She rose to go and he immediately regretted his words.
“That’s not what I meant. Stay. You’ve probably been on your feet all day, getting ready for the party.”
She shook her head. “It hasn’t been that bad. I do have to go, though, as much as I would love to stay here with you and enjoy the sunset.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s lovely, especially with the storm clouds building off shore. We’ll probably have rain later tonight.”
“I meant, why do you have to go.”
She sighed. “I have guests. I need to grab a few more things out of the kitchen.”
He rose as well. “I’ll help you,” he said.
Though she looked surprised at his offer, she led the way to her comfortable kitchen. Along the way, she pointed out her herb garden and the heirloom roses she had rescued from a jobsite when they were going to be torn out.
In the kitchen, she handed him a few platters of cookies. “We’re running low on desserts. Would you mind taking these out? And, yes. They’re storebought but the bakery in town does such a good job that nobody ever seems to care.”
“No problem.”
He grabbed the platters and carried them outside, dropping them at the long rows of food tables. On the way back, he bumped into a couple of women he had been introduced to earlier. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember their names.
“There you are,” the shorter of the women said. She was a lovely brunette with sharp dark eyes and graceful features. He could easily see her as a courageous warrior in his books, with a fragile loveliness that he suspected concealed steely strength.
“Remind me of your names,” he said.
“I’m Mei Lin and this is Nina,” the woman who had spoken to him answered.
“We’re Rosie’s good friends,” Nina said. “In fact, we’re in a book club with her. Has she mentioned it to you yet?”
Andrew could feel his shoulders tighten. He really hated book clubs. He loved the idea of them, and he was flattered whenever one of them wanted to feature his books, yet healways felt uncomfortable with the idea of trying to interact with people who read his book to dissect it and parse every word.
Talking about his books was awkward enough. It was even harder to answer question about a process that still seemed mysterious and magical to him most of the time.
He was not a writer who analyzed everything he did. He simply wrote. While he admired those who planned out every word and constantly focused on subtext and imagery, that wasn’t his process and book clubs tended to make him feel inadequate because of it.
“We call ourselves the Wood Briar Sea Witches.”
“Ah. Great name.”
“We’re not really witches,” Mei Lin assured him.
Nina rolled her eyes at her friend. “Obviously. We are strong, fierce women who like to take care of our own problems. We also like to read books about strong, fierce women. We would love to have you come and talk to us about your various series. Rosie was supposed to ask you.”
“She did not.”
“I think she felt nervous about it,” Mei Lin said. “Rosie doesn’t really like fantasy.”
Yeah, he figured that out already, when he heard her in the bookstore dissing his books.
“Most of our other members love you and your books. And, of course, the movie. I know they would be thrilled to have you.”
“Would you consider it?” Nina asked. “It would be a very casual affair. Stress-free is our motto. I promise, we’re mostly harmless.”
“Mostly?”
Nina grinned. “Yes. We can be savage toward the patriarchy. Fortunately, your books are very women-empowered and we love that.”
