“Deal.”
Inside her house, Jenna unclipped Arnold, then blew out a long breath as she leaned against the wall for a beat. She was utterly wiped out and should have just gone to bed, but what lay waiting for her on the front porch was too tempting—and that wasn’t something she’d expected.
She fed Wallace and Gromit and made a mental note to give them some extra love later. Arnold scarfed down his dinner in under two minutes, and she led him back out onto the porch, along with his dog bed. She put the gate up, then took her wine from Sawyer’s outstretched hand.
Sawyer had moved her chair to Jenna’s side of the porch, next to her loveseat. The wine was on the little table next to her.
“You could sit on the loveseat with me, you know,” Jenna said with what she hoped was a meaningful smile.
Sawyer grinned at her but stayed in her chair, subtext hanging in the air, untouched, like a raincloud about to let go. “I thought you might want to stretch out a bit after being on your feet for so long.”
She wasn’t wrong. Jenna shifted sideways and did exactly what Sawyer had suggested, and holy crap, had she ever been this comfortable? “That’s the stuff,” she muttered as she settled in. A beat of quiet went by and she added, “I can’t believe how nice it is out.”
“Right? I came out here with a blanket but didn’t need it.”
More silence as they sipped and just existed together. Being in the quiet with Sawyer wasn’t at all uncomfortable, not the way it could be with some people. Jenna felt no need to fill the silence, so they sat and sipped and watched the neighborhood.
“Thank you for coming tonight,” Jenna said softly after some time had passed. “You didn’t have to.”
“I didn’t come because I had to,” Sawyer said, and Jenna could feel her gaze. “I came because I wanted to.”
Jenna turned to look at her then. “Did you really finish the book?”
“I did.” Sawyer held up a hand. “Swear to God.”
“And you liked it?”
“I didn’t hate it.” Sawyer’s teasing expression was clear even in the dim lighting.
“Fair enough. Will you write about it on your blog?”
“Are you arching an eyebrow at me right now?”
“Hundred percent. It’s for emphasis.”
Sawyer laughed, and the sound was deep and husky and went straight to Jenna’s lower body. “I haven’t decided yet if I’ll blog about it.”
“Can’t have your fans thinking you’ve sold out to romance, now, can we?” Jenna smiled, taking any sting out of her words.
“I still say romance is unrealistic.” Sawyer sipped, then shook her head.
“Sometimes it is.”
Sawyer’s quick turn of her head to look at Jenna broadcast her surprise, and Jenna laughed. “What, did you think I was going to argue with you?”
“I mean, kinda, yeah.”
“Clearly, you need me to go over it once more, so I will. Ready? Romance is an escape. People don’t pick up a romance novel so they can see reality. Reality is hard. Sometimes, reality fucking sucks. You know? They pick up a romance because they want toget awayfrom reality, at least for a little while. They want to forget about their lazy partner and their screaming kids and their sink full of dirty dishes and their impossible boss, and they want to get lost in somebody else’s story. And even if they don’t have any of those things, even if their partner is wonderful and their boss is amazing and their house is neat as a pin, they still want to go on that journey with the characters. The journey of meeting that person and maybe trying to resist but finding yourself drawn in anyway. That journey of reevaluating everything you thought you wanted or needed. That journey of falling in love. Maybe we’ve already done that and maybe our life is just perfect. But we still want to go on the journey. Because who doesn’t want that?”
Sawyer was staring at her with a look she couldn’t pinpoint.
“What?”
A head shake. “Nothing. You just have such passion for the genre.” Sawyer took another sip of her wine.
Jenna hoped she couldn’t see her flush. “Yeah, I can blather on about the subject. Sorry about that.”
“No, no. Don’t apologize.” Sawyer was sitting close enough to reach out a hand and set it warmly on Jenna’s ankle. “It’s pretty cool to witness how much you love it.”
