They’d finished eating, and card games had replaced the food on the table when Vivian slipped away from the noise and into the bathroom. Leaning against the pink, scallop-edged sink, she pulled her phone out of the hidden pocket in her dress.
She was probably high on adrenaline and delusion when she opened her email. Would probably regret it later when she hit reply all. When she accepted the invitation to Yenni Montoya’s event.
When she returned to the living room, Bryn was exactly where she’d left her, wedged between two cousins and losing spectacularly at Uno. But she was looking at her phone now, and as Vivian watched, her entire face transformed. That smile, unguarded and incandescent, the kind of joy that couldn’t be performed.
Bryn looked up and found Vivian watching her. Her expression only brightened, and Vivian knew she’d read her email. Something in Vivian’s chest cracked open. Not breaking. Blooming.
With terrifying certainty, Vivian understood what it felt like to make someone happy. To actuallybehappy. It was nothing like curated contentment. It was wild and wholly alive and had everything to do with the way Bryn was looking at her. The way she couldn’t hide her feelings.
The same feelings making Vivian’s chest feel too small and heart too big.
ChapterThirty-Five
Choosing Valentine’sDay for a romance novel event was rather on the nose, but the little makeshift stage at the center of the bookstore and its backdrop made from thousands of handwritten valentines was pretty cute. Bryn followed Vivian and the bookshop manager to a “green room” that was obviously a staff break room.
“Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea? Half a bottle of coquito left over from the Christmas party? It’s really good.” The woman from the bookstore dried her hands on her jeans like she was so nervous she didn’t even notice she was doing it.
Bryn smiled at her, hoping to project a little calm. “The water is perfect, thanks.” She looked back at Vivian who had sat at the chipped round table and taken refuge in her phone. “She’ll burst out into show tunes after a drop of booze.”
Vivian looked up, expression flat, but the woman laughed. “Okay, just give me a shout if you need me.”
“We will,” Bryn promised.
When the woman was gone, Bryn took the rolly chair next to Vivian. “Try not to charm the pants off everyone you see, Vivian, jeez. I do get jealous, you know.”
Vivian shot her a glance. The one she liked. The one that had inspired an entire Siren series about an impossible to please college dean and a very eager professor. Before Bryn could get lost in it, the green room door opened again.
It took several seconds to place the petite woman with the baseball cap over a mane of curly hair and the energy of a rumbling volcano. She barreled inside, closing the door behind her while two people were still talking to her.
Bryn stood, unsure how to greet someone who walked like a battering ram, head down and tiny shoulders squared as if she was used to cutting through crowds without bothering with pardons.
“Bryn, hi, I’m Yenni.” She stuck out her hand.
“Oh, hi,” she replied like a startled pigeon.
When Yenni turned to Vivian, her demeanor changed. She slowed, a lightning strike suspended in the sky.
“Vivian del Castillo,” Yenni said with audible reverence. “You probably think I’m the biggest pain in the ass you’ve ever met.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected greeting, Vivian relaxed. She stood, offering her hand before Yenni did. Most people would deflect or make a joke or offer platitudes. Vivian just shook Yenni’s hand and replied, “Not the biggest, but you get an honorable mention.”
For the nanoseconds that passed without Yenni’s response, Bryn held her breath. And then Yenni laughed.Laughed.
“Next time I’ll try harder to make the top of the list,” Yenni joked. “Listen, I want to thank you both.” She spared a glance at Bryn, but all her attention was on Vivian. “I wroteMagpiesa decade ago,” she explained, making it clear just how long it had taken her to get it published. “It is the story of my heart. The only thing I want to live beyond me after I’m turned to dust and shot into space. And all I’ve ever wanted was to hear my words in Vivian del Castillo’s voice.” She smiled, but it was sadder than Bryn expected. “You have no idea how many other stories I had to write and sell. How many times I had to get to the top of theNew York Timesbefore I proved I could write. Proved that if I sold the truest story of two women falling in love, people would read it.”
Vivian cocked her head to one side. She was listening.
“I know it was a lot with the recording and re-recording, but I knew you would find Jo.” She shifted. “I’d written her for you without realizing it.” She glanced at Bryn. “You, Maggie, surprised the fuck out of me, but now she’ll never be anyone else.”
Bryn chuckled nervously. There was something mercurial and unpredictable about Yenni’s energy. Something that made her afraid of saying the wrong thing.
“It’s nice to have the clout to make the romance hit of the summer sapphic, huh?” Her grin was nothing short of conspiratorial. “Thank you for making my little gay dream come true.” She grabbed each of them by the hand. “Now for the next book, I’m thinking?—”
“Next book?” Bryn couldn’t help asking.
“Oh, yeah.” Yenni gave her a squeeze. “There’s no Yenni Montoya romance without Bryn and Vivian, are you nuts? I already wrote it into my new contract. Don’t tell anyone, or they’ll sue me. I’m done with anything but sapphic romance, and I can’t imagine anyone voicing the imaginary Barbies kissing in my head other than you two.”
“We’d have to discuss?—”
