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I sigh.Just my self-confidence,I think. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
He puts my phone down. “Either way, though, I want you to ask a lawyer to read through any future contract before you sign it. Did you have help with this one?”
“A friend who went to law school read it over,” I say. “Is it bad?”
He shrugs, but it looks careful. “It’s notbad,but it could have been better. There are definitely clauses I would have put in that could have protected you. Maybe the publisher would have rejected them, but I would have at least tried.”
I smile. “If only I could afford your hourly fee.”
He snorts. “I’ll give you a deep discount.”
“Oh?”
“Of course. I’d also expect to read the book.”
I groan. “Why do people always want to do that?”
“Because they’re interested,” he says. “Because I’ve never met a writer before. You know, I’m going to findOne Fatal Stepat my local bookshop.”
“Oh God.”
He leans back in his deck chair, eyes on me. There’s something different in them today. Something that wasn’t there yesterday when we were driving around the island. It speaks of last night.
I didn’t spend the night in the bungalow. After sex and food, he walked me to the lobby. He said I was more than welcome to stay, of course, but there was something so intimate about the idea. I wasn’t ready to face the reality of waking up together and not having any of my own things. I needed the freedom of my own hotel bed, clean underwear, and my toothbrush.
But here I am, back at his bungalow, anyway. We’ve ended up here after spending most of the day on the beach. I look down at the hem of my cover-up and tug at a stray piece of thread.
If I think too much about last night, I’m not going to make it through a normal conversation with him.
“Eden?”
I look up. “Sorry?”
He smiles. “So, you’re writing something inspired by this vacation.”
“Oh, yes. I’m still at the plotting stage, though, but I’ll start the actual writing when I get back home.”
“You’re taking real-life inspiration?”
“Yeah, definitely. The resort is stunning, and so is the beach, nature, all of it. I’m going to use as much as I can.”
He raises an eyebrow. “And for characters?”
That makes me smile. “You want to know if a version of you is in it?”
“Maybe,” he says. “Is there an annoying, table-stealing jerk?”
“No table stealing as of yet,” I say, looking very serious. “But I do have an overworked character who’s brought his laptop with him on a vacation. He’s going to be a mysterious background character and the main suspect in the murder investigation.”
“Themainsuspect?”
“Yes.”
Phillip shakes his head. “I would never be the main suspect.”
“Come on, you’re pretty mysterious.”
“But I’m a lawyer,” he protests. “I would know how to conduct myself in ordernotbe a suspect.”
