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“That’s would be Sam. She and Sara took my Latin dance class today just for fun.” Alex’s oar cut smoothly into the black water, the motion soundless and rhythmic at the same time. The pattern was slick, almost hypnotic.
Lily trailed her fingers over the side of the boat into the silky ripples of water, watching as her touch carved its own path through the cool darkness.
“Although, clearly, she added some details for dramatic effect. Like, that you did it topless. Not that I minded.”
“I did do it topless.” Lily smiled when Alex’s head whipped around to look back in her direction. “I’d just eaten dinner at Sam’s house, and my shirt smelled like barbeque sauce and the burgers we’d grilled earlier on the upper deck. Not a great combo to be wearing when approaching a bear, if one has a choice.” Lily paused to dig into the cookies and held her prize up to the moonlight before she continued. “Besides, something had to be done. The bear had us cornered on the deck and was blocking the only exit.”
“Well, then, she’s one hundred percent correct in her assessment. You are a badass.” Alex shook her head. “My choice would have been to run like hell back into the house and lock it up like Fort Knox, but you decided to whip your shirt off and have a calm conversation with a three-hundred-pound wild animal. Why not?” Alex pulled the canoe smoothly onto the wet sandbank of the island, then extended a hand and helped Lily jump onto the beach beyond. “You might want to leave your shoes in the boat. The sand is amazing this time of night. It’s absorbed all the sun from the afternoon heat, then when the air cools down in the evening, it releases it.”
Alex pulled a rolled-up blanket from the front corner of the canoe, along with a steel flask she tucked under her arm.
“What’s in that?” Lily said, taking the blanket and laying it out on the warm sand next to the water. “And how did that just magically appear?”
“In the flask? I come out here all the time, so I keep a few things in the boathouse out of self-preservation.” Alex shrugged off her jacket, put it around Lily’s shoulders, then pulled the cookie bag over between them.
Lily reluctantly put her half-eaten cookie down and started on her ham sandwich.
“So,” Alex said, brushing a bug off her leg with a sweep of a hand. “Now that you realize I know who you are…” She paused as if choosing each of her words carefully. “I remember at the bar, you said you weren’t working at all right now. Why is that?”
Lily swept her bare foot over the sand as if all the answers she needed were there, and she just had to uncover them. “I don’t know how to put it into words. It’s like I pushed myself to write more and go harder for so long that I felt overwhelmed, like I was drowning under the weight of it all. I went on medication for anxiety attacks, and they just kept getting worse.” She wrapped up the remnants of her sandwich and put them beside her on the blanket. “I just finally had to get out of LA and back into the air I could actually breathe, I guess.”
“What made you choose McCall?”
“It was the last place I remembered being truly happy.” Lily pulled her hair to the nape of her neck and wound it around an elastic. “And I was running out of experiences to write about. I think I need to just be present in my own life for a while.”
Alex nodded, passing the flask to Lily, who peered into it like it might contain a grenade. She took a sip and almost held back a cough before she handed it back.
Alex leaned back on her elbows and looked at the sky. “It seems that you’d have to drain your soul a bit for every scene to write like you do. You can only do that for so long before there’s nothing left to give. No soul and no passion means no real magic on the page.” She paused, her eyes as dark as the sky. “It’s the same on the dance floor.”
??“That’s it, I think. I’ve always said that writing is alchemy. It’s a little of my soul and memories, plus a little of the reader’s soul and imagination, which ignites into…magic.” Lily took a long swig from the flask and handed it back. “So I guess the short story is, I lost what makes the magic.”
“Well, that answers the question about your books, but the real question is”—Alex took off her shoes and tossed them into the canoe with a clatter—”why is your love life so dismal?”
“Damn, Alex.” Lily lay back on the blanket and laughed. “I mean, don’t mince any words on my account.”
Alex leaned up on one elbow and pointed past Lily into the darkness. Lily turned to find two little gold eyes and a black nose edging past a wide tree trunk to look at them. She unwrapped her sandwich soundlessly and whispered, “You’re not afraid of a little raccoon, right?”
“You do you. I’m just a spectator here.”
Lily broke off a piece of the bread and tossed it into the space between her and the raccoon, who carefully padded forward, toes disappearing entirely into the sand as she walked.
“And remember,” Alex whispered, her breath warm against Lily’s neck. “If you feel like you need to whip your shirt off for this, I totally understand.”
Lily rolled her eyes and lay quietly on the blanket, facing the raccoon, making herself as small as possible. The little bandit inched forward until she pounced on the bread Lily had tossed, turning it every few bites in her nimble black paws until every crumb was gone. Lily made a high-pitched whirr and held out the remainder of the sandwich. The raccoon slunk closer, took the rest of the sandwich in both front paws, and sat on her hind legs to eat like a tiny human at an invisible picnic table.
“What did you say to her?” Alex whispered. “This is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Lily didn’t answer; she just reached behind her for a cookie and pried all the chocolate chips out of it before handing it over. “None of your business. But I’d think twice before you get into the ocean with me.”
“Are you trying to tell me you’re a shark magnet? Because I happen to have a thing for shark magnets.” Alex took a swig from the flask and shot Lily a serious look. “In fact, that’s the number one thing I look for in a girl.”
“Ah. That explains why you’re out here by yourself all the time.”
Lily smiled as the raccoon snatched the last cookie from her extended hand and waddled back into the woods. She settled back on the blanket, feeling calmer than she had in days. Animals always seemed to appear out of the woodwork when she needed them.
“Now why would you assume I’m by myself?”
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