nothing tying the victims together, he can’t find the pattern. They’ve been arguing about it and then he kisses her.”
Renee listened, then glanced at the pages. “You want me to tell you what I think?”
He nodded even as he realized he didn’t want to know she thought they were crap. Not that he wanted her to lie about them. Honest to God, when this was over, he was never writing a woman again. It was just too difficult.
Renee set down her small handbag and took the pages, then quickly scanned the four pages before starting over and reading them more slowly. When she was done, she said, “Mandy isn’t mad.”
“Why would she be mad?”
“Maybe mad isn’t the right word. I’m not a writer, so I don’t know how to describe it, but there should be something more going on. Vidar’s really worried. He’s telling Mandy the problem and that he wants her to be careful. She listens to him, smiles and says ‘Yes, I will.’” Renee walked to the window, then looked back at him. “I can’t explain what I’m feeling, I’m sorry.”
“You’re saying there’s no energy between them. He’s trying to save her life and she’s buying apple juice.”
“I’m not sure I would have put it that way, but sure.”
She was right, he thought grimly. Vidar was upset and Mandy didn’t share his feelings.
“She’s not in danger,” he said more to himself than to her. “She could be but we don’t know if the serial killer is going to be at one of her weddings and regardless, she wouldn’t be a victim. She’s not a bad person. She’ll never be in danger.”
He swore under his breath. “This book is a disaster. I need Mandy in danger and I’m keeping her as far away from the bad stuff as possible, which is what Vidar wants but if she’s not involved then there’s no tension and what happened to my talent?”
“What if the bad person is someone she cares about?” Renee asked. “Like her sister or her boss? So the killer will be close and she’s in danger but without being icky?” She shrugged. “Unless that’s dumb, in which case forget I said it.”
Jasper stared at her. “That would do it. Her business partner. Not her kid but someone else. Having it be her sister would work. What if her sister is her business partner?” He stalked toward her and grabbed her by her upper arms. “What if they’re twins?”
“Twins is good.”
“Twins is perfect. And just now—” He jogged back to where he’d been and retraced his steps, trying to maintain the right amount of energy as he looked at her.
“Vidar is trying to get her to understand she could be at risk and she’s not buying it. He’s frustrated. He cares about her as a potential victim, of course, but it’s more than that. He cares about her and she won’t listen.”
He looked at Renee, trying to feel what his character would feel. He grabbed her and held on, letting the emotions flow through him. He was focused on where his hands gripped her and how hard he held her and, when he kissed her, what her mouth felt like against his.
“That,” he said eagerly, racing around to his laptop. “Just let me make a few notes. The kiss, the twin thing, all of it. Fifteen minutes tops.”
He struggled to type fast enough to get it all down. His mind was flying as he made notes on various possibilities. He wrote until it was too dark to see his keyboard and suddenly realized that it had been a whole lot more than fifteen minutes and it was very unlikely that Renee had waited for him.
He got up and hurried to the house. After letting Koda out, he checked for her car, but it was gone. She’d left a note on the counter saying she was going to let him work and that she hoped it went well.
“Way to screw up,” he muttered as he texted her an apology. Some days it seemed as if he couldn’t get anything right. Worse, he’d really wanted to spend the evening with her. He’d missed them hanging out.
Koda walked back into the house and looked at him as if asking the state of meal service that evening. Jasper petted his dog as he headed to the pantry.
“I’ll get right on that.”
As for Renee and her reticence about animals, there was something there. Something she didn’t want to tell him. He was going to have