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I swallowed, hard. “Yeah. I definitely plan to. Next release.”

She froze, then her gaze flicked in my direction. “… next? As in… there’s a previous one?”

“Several previous ones. This one will be the sixth.”

Alicia straightened up. “You’ve writtensixbooks?!”

“Five,” I corrected. “Number six isn’t written yet.”

She waved me off. “Fine. Five. Why the hell don’t I know about this?! Where are they? Show me!”

I blew out a sigh. “I… don’t have any of them here,” I admitted. “So I wouldn’t out myself.”

“Out yourself?! As in… you’re in hiding or something?!”

“I use a pen name,” I explained. “And we really don’t have time for this conversation.”

“We’ll make time,” Alicia insisted, propping her hands on her hips. “What’s the pen name? What do you write?Whywouldn’t you tell me this?!”

I shook my head. “Because if I told anybody… I felt like it wouldn’t bejustmine anymore, but you’re nosy and were all in my screen, so I guess the secret is out now.”

She scoffed. “I’m notnosy.”

I crossed my arms.

“Okay. Fine. I am. Now, what about what you write? I want to see it. I want toreadit! It’s not about me, is it? Like a whole thing about how much you hate your overbearing big sister?”

“What?!No,” I laughed. “I… write romance novels,” I said, half-expecting her to rib me about it, but her eyes just went wide.

“So I’ve been getting the life teased out of me by Kingston Whitfield forreadingromance novels, while you’ve been flying under the radar writing them? Wow, I’ve been out in the cold for no reason. Thanks, little sister.”

“I haven’t even been around him like that to see you get teased, first of all. Well… no, actually,first of allwould be… you read romance novels?”

She sucked her teeth. “Yes. Why is that always the reaction?” she laughed. “Can a bitch contain multitudes in peace?”

“Sorry. I just… you’re so…tough.”

She sighed. “Ah. Yes. And because I’mtough, I’m supposed to just be that one thing, never anything else?”

“No. Of course not,” I assured, even though her raised eyebrows told me my actions were giving something else. When writing, I tried my best to fully realize my characters, never boxing them into their archetypal characteristics, becausepeopleweren’t like that.

I didn’t want my characters to be… characters.

I wanted them to be real.

So… I should probably be giving my sister the same room.

“I’m sorry,” I told her, raising my hands to signal peace. “We’re still getting to know each other, right?”

She smiled. “Right. I started reading romance novels because I was trying to understand the phenomenon of love, and how it fits into relationships, all that. I mean… I’m a Rose, so I knew how to fake it, knew how to make someone fall in love withme, all that, but… it was abstract. But then I actually kinda liked it, so I ended up sticking around.”

“Well… I started writing it for similar reasons.”

“And youstillhaven’t told me what your pen name is or what your books are.”

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as I started backing toward my room again. “Fine,” I told her, then offered a name and title that made her mouth drop open.

“DOSH!” she screeched, making my footsteps grind to a halt. “Thatisyou?!Sis! That latest book! I… Iloveyour work,” she admitted, bringing a massive smile to my face. “I was halfway ready to stop reading you though, because there was never any sex, but then in the last one, you… ohugh,” she groaned, making a face. “Isaiah brought something out of you, didn’t he? Ew.”

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