“Don’t be sorry. We’re just chatting, aren’t we?”
“Sure, but…” After gulping down some tea, he gave her a puzzled look. “You’re incredibly easy to talk to, Courtney. I’ve probably talked more to you since we met than I have to any other person I know.”
“Well, I’m flattered.” Although she said it lightly and with humour, she felt a blush warm her cheeks thanks to Travis’s words and the way his intense gaze skimmed her face.
Perhaps it was the way he was looking at her that made her blurt out, “So, you don’t have a girlfriend? Or a partner?”
Travis’s eyes widened at her question. She wondered why she’d asked such a thing.
But she was kidding herself if she pretended not to already know the answer. She wanted to know if this man belonged to someone. Maybe it would be better if he did, so she could halt these stupid feelings in their tracks.
Feelings caused by her pregnancy hormones,she reminded herself.
Or was that just another lie she desperately wanted to believe?
“What I mean is,” she quickly added, “when you’re not writing, you don’t have a special someone to spend time with?”
Once more, his eyes raked across her face, and when his gaze met hers, it stayed there.
“No, there’s no special someone,” he said, and then focused on the cake plate for a few long beats. “I was seeing someone for a while last year, but it sort of fizzled out.”
“I’m sorry.”
No, I’m not,her traitor mind piped up.
“Anna, my ex, said I spent too much time with my head in my books. She was right.”
“If doing something makes you happy, then someone who cares for you would never tell you to stop doing it.”
His gaze settled on her once more, even more intense than it had been a few moments ago, sending a shiver down Courtney’s spine that thrilled her almost as much as it scared her.
Why did she feel this way when Travis looked at her like that? Why did talking to him about these personal things come so easily and so naturally, even although they barely knew one another?
And why was she torturing herself by being here with him in the first place, when he’d never,everlook twice at someone like her?
Travis was a successful novelist, with legions of fans, a book series that was a licence to print money, and with a dazzlingly bright future ahead of him. She, on the other hand, was unemployed, homeless, and about to become a single mother.
The idea that those looks he was giving her might be anything more than friendly was ludicrous.
And yet, she couldn’t help wondering, just the same.
“That’s an amazingly insightful thing to say,” Travis said at length, a look of appreciation now on his face. “Although in fairness to Anna, my ex, I don’t think I was ever what she was truly looking for.”
“She wasn’t a writer, then, I take it?”
He shook his head. “Anna was, and is, an up-and-coming actress. She’s social and outgoing and extroverted, all the thingsyou need to be to make it in a world of auditions and busy studios and networking and showbiz parties and all the rest of it. When we first met, Anna had already done plenty of theatre work and had minor roles in a couple of drama series, but by the time we broke up, she’d landed a key supporting actress role in a sci-fi series being produced for one of the big streaming services. She has a big future ahead of her, and I’m thrilled for her.”
“Do you miss her?”
“To begin with, yes. No one likes to get dumped, do they?”
“It’s no fun at all,” Courtney said, with feeling.
A sympathetic smile curved his lips. “We have that in common, I guess. But your break-up was more brutal than mine, obviously, considering there’s an unborn child involved. And in my case, Anna was right. We were going in different directions in life. I wasn’t in love with her, and she wasn’t in love with me, so…” He gave a shrug. “I just moved on and threw myself back into my writing.”
Courtney watched him study the plate of cakes on the table and help himself to a chocolate brownie.
“It makes you happy and you enjoy it,” she said. “Why wouldn’t you get stuck in? The fact that it’s also your career and the way you earn a living, well, that’s just the cherry on top. You have a dream job. Enjoy it.”
