“Thanks,” I said, walking out of the room.
I didn’t know what time it was when I woke. My head hurt, and I was hungry, but nothing could wipe away that warm feeling, sweet like honey, that filled me up inside. I walked out of the bedroom barefoot and headed downstairs.
No one was in the living room or kitchen, and when I peeked out the window, I saw Trey’s SUV wasn’t parked outside, either.
I was disappointed, but I got over it quickly. In my new life, there was only room for positive emotions. I poured myself a cold coffee and drank it out on the grass. It was perfect. The sun toasting my skin, the waves breaking in the distance, the whistle of the wind over the sand. I’d miss all this when I had to go back.
I sat for a while on a boulder, aware of how few moments like this I had left. I felt an unfamiliar inner peace and enjoyed the instant, truly living it. Without a past or a future. All present.
Back inside, I took a shower, then put on one of the dresses I’d stuffed randomly into my suitcase. It was a tiered dress, sheer on the outside, cream-colored, with a print of flowers and leaves. I sat on the bed with my computer, intending to look back at the manuscripts, notes, and documentation I’d been holding onto a long time. Some of my ideas struck me as worth rescuing and working on again.
It was stirring, but also intimidating, the idea that I was taking a step, changing my life, working on something that would make me happy.
After taking a glance at everything, I started to trust in my abilities, and I was ready to prove to myself that I could do it. But I knew the publishing world and how hard it was for a writer to stand out enough to get that first shot. Let alone the second. Let alone maintain your reputation and name enough to get a third.
It wasn’t easy to survive there.
You’re here today, but tomorrow you might be gone, and no onewill give you a second thought. One minute you were surrounded by people, getting compliments, feeling important, feeling special. The next, it was silence, oblivion. The phone stops ringing, the doors stop opening.
But I pushed all that aside and focused on the main thing.
Chapter 1
In the morning, when I wake, a thin layer of white covers the grass up to the edge of the lake…
Sometime later—I don’t know how long—I heard a car coming down the road. I could tell by how loud the motor was that it was Trey. Our kiss from the night before flashed in my mind, and I could feel the aftershocks in my body.
Suddenly, I was embarrassed to see him. To face the fact that I had put my lips on his without even asking his permission.
As I was looking around for where to hide, the door opened and he was standing there beaming on the threshold, shaking a greasy paper bag. He tossed it to me, and I caught it in flight.
“It’s grilled turkey and cheese. Eat it, it’s getting late.”
“Late? Are you in some kind of rush?”
He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and took out two folded pieces of paper, looking like a child on Christmas morning.
“Weare. We’ve got two tickets for the ferry. It leaves in an hour. Throw enough clothes in your bag for a couple of days. We’re going to PEI!”
A thousand questions passed through my head, but he was gone before I could ask them. I jumped up, tore the sandwich wrapper, and took a bite. With my mouth still full, I went to his room. He’d opened a suitcase on the bed and was stuffing T-shirts inside.
“So you just up and plan a trip to Prince Edward Island without asking me?”
“You don’t ask people before you give them a gift, Harper. You just do it, and the other person accepts gracefully.”
“So this is a gift? What’s the occasion?”
“There are things to celebrate. I finished my blueprints, and you made your big decision.”
“Trey, I don’t know if I want to go to PEI. The day after tomorrow is Labor Day, and I need to go home after that. I like this place, and I think I’d rather stay here until then. Hang out with Adele, go back to eat at Ridge’s…” I lifted the hand with the sandwich in it, and a piece of lettuce fell out. I caught it before it touched the ground.
“I get it, and I’m not going to force you, but I’d really like you to come with me. We’ll go out, have fun. We had a bad start here. Here, and maybe in general. We barely know each other, and I’d like to change that. Make it better.”
“How?”
“By getting to know you and letting you get to know me. I’m not as bad as you think.”
“I don’t think you’re bad, Trey. Maybe just something of a mystery.”
