just the tips of her hair had been colored. Sophia frequently changed the color of the ends of her longer hair and the matching streaks she added. Today’s color was bright red.

“Can you believe it?” Sophia locked arms with her. “I’m going to be an aunt.”

In the past few months, her friend had returned from New York, where she’d been attending film school, to be there after her mother’s sudden death.

Juliette had seen the pain in her friend’s heart those first few weeks. But then something had changed. The old spark between Sophia and Palmer Clark had reignited. Sure, they were still tiptoeing around one another at this point, but she could tell it was only a matter of time before true happiness found them. It was obvious to everyone who saw the couple flirting all over town.

Today, they were in Edgeview shopping for party supplies for the baby shower Sophia was throwing that weekend for Avery, her sister-in-law.

They had hit almost every arts and crafts stores in town and had enjoyed a nice lunch together. It had been a few years since she’d enjoyed such a wonderful day out with a girlfriend. Thinking about it, she realized that it had been before Sophia had moved away.

It wasn’t that she didn’t have other friends. She did. Well, a few. But she wasn’t as close to them as she and Sophia had always been.

She had her work to keep her busy though. Taking the job at Sophia’s brother Lucas’s restaurant, Pride Pueblo Cocina, had been the best decision she could have made.

She had been working directly under Emily, Sophia and Lucas’s mother, before her death. Now that Sophia was back in town, she was working under her friend.

The job wasn’t hard, and it allowed her to focus on the online classes she’d been taking since graduating from high school. She’d gotten her associate’s degree in art and had taken a handful of business and marketing classes along with a few film and digital editing ones since. She wasn’t one-hundred percent sure what she wanted to do but figured with a broad stroke, she’d hit on something she loved.

So far, she’d found out that she enjoyed digital editing and photography. She was good at it. Strangely good. She always had been. Finding that best angle was as easy to her as reading children’s stories.

In high school, she’d hidden the talent and only allowed a few to know of her abilities. Sophia was one of those few, which is why she had invited her to work on her own film projects. And she had made her a manager of the restaurant after she’d worked there for two years.

While they shopped for the last final touches for the party, Sophia brought up that her friend, the famous screenwriter Maxwell Wilson, had moved into the house attached to the Pride lighthouse a while back. The place she dreamed about even to this day, even though she’d never stepped foot in there before.

She was intrigued. Everyone knew who Max Wilson was. You couldn’t call yourself a movie lover if you didn’t know him. The man had written some of the best screenplays and books in the past decade. Many of them were her favorites.

“Do you think he’s going to stick around town or is this just a fix-it-up-and-make-a-profit or rent-it-out type of deal?” she asked. “You know, kind of like how Brook and Ryder rent out parts of Ocean View when they’re going to be traveling.”

Brook was a local who had met James Ryder back before Sophia had moved into town. The couple had snatched up Ocean View, the massive mansion that was the closest home to the lighthouse. It had taken them years to remodel the old place and now it was often used as a seasonal rental property since the couple had another home in the Seattle area and one in Europe. Not that they ever stayed in one place very long. The couple always seemed to be traveling to exotic places. She’d never been outside of Oregon, but she tried not to be too jealous. Well, she’d been to Seattle a few times when she was really young, but she couldn’t remember it so it didn’t count.

Sophia shrugged. “Max says he wants to stick around. I think he means it. Besides, his mother and sisters live close by.”

“Yeah, but he’s… Max Wilson.” She waved her hands as if that explained everything.

Sophia chuckled. “Yeah, but he doesn’t let that get to his head. Trust me. He’s pretty down to earth.”

“If my memory serves me right, he’s not bad looking.” Juliette wiggled her eyebrows and had Sophia chuckling.

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” Her friend’s eyes grew distant, and she could tell she was thinking about someone else.

“You have it really bad for him don’t you?” she teased

“Who?” Sophia asked. “Max?” She shook her head.

“Palmer Clark.” Juliette laughed. Her friend managed to look embarrassed for a second.

“Yeah, he’s...something.” She smiled.

“I’ve never really witnessed a love triangle before,” she teased.