thrown into the limelight. It…it’s us, isn’t it? You’re Wynn, and I’m Aislinn, except you wrote this tension that’s just…gah. I’m dying. Dying! You have to write more. When are you going to write more?”
I was still squinting at her, waiting for the but. None came.
“Are you…are you serious?” I asked. “You actually like it?”
“Like it?” she huffed. “I love it. Tommy, you did it! You fucking did it!” She was giggling, giggling and bouncing, her smiling cheeks as red and shiny as a cherry from the heat of her bath and her excitement.
When I started to laugh with her, she threw herself into my arms. I caught her around the waist and stood straight, lifting her feet off the ground, squeezing her tight.
“I can’t believe it,” I said into the towel around her head.
“I can,” she said, still laughing.
Her arms relaxed, and I let her down to find her smirking at me.
“Now, go write me some more.”
The Fine Line
Tommy
I whipped the tennis ball with as much force as I could, laughing when Gus took off like a shot, a blur of blond fur in hot pursuit of the slobbery green ball.
“He’s practically airborne,” Amelia said on a chuckle.
I smiled down at her. She sat on a red plaid in Washington Square Park, a shock of white on the deep crimson—white wool coat, white knit hat, blonde, blonde hair, and cheeks rosy and high. The arch stood proudly in the distance, the fountain still and quiet for the winter, the square packed with people.
We’d been walking through the park every day for the last week when the weather permitted, and always at the same time. The routine had bred a slight following of paparazzi, though they hung around the fringes, relying on wide-angle lenses. It gave us at least a modicum of privacy, though the regular joes who visited the park weren’t always as discreet.
But today, we’d been largely left alone. Amelia smiled up at me, the sight of her so picturesque I reached for my phone.
“Pretend like you’re reading,” I said, opening my camera.
She laughed, but obliged, and I moved around until I got her framed up. One shot—that was all it took.
Amelia was that perfect.
“Did you get it?” she asked.
I was already texting it to her.
“’Gram that,” was my answer.
She picked up her phone and inspected the photo. “You are the best thing to ever happen to my Instagram, you know that?”
“Well, I guess we’re even then,” I said as Gus approached.
“Like your Instagram needed help,” she volleyed on a laugh.
“You’re the best thing to happen to me.”
Neither of us had time to speak before Gus skidded to a halt at my feet, dropping the ball with a bark.
I chucked it, and Gus spun on his paws, taking off again.
“Are you all caught up on reviews?” I asked, changing the subject.
Thankfully, she let me. “I am. I finished a review this morning, and I’ll have the last book on my list finished tonight, if we read instead of watch TV.”
“Deal. Jessica and Dain are about to get married in Lord of Scoundrels, and if they don’t bone soon, I might actually die.”
She shook her head with a laugh. “Ready to tell me I was right yet?”
I shrugged. “Eventually.”
“Well, fortunately, I’m a patient woman.”
“God knows that’s the truth. You married me, didn’t you?”
Another laugh. “I’m so glad I’ll have all my commitments out of the way. It hasn’t been easy, reading for my blog and the paper and helping you. I’ll be glad for a break.”
“I’ve been monopolizing you. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, don’t be. I much prefer working with you. To be honest, I’m a little burned out. It’s hard when you’re not reading for fun anymore. When it’s a job, it…changes things.”
“Man, I know how that feels. I miss the days when writing was pure, fearless. Expectations change things.” I nodded to her Kindle in her lap, the case closed. She’d been reading my manuscript. “Finished already?”
“Mmhmm,” she hummed, looking down at her hands as she absently fiddled with the device.
Instantly, I was frowning. She’d just read everything I’d written today, and I knew immediately that whatever the news was, it wasn’t good.
“All right. Let’s have it,” I said to the thundering of Gus’s paws as he approached. I reached for the ball in his mouth, grateful I had something to do while she crushed all my hopes and dreams.
“It’s…good.”
“What a glowing endorsement.” I chuffed a laugh, muscling the ball from Gus’s jaw, so I could throw it, putting