glance at Connor, expecting him to argue. But instead, he just whips out his phone and starts tapping. About ten seconds later, he looks up, nodding. “Done. It’ll be here at eight a.m. You’ll have to take the delivery.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I argue even though I’m glad he is. I could get Diana a new laptop for classes, but I don’t have connections that’ll get one here by the morning. Maybe by ten P.M. if I pay for rush delivery.
“I told you I would fix this,” he reminds me.
“Here,” she says, laying my laptop with its cord on the coffee table. “Uhm, I don’t want to press my luck—”
“Too late,” Connor growls. He’s reached the end of his patience with this and is about ready to take my laptop and walk right out the front door without another word to Diana Nichols.
She flinches, and I lay a hand on Connor’s thigh. “What is it, Diana?”
“Can you just tell me if they work it out?” she asks, but then she blinks and shakes her head. “No, wait. Don’t tell me. I want to be surprised.”
I’m glad that someone cares this much about the characters who live in my head. “How about if I say that . . . romances always end in a happily ever after . . . eventually? Sometimes, the journey there is just really bumpy, sending the characters and readers through a bunch of ups and downs before they get to the final resolution.”
“Like real life,” Diana says wisely.
“Exactly,” I agree, shooting Connor a glance. I find him already looking at me with an inscrutable expression.
“Okay.” Diana’s agreement takes me by surprise, even though it’s what I want. It’s almost . . . easy. Not that getting to this moment has been remotely simple. “Thank you.”
Diana watches me as I take my laptop in trembling hands and open the lid, relief rushing through me when I see my screensaver pop up on the screen, a good sign. “Oh, my God! Nut! Juice!”
“Excuse me?” Diana says.
“Her dogs,” Connor explains for me. “Pomeranians.”
“Your dogs are named Nut and Juice?” Diana asks, fighting a grin.
“That’s what I said too,” Connor tells her, but I ignore the same old comment about my weird dog names. Mostly because I’m dancing around Diana’s apartment with my laptop as my partner.
“Thank you,” I gush when I’m finished, coming around to shake her hand. I’d hug her, but my laptop’s in the way. “I can’t wait to get to work. I have so much to do!” Excitement and happiness are surging through me, creative energy swirling up in a tornado that I know will keep me up all night.
Diana smiles. “I’m glad. I can’t wait to read it.”
Giving it up, I close my laptop and hug her with one hand, bringing Diana into my impromptu dance party as I vow, “I promise I’ll make the Diana character as awesome as you are. Maybe she can rescue someone, rush them to the ER in her ambulance, and be the hero who saves the day!”
Diana dances away from me, shaking her hands wildly before putting her fingertips in her ears. “No! La, la, la, la . . . no spoilers! Just work your Poppy magic and it’ll be perfect. But if I save someone tall, dark, and sexy, I promise I’ll still be surprised!”
I’m in such a great mood, I almost dance with Connor too. But one stone-eyed look from him lets me know he’ll put up with a lot of my craziness, but not dancing to music that doesn’t exist except in my heart.
I nod wildly. “We should go so I can get started.”
Our eyes meet, the gold flecks in his fiery blues swirling even though his features are still stone cold. But it’s the eyes, and the unsaid things contained within, that have me frozen in place. I can see the words forming, words that can’t, or won’t, escape his lips.
Our mission is accomplished. Or at least, we’ve got my laptop back. But is that all there is? I certainly don’t think so, but does he?
Diana watches us but after a few seconds starts fanning herself. “Ooh, don’t mind me over here . . . watching everything. Every. Thing.”
The moment of magic is broken. Connor blinks, and I clear my throat awkwardly.
“You take care of her. She’s one of a kind, a treasure.”
“You have no idea how right you are,” Connor says, his voice rumbling and sending shock waves of delight through my