Right. The reason why I called him.
“I have too many ideas and I need help picking the perfect one.”
“Let’s hear them.”
Putting him on speakerphone, I open my notes app on my phone and begin to list them off. The first few are similar to books I’ve written before. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, two single parents falling in love.
“I personally like to write the forbidden stories. The ones where they shouldn’t or can’t be together but find a way to end up together.”
“Oh, I like that,” Matteo says slowly, his words penetrating my ears. “What if you work off the forbidden aspect? Like rivals, maybe?”
The idea swirls in my brain, slowly sinking its tentacles into the crevices of my mind. “This is something I can work with.”
“It’s a romance, right?”
“Well, yeah. I don’t write anything that isn’t.” My fingers move quickly across the screen, my mind bubbling with ideas asI jot it all down. “They could be opposites. Bad boy, good girl. Maybe he’s from the wrong side of the tracks and thinks he’s not worthy of love.”
“He could have trust issues and that makes him hesitant to fall in love. He doesn’t think it’s something he’d ever want, but she ends up changing it for him.”
“This is brilliant. I think I have what I need to get started.” A smile pulls across my lips as I finish typing the note out on my phone. “This little plot pact is really going to come in handy.”
“Plot pact?”
I stifle a laugh, rolling back onto my side. “My friends and I came up with a name for what this is. You know like the saying do it for the plot? Except mine is kind of literal because I’m writing a book.”
“Hm.” Matteo lets out a soft chuckle. “The plot pact. I like that.”
“Me too,” I say, unable to fight the yawn that forces itself upon me. “I should probably get some sleep. I need to get up early and dive into this story tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I should go too.”
“Thanks for your help, Matteo. I’ve seriously been struggling to pinpoint an idea and you really helped.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he says quietly, his voice tender yet thick with something undetectable. “Goodnight, Sunny. Sweet dreams.”
“Goodnight.”
We both linger a second longer than we should and I’m the one who severs the connection, ending the call. My chest feels lighter and as I close my eyes, the darkness pulls me under with his dark gray eyes following after me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MATTEO
“She was a force to be reckoned with. Her art was a battlefield and her paintbrush a weapon.” - Julian Hart, Painted Inferno
Istare out the window, my eyes drifting out into the distance that is nothing but onyx night sky. The clouds beneath us are hard to see with the lack of moon or sunlight. While the days are growing longer now that it’s February, it’s still getting dark earlier than I prefer.
I adjust in my seat, glancing at Cam sitting beside me. His head’s tilted back, mouth wide open, and if I didn’t have my headphones on, I’d be blessed with the obnoxious sounds of his snores.
The cabin of the plane is quiet, and the lights are set low. We were supposed to leave earlier today, but there were some mechanical problems, so we’re getting to Colorado a bit later than originally planned.
I check the time on my phone. We still have about two hours of flying time. We’ll land close to midnight, which isn’t ideal. Once everyone gets settled in their rooms, it will be super late and we need to get up early for our morning skate.
Normally when we travel farther distances, we fly in the day before the game. It helps to get acclimated to the area and the time change, if there is one. We won’t have much time for that on this trip. We’re just going to have to push through the exhaustion. It’s nothing we haven’t done before.
My phone vibrates in my hand, and I can’t help the smile that lifts the corners of my lips when I see her name on the screen. I unlock my phone, tapping on my messages and immediately opening our thread of texts.
Sunny
