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“There doesn’t?”
Bo shook his head. “In life, there are no absolutes.” He chuckled. “Okay, there is one. We will all die eventually. Our bodies will return to the earth.” He gave Ethan a meaningful look. “But other than that, there’s not a single guarantee. So, when you find someone you care about enough to change your whole life for, that’s a pretty good indicator that you’re meant to be with her, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Sure, but?—”
“Love isn’t about the way their touch can set your whole body on fire. It’s not about how their smile can make you feel ten times better than you thought possible. Love for me is the feeling I get when I know I get to spend the rest of my life with that woman. I know I’m the luckiest man alive because I found someone who sees me for who I am. She wants to be with me despite everything wrong I have done and will likely do. She’s my partner in crime.”
That last statement hit Ethan a little differently than Bo probably meant for it to. Ethan and Becca had been partners in a sense. They’d pretended to have something just to keep Tina at bay. Becca hadn’t needed to do it. She had done it out of the goodness of her own heart.
And when she’d learned about his struggles with reading, she hadn’t judged him or made him feel like he wasn’t good enough. She might have been a little pushy with the reading screenings, but that was just part of who she was.
Becca simply had a heart that was too big to fit in her chest.
And, by golly, he loved her for it.
Truly loved her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Only a month had passedsince Becca had come home from Montana. Hard as she tried, she still couldn’t get in the right headspace for the series outline she needed to write. She felt like she had started it a hundred times already and all she’d been able to come up with was character sketches for the second book, a main trope list, and three uninspiring paragraphs describing the plot. Late last night she’d written a very rough draft of the first chapter in the second book of the series that she’d sent first thing this morning before she gave herself a chance to chicken out.
She was scheduled to have a meeting with Anna and an editor she worked with regularly. She dreaded this meeting. She hadn’t been able to get rid of the anxiety she felt since she’d gotten the email invitation.
Becca hadn’t had the guts to ask what the meeting was about. She knew she should be professional enough to handle anything, but she was really struggling right now. She wasn’t used to having deadlines set by others and in a few short weeksher dream job was stifling her creativity. At this point Becca wouldn’t be surprised at all if Anna dropped her.
The meeting was in an hour on Zoom. At nine, she’d get on her laptop and have to explain herself. Thank goodness Anna was out of town at a conference. Otherwise, Becca would have had to sit across the desk from her in her office. It was so much harder to make excuses when she had to look someone in the eye.
Pacing back and forth from her small kitchen to the living room, Becca mindlessly cracked her knuckles. Finally noticing her nervous habit, she clenched her fists and released them as she rolled her eyes at her nervousness. After all her dreaming about being picked up by an agent, she had never once thought about what would change.
She wished Ethan was here.
Stopping abruptly, Becca let that thought sink in.
Why was it that when she needed support, she didn’t immediately think about Katrina or Liz? Her friend and roommate were the ones she’d always leaned on for advice before. And yet Ethan’s face was the one that filled her mind.
Becca sank slowly into a chair. She couldn’t think of any logical explanation besides the fact that she’d been using him as inspiration for a project she’d fallen in love with while she was in Montana. She’d actually started writing the first book while she was on the way back to Salt Lake and finished it a couple of weeks ago. The cowboy romance wasn’t part of her plan with Anna and she was happy about that. She’d been able to write this one just like she wanted to.
Even though this was different than her usual stories, she’d decided to publish it as a passion project. She’d been able toslip into her cover deisgner’s schedule and she loved what she’d come up with. Just the other week, a book sold out everywhere, and not even because of its genre or the author’s name recognition. The book’s exterior design far surpassed anything readers expected and just like that there was a craze. She didn’t have hopes that high for this one, but she thought the cover with a handsome cowboy on front was going to be a reader pleaser.
Her little book about a dancer who had retired and a cowboy who didn’t know the first thing about dancing had popped into her head, and the characters hadn’t stopped talking.
Of course, all she thought about was Ethan when she wrote about his character. Her blood, sweat, and tears had gone into the start of that manuscript. More than that, her whole heart was in it.
She didn’t even know if it was worth pursuing until Katrina had insisted on getting a sneak peek. The woman didn’t have a drop of patience. It hadn’t mattered at the time that the manuscript was about three-fourths of a rough draft, Katrina wanted every detail she could get her hands on. Becca didn’t know whether to be flattered or worried until Katrina begged for the ending.
At least she’d gotten some degree of her writing mojo back. If only it was for the right book.
Becca sighed again. What would Ethan think if he read what she’d written? She’d never told him the specifics of her writing career up until she got the attention from an agent. And even then, she’d been pretty vague. Part of her wondered if he would ask her not to publish it if he knew about it.
That would be fine. She’d written it for herself more than anything. Katrina was just lucky enough to be the person Becca was willing to get feedback from.
The door to the apartment opened and Liz entered, all smiles. “Good morning. You’re up early.” She moved through their small entryway into the kitchen and placed the bags she held on the counter.
“Speak for yourself.” Becca straightened in her seat. “Where were you? It’s not even nine yet. Are grocery stores even open this early?”
Liz froze. Becca’s question had been light and unassuming, but Liz’s eyes darted this way and that, never landing on Becca.
Getting to her feet, Becca moved toward her roommate, thankful to have something other than Ethan to obsess over. “What’s going on?”
