“We’re still meeting up tomorrow, right?” Grady asked her.
Despite being ruffled a moment before, as they left, chattering about their plans, I couldn’t help but smile.
Chapter 7
No-Wake Zone
Lila
Iwas working only eight hours a week at the coffee shop, and between catering to Elizabeth’s every whim, trying to get a few words of my own manuscript in each day, and you know,sleeping, even that was a stretch. But I couldn’t let that job go. Ghostwriting was a quick blip, and I had no idea what would happen when it was over. But it was becoming clearer that ifanythingwas going to happen, I needed an agent. So I was crossing my fingers Grady might want to represent me.
I had sent him my sample pages earlier, which he said he would read before we met. So, my usual I-have-a-crush-on-Grady butterflies were even more intense because now they were combined with is-he-going-to-be-my-agent butterflies.
I was tired, sure. But I was happy, too, as I walked down the boardwalk back to Elizabeth’s house. Writing with Elizabeth could be exhausting, but I had also learned morefrom her than any MFA ever could have taught me. Not to mention that being with her meant proximity to her son.
I caught a glimpse of Grady, standing on the edge of Elizabeth’s dock, looking out over the sound, and my heart clenched. He was so, so handsome. We had hung out at least five or six times in the past weeks, but he had yet to make a move, and I was unsure whether I had been permanently friend zoned. But he’d asked me to meet him here on my one fleeting day off a week from his mother, so I was hoping it meant maybe we could be something more.
I walked down the dock to see Grady dropping a paddleboard into the water.
“Hi!” he said, turning, holding his wet hands up to me.
I wanted to sayI’d take a wet hug from you any day!But, of course, I didn’t. Instead, I said, “So, uh, that took a turn yesterday, huh?”
Grady grimaced. “Yeah. I don’t think Mom wants to be pushed on her writing.” He shrugged. “But I don’t want to talk about work! Let’s paddle to the town docks to get some ice cream.”
I looked down at myself. “I’d love to paddleboard, but I don’t have on a bathing suit.”
“Well, then, you’d better not fall in.” He grinned at me.
I looked out over the marsh grass in this narrow stretch of waterway that ran in front of downtown. I had once fantasized about living in a place like this. Now I just wanted to get another book deal—and an agent. I wanted to ask Grady if he’d read my sample pages, but he had said he didn’t want to talk about work, so I refrained.
Grady expertly got on his paddleboard and held mine steady with his paddle as he reached for my hand. I sat down on the edge of the dock. The tide was about midway betweenhigh and low, so the perfect height for me to place my feet on the board and, with Grady’s help, stand easily.
He handed me the paddle tucked under his arm, and side by side, we sliced through the calm water.
“So, you’ve done this before,” Grady said.
I smiled, happy that I seemed at least competent. “I have. I borrow a neighbor’s board sometimes and drop it in at the public dock. I was actually going to use my first royalty check from my next book to finally get my own board, but now ...” Well, he knew the rest.
I gasped and pointed to a wild mother horse and her foal on the island across from us, almost losing my balance.
Grady laughed. “No bathing suit. Remember?”
“That was a close one,” I said.
We were quiet for a moment, held in a refreshing silence as the cicadas sang around us. I broke it, saying, “Did you always know you would be an agent? Was that always the dream?”
“Nah. When I was a little kid, I used to have this fake laptop where I’d pretend to write, just like my mom.”
“Aw. That’s adorable.”
“But, as it turns out, I can’t write.”
We both laughed. “I bet that’s not true!”
He shook his head. “No, it’s true. I’m, like, really bad. But that’s okay. Because I get to read for a living, which is way better, if you ask me.”
“Huh,” I said. I contemplated that. Maybe I could be an agent. A professional reader. But thinking of that electric jolt I got when my fingers touched the keyboard, I knew that would never make me fully happy.
