Page 80 of Three Pucks and a Baby

She waved her hand dismissively. “Seriously. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Yes, it is. While I love modern history, I suck ass at medieval stuff.”

“Actually, Tudor England was post-Renaissance, so it wasn’t medieval.” When I blinked at her, she blushed. “Once again, I’msucha nerd.”

Shaking my head, I countered, “You have an impressive brain.”

“Not exactly sexy, is it?”

“To me it is.” Waving the book at her, I said, “I’ve never been able to say I’ve slept with someone who is a real author.”

With a laugh, Vivian replied, “Stop. You’ll give me an ego trip.”

Grayson poked his head out of the dining room. “Come on, guys. Let’s eat.”

Nodding, I said to Vivian, “I’m starving. How about you?”

She wrinkled her nose. “My appetite comes and goes.”

“Have you had a lot of morning sickness?”

“Unfortunately yes.”

“Try anything with ginger.”

She furrowed her brows at me. “How do you know about morning sickness cures?”

I laughed. “My baby sister is seven years younger than me, and my mom was deathly sick when she was pregnant with her. I can remember constantly bringing her ginger chews and making her ginger tea.”

Vivian smiled as she eased into her chair. “You have such a kind heart. Doesn’t he Grayson?”

Grayson snorted. “Oh yeah, he’s a total sweetheart.”

“Jackass,” I muttered back, as I sat down across from him.

As Grayson and I started attacking our food, Vivian’s fork froze midway to her mouth. “Sorry. We’re starving after games,” I mumbled through a mouthful of General Tso’s.

“It’s okay,” she replied.

Grayson didn’t utter an apology and kept shoveling in his Mongolian Chicken. As I paused in eating to aid both my digestion and Vivian’s appreciation of me, I asked, “Did you always want to be a writer?”

Vivian chewed thoughtfully on her egg roll. “Yes and no. I mean, I always wrote stories when I was younger, but I never imagined then I would want to write about the lives of Tudor royalty and everyday people.”

Tilting her head at me, Vivian said, “Did you know Bennett was a popular Tudor first name?”

“Really?”

She nodded. “It was only spelled with one t though.”

Cocking his brows, Grayson asked, “What about Grayson?”

“While it wasn’t a popular Tudor name, it’s certainly one of English origin. Most likely, it comes from ‘son of gray’ fromsomeone’s son with gray hair.”

“I can see that,” he replied with a grin.

“And why all the interest in the Tudors and not the other periods?” I asked.

A dreamy look came over Vivian’s face. “It all started with this old movie in my 11th-grade history class calledAnne of aThousand Days. I got positively obsessed with Anne Boleyn and in turn, Henry VIII. It kinda went from there.”

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