than I did before. Everyone was so eager to get out of here.”
“They were, and I was one of them,” I say, not sure if I’m admitting something new to Sam or not. I was on the fence about leaving when I graduated high school. Part of me longed for a fresh start and an adventure, typical of seventeen and eighteen-year-olds, I know. But another part didn’t want to leave Dad alone, and I felt guilty enough going away to college.
“Do you like living in LA?”
“Overall, yes. It has its downfalls, I’ll admit, but the weather is amazing and my publicist is there, so it works out really well. Plus the network studio headquarters are close by, so when I go to sit in on any sort of discussions, I’m right there.”
“That would make things easier.” We walk a few more paces. “If you weren’t writing, do you think you would have ended up there?”
I think about it for a second. “I don’t know. I was itching for a change, but I didn’t make the move to LA until I got the screen option for Nightfall. I don’t even know what I’d do if I wasn’t a writer.” I look at Sam with wide eyes. “I’d have to get a real job.”
He chuckles, and damn, that man is so gorgeous when he smiles. “You have no idea what else you’d do?”
“Hmmm…” I think for a moment. “I’d be a paleontologist.”
“Really?”
I nod eagerly. “And I’d be a really good one, who’d find something that would enable me to co-fund a dinosaur theme park, but I’d be like really in touch with the dinos. So when the T-Rex breaks free of her enclosures, she picks me up with her tiny little arms and puts me on her back before she reigns hell on earth and eats everything in her path.”
“I’m sorry to break it to you,” Sam says, stopping and putting his hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think that’s what paleontologists actually do.”
“Dang it.” I love the way his large hand feels against my skin. “That’s the second-most disappointing thing I’ve ever heard.”
“What’s the first?” He slides his hand down my arm.
“The people who wear old-fashioned clothes at the start park are volunteers through the Park Department. They’re not paid to dress up and cook homemade apple pies on a wood-burning stove. If they were, I’d be all over that job.”
“That would be a low-stress-level job. I might even do it.”
“You could be a nineteenth-century doctor, traveling around with your leather doctor bag. Tell the people you don’t like their ailments are caused by demons so they’re families kill them in their sleep.”
He laughs again. “Did they really do that?”
I shrug. “Maybe? I’m making things up, though I do know demons were to blame for things they couldn’t understand back then.”
“Can you imagine living like that?”
I shake my head. “I’d have been locked up or burned at the stake years ago. I’m way too independent and weird to have been born even fifty years ago. Though I sometimes think I would have thrived if I lived in a Lord of the Rings type of time and setting.”
“Oh, for sure.”
We laugh and keep talking about what life would be like if we lived in fantasy worlds, both agreeing I’d lead some sort of rebellion and Sam would end up being the one burned at the stake, accused that his claims of science and medicine are actually witchcraft.
Sam puts his shirt on when we get to his car, and I pull my hair out of my ponytail, wishing I had a brush. I do my best to rake it out with my fingers before getting in the car, throwing the loose strands that came out into the wind. It’s a wonder I’m not bald with how much hair I shed every single day.
We give the car a few seconds to air out before getting in. Sam turns on the vented seats and puts the air on full blast. The radio is on and connects to Sam’s phone. Tom Petty starts playing, taking me right back to the days when Sam drove me home from school.
The parking lot is pretty full at Sunset Tavern, even though they only opened an hour ago. The hostess looks at us like we don’t belong, and I suppose we do look a little out of place for a “nice” restaurant since we’re both sweaty and dressed in workout clothes. There’s no dress code or anything here, though, and