“You could totally write a romance novel, Sadie. I have every faith in you.”
Sadie snorted. “Right. Like I have so much experience in that department.”
“Well, have you ever been in a gunfight? Drifted down a raging river on a whiskey barrel? Have you taken down a bad guy with nothing but an empty gun and a broken leg? No? Well, you wrote about all the above in a way that was so real it had me on the edge of my seat. You are seriously gifted, girl.”
Sadie waved her off. “That’s different. It’s... guy stuff. It’s like the old westerns I watched with my grandpa. I could see it all in my head. You can’t see romance in your head. It happens on the inside.”
Two twentysomething guys passed them, practically breaking their necks for a better view of Caroline.
“Of course you can see it in your head. It’s a guy giving a girl a single rose. A devastating breakup scene at a ritzy restaurant. Some grand gesture to win her back.”
Sadie stabbed a finger at her friend. “See? You know all that because that’s your life.Yourlife, not mine.”
Caroline slid a pointed look at her. “Well, maybe it would be yours if you gave a guy half a chance.”
“Can I help it if I end up with all the duds? If there’s absolutely no connection? I know zip about love and romance, Caro.”
“You watchedYou’ve Got Mailwith me that one time.”
“I fell asleep.”
“You had a long day. Listen, westerns have a formula, right? Stop it, Milo.” She petted the corgi. “Romance novels do too. You just have to follow the formula. You can totally do this. What choice do you have anyway? You have to pay back the advance, right?”
“Did I mention the September first deadline?”
“Well, you’ll have the whole summer to write it. Three months is long enough, isn’t it? You wroteLonesome Ridgein ninety days.”
“That was different. I know how to structure a western. I’ve read a million of them.”
“Just start with an alpha male, throw in a meet-cute, and end with an HEA. You’ll nail it.”
“I have no idea what you just said.”
“Start reading romance novels—I know all the best ones. Good boy, Milo! Watch some rom-coms. By the time school’s out you’ll be ready to go.”
Apparently Gillian and Caroline both believed she could do this. Maybe she could. All she had to do was study the genre and follow the formula, right? She didn’t have toloveit. She just had todoit.
A jet went streaking over their heads, reminding her of her noisy apartment, just a stone’s throw from LaGuardia, with thin walls and thinner windows. Not to mention the construction project that had been going on next door since the Revolutionary War.
“I’d really have to be homed in on this. You know how distracted I can get.”
Caroline glanced up at yet another jet taking off for parts unknown. Then her gaze darted back to Sadie, her eyes widening. “I just had the best idea. What if you had a place to write—someplace quiet where there were no distractions? No people. No planes or construction. Just you and your laptop and a warm, sunny beach.”
“Do you own a time-share I don’t know about?”
“No, but my mom does. Well, not a time-share, but remember that beach cottage she bought last summer in South Carolina?”
“Isn’t she using it?”
“Just a few weeks in the winter—she’s dreaming of retirement. It’s a duplex, so she’s renting out one side, which basically pays the mortgage so she doesn’t have to rent out her own living space. Smart, right?”
“I won’t be able to afford that, Caro. I’m barely making ends meet as it is.”
“Please, as if Mom would take your money. She was just saying the other day how she hated the idea of her unit sitting empty. This would be perfect. You could write on the deck! Just think—nothing but sea breezes and sunshine. That’s right, Finn, buddy, go potty.”
The dog led her to a nearby copse of trees, where he sniffed around.
Sadie considered her friend’s suggestion. Maybe she could write this novel if she really focused and applied herself over the summer. Plus the beach was romantic, wasn’t it? Inspiration at her fingertips.
