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The phone rang, almost causing me to dump everything in my lap. I jumped up, grabbed it off the desk, and answered before looking to see who it was.
“Hello?”
“You sound like you’ve been running. Have you been running? Don’t you live in the mountains?” Shelby’s voice wafted through the other end.
“Not running. The phone was just across the room. I don’t get a lot of phone calls, so it’s not always with me.”
I realized I sounded defensive. Thankfully, she was used to that. It wouldn’t necessarily stop her from asking questions, though.
“I know I said I would back off the calls for a couple of weeks. I honestly just wanted to call and check on you. It’s odd not having you near me, strange as that sounds.”
“It makes sense. I’m okay. I reached out to the woman I told you about. We’ve been exchanging emails, and I have a good working outline.”
Telling her about my writing breakthrough wasn’t something I wanted to do just yet. I hadn’t even read it yet. It might be absolute crap. There was no need to get her hopes up, only for them to be dashed on the rocks below. As she answered, I realized it was too late for that.
“Really? That’s great. Anything you want to share?”
“Not yet. I’m working on it.”
“I guess I’ll have to be okay with that. But I’m here if you need to bounce ideas off anyone.” She sighed softly.
Exactly what I’d hoped to avoid. I shouldn’t have said anything about the outline. Why couldn’t I have just stuck to my normal grouchy attitude? She wouldn’t have thought anything about it. Shelby had been wonderful to me. She’d literally pulled me out of a deep hole and knocked me back into shape. If it wasn’t for her, I would probably be dead. That wasn’t dramatic. That was the truth.
“Just know that things are better than they’ve been in a long time. I don’t want to jinx anything by saying more.”
Her voice perked up a bit, and I felt better. “That sounds promising. I’ll talk to you later.”
We said goodbye, and I tossed the phone on the cushion beside me. It bounced off the couch and hit the wooden floor. I panicked for a second but then wondered why it even mattered. Not for the first time, I wondered why Shelby continued to put up with me. I owed it to her to push this newfound motivation as far as I could. Peeling myself off the couch, I went back to my desk and typed a few more pages. Now was not the time to feel sorry for myself.
A couple of hours later, my hands were cramping again. I used to do exercises to stretch them out when I would go on typing binges. If this new surge in energy kept up, I would need to do them again. I shoved my feet into my work shoes and stepped into the backyard. It was a gorgeous day. I found some gloves out in the shed and put them on so I could clean out what was left of the sheets I’d decided to burn. That seemed like forever ago instead of just this morning. Once the fire pit was cleaned out, I walked the yard picking up sticks. The first time I’d mowed, I hadn’t bothered to go through the yard, and a stick jammed me in the calf, breaking the skin. I wasn’t about to have that happen again.
Back in the house, I stripped off my clothes at the door and headed to the shower. I refused to look at the bed as I passed. If Tara didn’t call soon, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from reaching out. She should have received the flowers and bear by now. What if she didn’t care? I couldn’t even think like that. Letting the hot water roll down my back, I tried my best to get her out of my mind.
My stomach grumbled as I dried off. Breakfast had been short-lived, thanks to the fight. I remembered the Italian restaurant in town and thought it might be the perfect remedy. In my cooking experimentation, I’d developed a pretty great ragu sauce, but I knew I didn’t have the ingredients needed to whip one up myself. Besides, I needed a different view than these four walls.
I grabbed the jeans off the back of my chair and pulled a new shirt out of the closet. My wallet and keys were on the island. I looked around, not remembering what happened to my phone after Shelby called. On cue, it pinged. Rounding the corner, I saw it sitting on the floor just as the alert disappeared from the screen.
I picked it up, swiped it open, and gasped when I realized the alert was a text from Tara. My heart thundered in my chest as I opened the app fully to read the message.
