Branna laughed. Belle loved to know everyone’s business, always had, even in school.
“He’s certainly filled out some.”
“He’s a hot, sexy hunk of man is what he is, and that belligerent attitude only makes him hotter,” Belle sighed.
“Don’t hold back.”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed, Branna O’Donnell. That man should come with a warning, he’s so cute.”
He was, but Branna wasn’t about to acknowledge the fact.
“Have you and he?” Branna waved her hand about.
Belle sighed. “No. We thought about it, but both decided it would just be wrong as we’re more like brother and sister.”
“His sister was my age, if I remember right. She wasn’t like him, though, kind of serious and into sports, right?” Branna said.
“Katie, she’s in L.A. at the police academy.”
“The siblings have got that whole services thing going on.”
“Surprising, really,” Belle said. “Neither parent followed that path.”
After Jake, they talked about Belle and what she’d been doing since school, but like her, Annabelle Smith wasn’t an open book when it came to her family. Branna knew she had two brothers and they’d lived with her uncle after her mother died. Her uncle was a gambler and hopeless guardian, and Belle had pretty much raised her brothers herself.
“I’m a writer now,” Branna said.
Belle gave her a long look before saying. “Just like your daddy.”
“I don’t write under my name,” Branna added, not wanting to draw any parallels between herself and her father, although there were a few of them to make, if you looked closely.
“Well?”
“Well, what?” Branna knew very well what Belle wanted.
“What name do you write under?”
“Rosanna Howlling, two LL’s,” Branna added.
Belle whistled loud and long. “Even I’ve heard of you, and I’m more of a magazine girl. The people of Howling already worship your daddy because he’s famous, and as shallow as we are, there’s no other reason. But you—” Belle laughed. “—you’re going to get the keys to the town when they realize who you are.”
“Don’t tell them,” Branna pleaded.
“Oh, now even you can’t imagine that information is not going to get out and spread like wildfire.”
Her shoulders slumped. Hell, yes, Branna knew they’d find out; there was nothing sacred in Howling.
“Surely, it’s good if they know? Don’t you want to sell more books?”
“Maybe… yes, hell, Belle, I just want to live here peacefully and integrate back into the community.”
“And you will, just as a celebrity,” Belle said, her eyes twinkling.
Branna muttered something unflattering, which made her friend laugh. She couldn’t remember a day she’d enjoyed more as she sat there with her old friend. They drank coffee and talked, and it felt like the times they’d shut themselves in her bedroom and stayed there for hours.
“So, got a microphone in your hands any time in the last few years?” Belle questioned, which made Branna shudder.
“No, and I only played in the school band because you cheated in that bet, Annabelle Smith.”
