So, she stopped writing, stopped sneaking into her stepfather’s office and stopped helping herself to the paper in his recycling box, but it was too late. Her mother decided that with the new baby on the way that it would be in everyone’s best interest if she went to live with her aunt and uncle. She believed her mother when she said that it was only temporary.
For the first few months, she was on her best behavior. She didn’t get in trouble, didn’t tell anyone what Kelly and her band of bitches were doing to her, and she didn’t complain, or do anything more than stare at her ceiling late at night, telling herself that when she woke up in the morning that her mother would be there waiting for her.
But it never happened.
Her mother never came back for her and Kristen stopped talking, barely saying more than two words or left her room, terrified that she would say or do something that would make her aunt and uncle send her away. They tried to reassure her that they would never do that, tried to make her feel safe, but she just wanted to be left alone.
That’s when Garrett came into her life.
He didn’t say anything at first. He would just show up wherever she was, watched her as he helped himself to whatever snack she had with her before he disappeared without a word. Then one day, she woke up to find a copy ofThe Adventures of Tom Sawyeron her bed. She tossed it on her nightstand and forgot about it until one night when she found herself reaching for the book when she couldn’t take staring up at the ceiling for another minute.
After sending her bedroom door a nervous glance, she quietly climbed off her bed, dug through her bags that she’drefused to allow her aunt to unpack, found her flashlight and hid in her closet where she spent the rest of the night struggling to get through the first chapter. The next morning, she crawled out of her closet to find a dictionary waiting for her on her bed.
She spent the next few weeks tearing throughTom Sawyer, and when she was done, she found a fresh notebook and aMickey Mousepencil box filled with new pens waiting for her along with a copy ofThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By the time she woke up to find a copy ofTreasure Islandwaiting for her a few weeks later, she’d already filled up three notebooks with her stories.
Once she got started…
She never wanted to stop.
She spent her days alternating between writing and reading until the only thing that she wanted to do was write. The words used to come so damn easily for her that she actually struggled to keep up with them. She used to write first thing in the morning and she kept going until she couldn’t see straight, and now…
She didn’t know what she was going to do if she couldn’t figure this out.
A knock at the door saved her from the depressing thoughts that had been stressing her out for the past year. Biting back a sigh, Kristen moved to place her laptop on the bed when Garrett walked back into the room and answered the door. While he signed for the food, she ran her eyes over him, taking in the way the golden muscles in his back shifted as he moved before dropping her gaze to the jeans hanging low on his hips and found herself debating the best way to get rid of her unwanted guest only to settle for, “Get out,” as she shifted her attention back to her computer.
“Sorry. Can’t do that,” Garrett said, letting the door close behind him as he made his way to the bed and placed the tray down next to her.
“I’m pretty sure that you can,” Kristen said as she grabbed a french fry off the plate and popped it in her mouth while she struggled to come up with something to write.
“That’s not really an option,” Garrett said as he joined her.
“I don’t remember you being this annoying,” Kristen murmured absently as Garrett made quick work of cutting the burger in half, squirting ketchup evenly over the fries just the way that she liked, and dropped a straw in the glass of the extra-chocolatey chocolate milkshake that she was going to need to get through this.
“Give it time. It will come back to you,” he murmured absently, making her lips twitch as she grabbed half the burger and took a bite. “Where’s your assistant?”
“Home taking care of the dog that refuses to let me name him,” Kristen said as she found herself staring at a blank page until she finally had enough and decided to accept defeat. She reluctantly closed the blank document and decided to go through all the books that she’d started over the years. She started with the ones that she’d created this year only to cringe, wondering what the hell she was thinking when she came up with them.
For the next thirty minutes, they ate in silence while she deleted everything that she came up with over the past year. When the food was gone, Garrett quietly removed the tray and settled back next to her on the bed, taking over the television from the sounds of it and did whatever it was that he did, reminding her of when they were kids and he used to sneak into her room late at night. She missed this, Kristen realized only to immediately amend that she missed relaxing with someone at the end of the night, not him because she didn’t miss him.
Not. At. All.
She thought about just how little she actually missed him as she opened a file that she’d started five years ago and immediately forgot about the large jerk sitting next to her. She found herself cringing even as a new story started playing through her head, one that had her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she quickly opened a new document and typed the first words that came to mind.
That led her to writing a few more words and then, even more as her fingers struggled to keep up as her mind began to race while a story began playing in her head. The characters quickly came alive, letting her know exactly what needed to happen. When she finished the first page and the words kept coming, she settled more comfortably against the headboard and kept writing, curious to see where this story was going, wondering how it was going to end as the words flowed out of her, filling the pages and-
“Morning,” came the sleepily murmured greeting that had her frowning as she glanced down at the large man lying next to her before she glanced at the window and noted the early morning sunlight lighting up the room.
Swallowing hard, Kristen glanced back down at her computer and realized that she’d worked all night. For the past year, she’d struggled to write more than ten words a day and last night, she’d somehow managed to write ten thousand.
It looked like she finally broke through her writer’s block.
CHAPTER 8
God, he was a fucking idiot, Garrett thought as he found himself heading for his front door again only to abruptly stop, ram his fingers through his hair and-
“Fuck!”
He’d lost everything.
