He arches a brow, the corner of his mouth tipped up into a half-smirk. "You came to talk to me at ten at night in your pajamas–which are very cute, mind you–to askmeif there's somethin' wrong?"
“Yes!” I say before sighing loudly. “No. I mean–I don’t know, OK.”
“Mmm hmm,” he hums, his eyes crinkling at the sides. “So whatdidyou wanna talk about?”
“I came in here because I just found out that Aster’s books are real and I’m meetin’ with the girls tomorrow to talk about it but it’s like I’m itchin’ out of my skin right now. Did you know?” I ramble but at no stage does Toby stop or interrupt me.
“How did you find out?”
“Duh, Ireadthem. It’s so obvious to me, and now I wanna go back and re-read them all to work out who they might be about.”
Toby’s eyes widen. “You worked it out?”
“That Aster’s telling the love stories of your friends and family? Yep.”
He studies me. “And that doesn’t freak you out?” His words are slow and measured, which confuses me a little.
"No. Why would it? It's kinda cool when you think about it. I'm just annoyed that I didn't figure it out sooner and that all of y'all seem to think I didn’t need to know.”
He gets up and crosses the room, sitting down on the bed next to me. His movements are almost tentative, totally unlike the 'go get 'em' man I know. "I get that, Skippy. But we wanted you to discover it all for yourself."
I'm more confused than ever now. "Are we talkin' about the books being real or somethin' else?"
He stills and I think I've stumped him.Never thought I'd see the day…“What areyoutalkin’ about?”
“That you all knew Aster was writing their love stories and happily ever afters into her books. She was drawing inspiration from them for her work. It’s cool, but I don’t get why it’s such a secret,orwhy y’all decided to keep it a secret from me.”
Toby goes to open his mouth but slams it shut again. "I'm not sure now is the time to explain it all."
"Why not? It's not like I'm gonna be able to sleep anytime soon anyway. I have a bunch of books to re-read and pull apart. Does Rhett have one? What about Landry? Randy?Tess?Red"
I don’t miss his twitching lips. “They all have books, Dee. You've read them all. Except Red. And Austin. And me."
My eyes jump wide. "Holy crap balls. Really? No wonder I like everyone, I've already read their life stories." A giggle escapes me and soon I'm cackling like a crazy woman–probably have the out-there hair to go with it too. Toby doesn't seem to mind though.
Toby's lips twitch and I can tell he's trying not to laugh. "Just remember that those books aren't exactly word for word, Dee. They're inspired by real events, but they’ve also had Aster weave her creative magic on them too.”
"Hmm, like how she turned Randy's single-mom accountant into the love of his life? And how his stepdaughter ended up moving to another mountain to follow her heart and be with her teenage sweetheart?"
"That'll be Lee and Colt, so yep,” he replies.
"Oh my God!" I gasp.
"What?" he says, looking more than a little amused with my discoveries now.
"Duck Norris... he'sinthe books too, isn't he? But he's called James Pond."
"Yes. That's the magic of fiction," he says, laughing softly. "She took our lives and transformed them into something much more dramatic and interesting."
"Wait... does this mean y'all know Aster?"
"Sure do. She and Leah speak all the time. She lives at Moose Mountain with her husband Gray and their children. They’ll be at the festival.”
“Really?”
"Yeah. The Seers will be there because they judged the competition,” he says before he realizes what he just said.
Seers like to keep in touch with one another.What does that mean? That's another thing that's gonna keep me up tonight.
