But after a full day of writing, The Dinosaur was dead.
She yanked the plug out of the wall and lugged her heavy laptop downstairs. She plugged it in by the recliner and, hoping, hit the power button
Nothing.
She sat on the arm of the recliner, The Dinosaur in her lap, and curled her fingers around its thick edges.
Her only saving grace was the number of times she’d hit save on her thumb drive. Most people didn’t even use them anymore. But Trish had never left home without one. She knew this day would come, but she’d hoped it might be a couple of years away yet. She wasn’t ready to part with the one prized possession she owned.
Henry had always scoffed at her ancient laptop. His snide comment about serious writers investing in better equipment came back to her then, and she found herself boiling with irritation.
“You okay?”
Had she been too preoccupied to hear Wade’s approaching steps? “The Dinosaur is dead.”
“Come again?”
“My laptop.” Trish let out a deep breath. She hadn’t seen him all day, and she didn’t realize until now that she missed him and his sarcastic remarks. “I call it The Dinosaur because it’s so old and bulky. Fitting term of endearment. It’s dead.” Were tears forming at the corners of her eyes? She turned away from Wade and busied herself with gathering up and winding the cord.
“The battery died?”
Trish shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “Nope.” A tear splashed against the hard cover.
“There’s a shop in Gillette,” Wade suggested. “I think they close at six. But if we left soon we could catch them. Mike does all our computer work for the ranch. You may have noticed we don’t exactly have state-of-the-art computers out here.”
Was he really offering to drive her to another town to get her problem fixed?Why would he do that?“How far’s Gillette?”
“An hour, max. Can you give me twenty minutes? I need to grab a shower. I won’t force you to ride with me after a day’s work. That’s a special kind of torture I reserve for my cousins. Or my sister when she’s being particularly irritating.”
She swiped away a tear, hoping he didn’t notice. “Thank you.”
“Hey.” He was somehow closer now, though Trish hadn’t heard him take a step. “It’ll be okay.” He reached out a hand to her and helped her to her feet. “If anyone can fix it, Mike can.”
“What if he can’t?” Dang it, she was going to cry.
A firm hand cupped her shoulder, and Wade waited for her to look him in the eyes. He didn’t make her feel guilty for her tears the way Henry usually did. “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it, okay?”
“Okay.” She very much wanted to curl up against him, feel his arms wrapped around her, ranch smell or not. But friends didn’t do that kind of thing. Instead, she took a step back toward the staircase and practically ran away from the man who kept surprising her in the most unexpected ways.
She leaned against her closed door once upstairs and let out a big breath. Henry would never have offered to take her ten minutes across town for her laptop, much less an hour away. She could just hear him now.“I told you to get a new one. Are you surprised your ancient one died?”
In a desperate attempt to push all thoughts of Wade from her mind, she yanked her cell phone off her nightstand and dialed Mindy. “How did you never tell me what a dud Henry was?”
“Oh, sweetie,” Mindy said, not at all put off by the abrupt greeting. Had she been expecting this eventual outburst? “I tried once. But you defended him with every excuse in the book.”
“You should’ve tried harder!”
“Sometimes you have to realize those things for yourself.”
Emotions twisted inside Trish. She’d hoped by being here, she could prove to Henry that she was a serious writer. That her dream was worthy of recognition. Why had she been fighting so hard? If Henry loved her, he would have encouraged her no matter what. “I guess you’re right.”
“He isn’t a terrible guy,” Mindy admitted. “Just not the greatest guy. Notyourguy, Trish.”
“What did I see in him?”
“A safe choice,” Mindy replied without missing a beat, as if she’d been saving that answer for weeks. “But Trish, you deserve so much more than he can offer you.”
“So I’ve been told,” she muttered.
