I look up at the stars. If I smoked, I’d pull one out right now and light up. What’s the use in getting up?
I hear footsteps crunching in the snow. Ty looms over me. “Need a hand?”
I sigh and reluctantly take his outstretched hand. He heaves me up with a bit more force than necessary. Always showing off.
“Thanks for the whiskey.”
I nod and take a deep breath.Be the bigger man.“I’m really sorry I hit you. I slipped.”
Ty nods. “It’s okay. It’s not like you even really hit that hard. I was just upset. Heat of the moment. You’ve hated me for no reason for years now, so I just assumed it was on purpose.”
He’s got to be kidding. “No reason? You call stealing my girl and my part in the same week ‘no reason’?”
Ty shakes his head, genuinely confused. “What are you talking about? You mean Barbados?”
I step closer, my anger threatening to melt all the snow surrounding us. “Yes. I mean Barbados.”
Ty holds up his hands. “Look, Miles. Lana came onto me. I did you a favor by showing you who she really was. And the movie… Well, the movie I couldn’t pass up. I was meant to play that role, and I was right. Plus, didn’t you turn the role down?”
There is a beat of silence where I neither deny nor confirm, but we both know he’s right.
Ty continues, “You can’t steal a part, though. If they had wanted you for it, you would have gotten it. Just like you can’t steal a person. If Lana wanted you, she would’ve chosen you. Don’t blame me.”
“What about Minnie?”
Ty looks like I punched him again. “That’s none of your business.”
“You’re engaged, and you let her believe you loved her.”
“I do love her,” Ty yells, his chest puffed up. He lets out an exhale and shrinks back. “It’s complicated. You wouldn’t understand. You’re so closed off, so easygoing, you never really open yourself up to anyone, not in a real way. You keep people at arm's length, just let them in enough to be friendly, but not enough to be meaningful. Like with us. I thought we were really close, but after Barbados, you wouldn’t even talk to me.”
Is that true? Do I not let people in? No, I do—well, I did. Until he took everything that was important to me. “You stole my life in Barbados. What was I supposed to say to that?”
“You should be thanking me. I just showed you Lana wasn’t worth it. What if you had married her and then she cheated on you? It would’ve been so much worse.”
“That’s rich coming from a cheater.”
Ty turns and heads into the bar, muttering over his shoulder, “Stay out of it.”
SKYE
Ithrow my messenger bag down on the couch and make myself a cup of coffee in my writing room. I light my candle. It’s been a while since I’ve done my pre-writing rituals. The words have come so easily, I’ve just been sitting down and getting right to it. But today the rituals feel comforting. I open my laptop and pull up my manuscript. I’m so close to the end, it’s time for the grand gesture, but I can’t see it yet.
I start to type.
Sorcha was like a wild horse. She could not be tamed, could not be broken. As much as her heart yearned to be with Mickey, her head wouldn’t let her. So, she pushed him away. She stopped making herself so available to meet at any moment of the day. She stopped returning texts right away and sometimes at all. Until one day Mickey stopped texting. He went back to America, and they never spoke again. Their love became like her Loch Ness Monster sighting from when she was a child. Whenever she thought of it, she got that same rush of feeling, but as much as she scanned the waters for glimpses, she never saw it again.
Delete. Delete. Delete.
No. This is a romance. Not women’s fiction. They have to have a happily ever after. I’m just not sure I can write one. Why didn’t I juststick to murder? I get up and walk around the room, my messenger bag catching my eye. My mother’s journal spilled out and is sitting on the couch like an old friend waiting to chat.
I grab my coffee, and settle under a blanket on the couch. I open the first page, and my breath catches as I read the words.
Dear peanut,
She always called me peanut, and I haven’t heard it since she’s been gone.
I just came from the doctor. He told me I’m pregnant with you! Can you believe it? I found it hard myself. I thought I just had a stomach bug or something. But it’s a baby. It’s you, baby. Your father is over the moon, and so am I. I’m not sure how this will affect my tour schedule, but we’ll figure it out together. We are a family now.
