Page 149 of Smoke and Fire
Bastian:To answer your questions: 1. I plan to publish thirty books. 2. The next launch is six months from this launch. 3. I get my inspiration from real life. 4. Plain bagel, veggie cream cheese. Sorry about the wait on my response to the questions. Anything else?
Dahlia:Why haven’t you been snatched up by someone?
My brain stopped working entirely while my heart stalled in my throat. It nearly puttered to a stop like a dying engine.
Wait, what?
How did she have the ovaries of steel to ask such a question so point blank? Then again, both of us hid behind phones. Maybe it wasn’t thatrevolutionary.
It justfeltlike it.
I blinked. What was I supposed to say? Most conversations with women were difficult, which made dating not something I prioritized. Also, I hadn’t found someone okay with me being in dangerous circumstances for two weeks. Looming above all those excuses was the mother of all reasons.
No woman has ever wanted me before.
I rolled my eyes and dismissed that dramatic thought. Whatever hole in my brain it spawned from, it could return to.
Before I could formulate a not-super-embarrassed response, a new text message came.
Dahlia:You’re such a sweet guy. I’ve been reading your email responses.
My tension relaxed. She meant in general. Okay. Dahlia had just given me one of those overtly female platitudes that didn’t really mean anything, likebless your heartoraren’t you adorable?
Easier to deal with than a real question, but still . . . vaguely disappointing. Because damn if I didn’t want her to take the spot of someone snatching me up.
With great effort, my brain started again and formulated a mostly coherent response.
Bastian:You’d be surprised.
Dahlia:I don’t think so. Do you think you write romances because it feels safer than dating but it makes everything not seem so lonely?
Bastian:Um . . .
Dahlia:Just a guess, but I’ll stop embarrassing you. I’m good for now. Check in tomorrow? Just want to make sure you’re okay.
A trickle of warmth and surprise worked through my shock. Whowasthis woman? No one had ever asked me such raw questions before. I didn’t like the answers they spurned.
Whether or not Dahlia would be a good thing for my life right now remained to be seen, but I couldn’t deny it felt nice to have someone that cared.
Bastian:Will do. Sleep well, Dahlia.
Dahlia:GIF
The GIF of a puppy nosing its way under a sheet, curling up in a ball, and then poking a tiny pink nose out showed up.
With a roll of my lips, I suppressed the idiotic smile that I couldn’t help and watched her video one last time. Her happy chatter and quick smiles captured me again. I shook my head, turned the phone off, and stuffed it back into my bag.
Then I fell into an utterly dreamless sleep.
11
DAHLIA
“What’s up, cuz?”
The booming voice came a second before a sharp rap on the trailer door.
An hour had passed since my shift at the coffee shop ended and I’d already finished Jess’s fifth novel,Afterglow is a Promise. It lay on the counter behind me near a pineapple I’d almost hacked to death. Not as good as what we’d get in California, but it would do.
