Diamonds Are Forever - Brooke St. James Page 0,36

would lead. Jim loved the hedgehogs and even mentioned talking to someone at a television network about production of a cartoon series. All of this, the meeting with Jim and the signing of the contract and everything, all of it happened without any word from or about Drew. I had no idea what had happened to him. As far as I knew, he had just gone back to his normal life in Houston.

It was September, and Mac had recently started preschool. He had always stayed home with me or my mom, so it was different having him on a schedule where he got up and went to school every morning. He only went four hours a day, but he loved it, and he seemed so happy and independent when I dropped him off.

So, there was a lot of good in my life. I was busy, and I was technically happy with how things were going. No one besides me knew about the nagging regret I felt about pushing Drew away.

I had gotten nervous and excited at around the three-week mark, thinking he would show up on my doorstep like we talked about. Then I got nervous and excited again when it had been a month. I hoped he would come, and he didn't. It had been three days since the official one-month mark, and the more days that passed, the more I figured I would never see him again.

It was a Tuesday afternoon, and Mac and I had just gotten home. I had worked on my series while he was at preschool that morning. I wasn't a scriptwriter, but I hashed out some script ideas for a TV pilot and got my thoughts organized with that so that I had something to show to Jim the next time we met. He would then decide if it was an idea worth pitching to someone else.

It didn't have to be perfect, and I still had a few weeks to put all my ideas together, but I wanted to get going on it as soon as I could. I worked on it until it was time to pick Mac up at noon. We ate lunch with my cousin, Tara, and then we went for a long walk on the beach.

Mac took a twenty-minute nap in the shade of a palm tree before we went to the boxing gym so that he could participate in a fitness class they offered for kids three times a week. It was after school from 3 to 4pm, and Mac loved to go. It was for kids up to twelve years old, so Mac was one of the tiniest ones there, but he loved it and begged me to go most of the time.

We had just gotten home from that.

I checked my mail on the way inside and realized that I had a package. It was a large, padded envelope, and it was all taped-up like it had been opened and resealed. They hadn't even done the nicest job of repackaging it. It was bunched up and had black tape all over it. There was a sticker on the tape that said. "This package has been opened, inspected, and resealed at customs."

I turned it over and glanced at the return address. It had been shipped from Italy, I could see that much. The tape was so haphazardly applied that it was covering the name of whoever sent it. All I could see was the bottom of the address.

The packaging indicated that it was Express 2-day International Mail, but the postmark was stamped in red ink, and it clearly showed that the package had been mailed on September sixth.

I had to think about it for a second, but I knew it wasn't even close to the sixth right now. I couldn't remember the exact date, but it seemed like it was the end of the month. I was so caught up in the disheveled nature of the envelope and the fact that it had taken so long to come to me that I forgot to simply open it.

"What is it?" Mac asked, but he had already lost interest and began heading into his bedroom.

"I have no idea," I called at his back.

It was hard and light, and it felt like a box. I turned it over, and regarded my name and address that was written on the front side. My brain instantly went to Drew. I desperately wished the handwriting was his, but I wasn't sure. He wouldn't be