“And you might also like to know that Mr Stone happens to be staying right here on Foxglove Street,” Olive smiled. “He’s temporarily living at number sixty-one, while the owners are away on a grand European holiday for several months. During the book talk today, Mr Stone explained that he actually lives in London, but construction work in his building was driving him up the wall and making it impossible to finish his new book. I think he said his sister is friends with the people whose house he is now staying in. So, if things work out between the two of you, it would mean little more than a couple of minutes’ walk down the street for you to get to work.”
Olive laughed, seemingly pleased with this prospect.
“Thanks again, Olive,” Courtney said as she walked her new friend to the door.
“It’s my pleasure, dear. I hope it works out for you. Be sure to let me know what happens.”
Olive told her which house number she lived at and insisted Courtney knock on her door with an update once she’d spoken toTravis Stone. After waving the older lady off, Courtney returned to the kitchen.
“Well, how about that?” Rosie said. “What a stroke of luck! You want to find a few hours of work to keep you busy before the baby comes, and it just so happens there’s a desperate writer living right here on the street and in need of urgent help. It’s amazing!”
“I know,” Courtney laughed. “It’s a little hard to believe.”
“No, it’s not hard to believe at all! It’s just good luck.” Rosie seemed to think about this for a moment. “Well, obviously it’s not good luck for the poor person who was in a car accident in the first place and can no longer do her job. That’s terrible.”
“It’s absolutely awful!”
“But we can feel bad for her and still feel happy about what it might mean for you, Courtney. Are you going to call this guy and find out more about the job?”
“I want to. What if I don’t know how to do the jobs he needs done?”
Rosie shrugged. “Then you don’t take the job, or he doesn’t offer it to you. But you won’t know until you speak to him. To be honest, though, from what Olive said, it didn’t sound too hard. I bet you’ll get the swing of it quickly enough.”
“Maybe. I’ll call him and chat and find out more.”
“Good.” Rosie gave her an expectant smile, then nodded at the phone Courtney still held in her hand. “Do it now! Strike while the iron’s hot! I’ll make myself scarce.”
After giving her a quick hug, Rosie took herself off upstairs. Courtney finished wiping the kitchen counters while she prepared what she planned to say to this big shot author she was about to phone out of the blue and ask for a job. Grabbing her phone, she looked him up on social media and spent some time looking at what he posted there. It was obvious from theextensive fan interaction with his posts that his readers were enthusiastic and loyal.
Once she had some reasonably coherent words lined up inside her head, she sucked in a calming breath and dialled his number.
The baby gave her a kick as she waited for the call to be answered at the other end. She laid a hand across her belly and smiled.
“Here goes nothing, little one,” she murmured as the phone rang.
11
Travis wasdeep into a pivotal scene in the new book and things were moving fast on the page for his clever protagonist, Maura Shaw.
After the earlier interruption of having to leave his writing behind in order to go along to the book club talk at the local library, the story had been firing on all cylinders ever since he returned to the house on Foxglove Street. He liked the direction the story was going in now that he had a plan to complicate things for Maura by dangling a villainous love interest under her nose.
The scene carried him away, drew him in, kept him typing at full speed and clattering the keyboard as he raced to keep up with the story… until he heard the irritating shrill tones of his phone ringing.
He realised he’d forgotten to turn the device to silent mode after returning to the house. With the writing spell broken thanks to the noisy ring tone, he rose from the desk to see who was phoning him.
The number on the screen wasn’t in his contacts and he didn’t recognise it, either. He thought about letting it go to the voice mail, then thought better of it.
“Is this Travis Stone?” said a female voice down the line when he answered the call.
“Yes.”
“My name is Courtney Flynn. I think you spoke to a lady called Olive earlier today and gave her your number to pass along to me. She said you’re looking to hire someone to help out while your assistant is poorly?”
With his mind still latched onto the scene he’d been writing, Travis took a second to mentally adjust. “Yes, that’s right. Thanks for phoning.”
“I’m sorry to hear about what happened to your assistant. Olive said she was in a road accident? I hope she gets well soon.”
“Thanks. I hope so, too. She has a lot of nasty injuries to recover from and it will take some time for her to get back on her feet. In the meantime, yes, I’m looking for a temporary assistant.”
