Page 29 of Love Under Review

“How about four thirty? Wednesdays are slow anyway, and I can close up early and come get you.”

She nodded. “What should I wear?”

He smiled again. “Whatever you want. After how busy things have been, I’m thinking we can do something relaxed where we can just talk and get to know each other better.”

She gave him a quick nod and pushed the door open, hearing the bells ring above her. Stumbling out onto the sidewalk, she made her way back home. The walk passed quickly, and Danielle didn’t notice much of anything going on around her, her thoughts moving around the date the next day.

Entering the house, she grabbed a cup from the cabinet in the kitchen and filled it with water, realizing how thirsty she was just now.

“Long day?” her mother asked from behind her, causing Danielle to jump. Water trickled down her face and onto the old t-shirt she’d been wearing since five that morning. Looking down, she groaned. Why hadn’t she thought to change what she had on before going out in public? People were probably talking about how she was letting herself go.

“Yes. I’m working on a few writing projects, and I can’t quite get the details right.”

The surprise on her mother’s face made Danielle feel guilty that she’d kept so many secrets from her. But she still wasn’t ready to reveal who MK Malone was, so she kept her mouth shut.

“What projects?” her mother asked, putting down her purse and taking off her name tag. She looked like she’d been through the wringer herself.

Danielle walked to the fridge, trying to see if there was something easy she could make for dinner to give her mom a break from cooking.

“Just thought about writing a book.” Danielle’s enthusiasm helped her smile wide, which was something she hadn’t done with regard to her writing dreams in so long that it felt forced.

“I take it you don’t have any other job offers at the moment?” Her mother leaned against the cabinet.

Danielle took a breath, readying herself for whatever argument was on the brink. “Mom, you know I love to write. Why is it you think that’s not good enough for me to do as a career?”

Her mother reached out and placed her palm on Danielle’s cheek. “Dear, I just want you to be happy. And I guess my idea of your happiness was the dream of you with a stable job. If that’s not what you want, then I get it. I just don’t want you wasting your life away when things don’t change or you put in a lot of effort for peanuts. Like the newspaper.”

“What are you talking about? I love to write, and this weekend’s article was one of my favorite pieces thus far. I know it’s hard to imagine when I’m not interacting with people all day every day, but it’s still work.”

With a look of dismay, her mother moved past her and pulled a package of hamburger meat from the fridge.

“Mom, I’m not trying to down your job. I know how much the grocery store has helped us through the years and while I was growing up. I just wanted something different for my life.”

“I get that, Danielle, but when is enough, enough? When will you realize that this is your life and you need to live it? That you need to contribute to the world around you?”

Danielle spotted the MK Malone book from the book club sitting on the countertop. She moved toward it and pick it up. She closed the distance between her and her mother, waving the book in front of her mother’s face. “What do you think about this, Mom? Does this writer contribute to society?”

Her mother seemed to think about it. “I guess. It’s entertainment, and that can bring in money.”

Slapping it onto the counter, Danielle said, “Well, you’re looking at the author of this book, Mom.”

“What? Don’t do this right now, Dani. I’m not in the mood to battle it out with you. And there’s no need to lie about it.” She bent to pull a pan from underneath the oven and set it on the cooktop.

“No, Mom. I wrote this and the other two books. I’ve been working on book number four for the past two weeks, more since I’ve been here. I wrote the character of Holly Frontier, the woman who’s always stumbling onto a murder scene. I based her off of you, Mom.” She raised her hands quickly. “Not the way she’s always finding body parts, but the quiet strength she has, the ability to reason things out in her head before even speaking.”

“You really are MK Malone? But I showed you the book the other day, and you looked like you’d never heard of it before.”

Danielle chuckled. “I wasn’t expecting to ever see a physical copy of it in the hands of someone I know, let alone my own mother. It threw me for a moment, and then I was curious and wanted to know what the ladies would say.”

Her mother frowned, indecision on her face.

Walking over to her laptop on the counter, Danielle sighed and opened it. Searching for the documents, she pulled up the folders she’d created for each of the books, every note and rough draft she’d been through all tucked neatly inside them. She pointed to the folders, and her mother’s mouth dropped open. She kept looking between the computer screen and Danielle’s face.

Danielle pulled up the website where her books were sold, showing her mother the results of her books thus far. “This is what I’ve made on these books. It’s not millions, but it can support a modest lifestyle right now. And if I figure out the whole ads aspect of marketing, I might be able to up those amounts by significant margins.”

Her mother’s mouth went slack, looking as though she’d been punched. “You really wrote all those books? When did you have time to do all this?”

Danielle smirked. “I traveled a lot, Mom. I wrote between assignments and on my way to places. Until I saw the book at your book club, I had been too scared to check to see how they were doing.”

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