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“As long as it’s fiction.” He didn’t laugh when he said it, and I wondered if there was a story there or if he was just that focused on the writing discussion.
“I’ll send you some sports romance. You can focus on the baseball.”
“Send me your best romance, sports or not,” he said. “I don’t read it or watch it and I’m not confident in my ability to write it, but I get what you’re saying.”
“And Aron is hot. He needs a woman,” I joked. “Think how meeting his ideal woman could screw him up good the next time he’s fighting to save his people.”
“You got that right,” he muttered, and I was getting the sense that there was indeed a story in his past that had to do with a relationship gone bad. “Are you in any writing groups you’d recommend?”
“I used to be in several, but now I’m just dialed into one that’s for screenwriters. What about you?”
“I’m in some on Facebook, but I mainly lurk and get info. I’m more of a figure-it-out-myselfer in general and learn from books and articles, you know?”
“I get that. I guess I was more of a go-through-an-entire-degree-programmer, spending thousands upon thousands in the process.” I laughed at myself. “I loved it though. What about you? Did you go to college?”
“It’s been a good long while,” Knox said. “I studied the ever-general communications. There was writing involved, but it was the dry kind.”
“The majority of successful fiction writers don’t have degrees in fiction writing, so you’re set.”
“What I wouldn’t mind is some kind of accountability thing with another writer. Some back-and-forth and some goal setting. Maybe some brainstorming for when I get stuck, which I am right now.”
“God, could I use that too. I haven’t written a thing since I’ve been here.”
“That’s not surprising though, is it?” he asked, and I had to concede.
“No, but it’s making me antsy. Like there’s something missing from my life.”
“You probably won’t be able to dive back in for a while, will you?”
I hated that he was right, but he was. “I know people write fiction while having unrelated full-time jobs, but I’m overwhelmed pretty much all the time right now. There’s no brain left for creativity.”
Knox nodded. “Maybe you should go easy on yourself. When you get back to it, you’ll be more than ready.”
“I know you’re right. It’s not easy.” An idea occurred to me, and I sat forward and spun my legs to the side he was on. “We could make our own accountability group. I can’t write right now, but I can help you brainstorm and feel like I’m keeping a hand in writing at the same time. Kind of a win-win?”
“Hell yes. Let’s do it. Send me some of your writing to start with.”
“And we can brainstorm where you’re stuck.”
“I’m only two chapters in, entirely different story and world, like I said, but you have me thinking about the romance angle. Maybe you could read the chapters and give me some insight on this love thing.”
I laughed at the way he drew outlove thing, like it was a foreign language.
“You can so do romance. I’m sure of it,” I said.
“Speaking of romance… It looked like there was something going on between you and Cash at the bar the other night. Are you two together?”
I tried to play it cool, but I had a hard time not smiling when I thought about Cash. “Sort of? It’s complicated.”
“Biggest cliché ever, and I know, as a writer, you don’t want to fall back on a cliché,” he teased.
Still sitting sideways on the lounger, I entwined my fingers and tried to figure out what to say. Magnolia was the only other person I’d confided in, but I hadn’t told her much. “Cash and I have a history. We were together back when I lived here. We hadn’t seen each other for seventeen years, when he went off to the Navy.”
“Were you serious back then?”
“Pretty serious. He bought a ring.” That was something I hadn’t told Magnolia, for whatever reason.
Knox let out a whistle.
