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“I am. I plan on it. We’re good. Like really good. I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it too much, which sounds sappy and stupid. I’ve wanted to be with her for so long, now that I am, I don’t want to mess with it. She makes me happy. I mean I was happy before, I loved my life, but it’s so much better now that she’s a part of it.”
“I get it,” Walker started. “Morgan was telling me how happy Hope has been lately too. I would take it that the thought about how things are going is pretty mutual. Don’t think too much about it. I did and I almost ruined things. If you’re happy and she’s happy, then just enjoy the happiness. Everything else will fall into place when it’s supposed to. You’ll see,” Walker said and patted me on my shoulder.
“I can do that. I am doing that,” I said.
“Good. Just don’t mess it up,” Walker said.
JD glared at him, and I shook my head.
“I don’t mean it in a bad way. You’re a guy, we all do stupid things and screw things up. I certainly did my fair share. JD is the king of pissing off women,” Walker said.
“When I do it, it's to get rid of them not because I’m being an idiot. But don’t follow my example. If you have a good thing going, don’t muck it up. Tell her before you do something stupid and lose her,” JD said.
“Yeah. That’s the last thing I want,” I said and finished off my wine.
I leaned back in my chair and thought about what my brothers had said. I did love Hope. I did want to be with her, but was it too soon to tell her? Things had moved pretty fast with us, was this just how we were? Or was I going to scare her away by telling her how I felt and what I wanted for us? As I thanked JD for refilling my wine glass, I knew I didn’t have an answer and I wasn’t sure how to get it.
Chapter 24
Hope
“We would need an answer from you by the end of the week. I can’t stress enough to you what a great opportunity this is for you. One you shouldn’t pass up,” Dean Holmstrom, the head of my college said.
“Thank you. Yes. I understand. I never thought I would even be considered, much less get this opportunity. It would be a huge break for me and my career, but I will need to think about it though. It’s a lot to take in.”
“I completely understand, and it’s a little sudden. I would say take all the time you need but we do need an answer and soon.”
“You’ll have it one way or the other by the end of the week,” I said.
“Okay. If you know sooner, please let me know. I’m sure you know which way I would like you to go,” the Dean said.
“You have made that perfectly clear. And your support means the world to me. Thank you for everything.”
“You’re most welcome. Fellowships like this are rare, especially one that will give you this much access and even promote your book after. I understand it’s a big decision and one you shouldn’t take lightly. If you have any questions, I'm here for you,” Dean Holmstrom said.
“Thank you. I’ll be in touch,” I said and ended the call.
In a daze, I put my phone on the counter, walked over to my couch, and sat down. My eyes roamed over my living room, but I wasn’t really seeing it. My mind was going a thousand miles a minute as I tried to come to grips with what had just happened.
“Who was that?” Faith asks me.
“Dr. Sandy Holmstrom, the Dean of my college,” I said.
“And what did she have to say?”
Faith was sitting across from me in my living room in a chaise lounge, a bottle and two glasses of wine were sitting in front of us. We had been enjoying the bottle while we caught up and decided what we were going to have for dinner when Dr. Holmstrom called.
“When I was in my last year of school, I applied for a few fellowships in creative writing. It was an exercise in knowing how to go through the process and to market ourselves. I picked the Berlin Connection Fellowship because it was where I wanted to set my book and I thought it would be fun to try to get in. I never thought I would get it. They get thousands of applications a year. It didn’t consider for a second that they would pick me,” I said.
“But apparently, they did. Though I’m not surprised.”
“You can’t be, you’re my sister.”
“I can still be objective. Believe me, if I thought your novel wasn’t marketable or that you weren’t a good writer, I would have found a way to discreetly tell you so,” Faith said and took a sip of her wine.
“Yeah, you would have and steered me somewhere else. I never even allowed myself to think that I would get the fellowship. If I go, it would require me to move to Germany, Berlin actually, for a year. They would give me housing, and access to a professor who would mentor me. I could take some more creative writing classes if I wanted. But mainly, I would be able to use their library and resources and be where the novel is set to take place, and really see where it all happened, not just Google it and look at pictures.”
“That sounds like an incredible and wonderful opportunity,” Faith said.
