of the story for me. But I know some people swear by it. You should definitely try it and see if it helps you. It’s more fun for me to discover the story as I go.”
“That sounds so much harder.” Kate had always been a planner. She couldn’t imagine just sitting down and staring at a blank page wondering what was supposed to happen.
“You have to dream up the story either way, whether it’s for your outline or ‘pantsing’ as we call it, when you just write and see where the story takes you.”
“That sounds terrifying to me. Especially in a mystery where I have to set things up and drop clues. I’ll try an outline first I think.”
“Good idea. Do you want that last oyster?” Philippe was nice to offer, but Kate knew he was dying for it.
“No, you have it. I don’t want to spoil my appetite.”
“Thanks. Why don’t you show me your outline when you get it finished? I can let you know if the structure looks solid and if the story is compelling. That is one benefit of an outline, you can fix that kind of thing before you write the book.”
Kate appreciated the offer. It was generous of him, especially considering that she’d told him she didn’t want to be more than friends.
“If you don’t mind, I will take you up on that offer.”
Chapter 10
Kristen had barely eaten in the past few days since she’d last seen Sean. He’d called the next day as if everything was fine and wanted to make plans to go out again. He’d been shocked and not happy when Kristen firmly told him that she was ending their relationship. It felt like the right decision, but it still felt awful, and she’d been grieving what she’d thought they had.
But finally, after three days of misery, not eating enough and sleeping too much, she woke Friday morning and felt almost as if the fog had lifted. She had more energy, and she was starving. And there was nothing in her house to eat. She wanted to make a giant omelet and wash it down with many cups of coffee and she was out of both eggs and coffee. So, she had a cup of tea to take the edge off, and then headed downtown to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping.
Since she was hungry, she ended up buying twice what she normally would. She lugged the bags out to her jeep, tossed them in the back seat and climbed in to drive home. As she sat waiting to pull out of the parking lot onto Main Street, her phone rang. She saw that it was Sean and let it go to voice mail. It immediately rang again and she saw that it was Kate and went to answer it, but when she picked up the phone, it slipped out of her hands. She swore and reached over to get the phone and took her eyes off the road for two seconds.
But it was two seconds too long. She lifted her foot off the gas slightly and her car rolled forward and into something. She looked up and swore again. She’d rolled into an old navy Mercedes that was waiting to turn into the parking lot. The driver stopped his car, jumped out and came around front to assess the damage. And then he came her way.
Kristen took a deep breath and got out of the car. It was totally her fault. There wasn’t a lot of damage, but she’d tapped his front bumper and there was a big scrape that showed the car was once beige.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“You hit me!” The man standing in front of her sounded frustrated, and she didn’t blame him. He was also somewhat familiar looking and very attractive. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him on the island before though.
“Were you texting?” he accused her.
“What? No! My phone rang, and I went to answer and dropped it. I really am sorry. I’ve never hit anyone before.” The stress of the past few days and her growling stomach caught up with her and Kristen suddenly felt like she might burst into tears. “Let me get my insurance information for you.” Her voice cracked as she went to turn back to her car. His voice stopped her.
“Hold on a second. I don’t think it’s really that bad. It’s just a scrape. We might not need to get our insurance companies involved.”
“Okay. I’ll totally pay for