Page 33 of Fall Into Temptation
When Donovan dropped his arm, the woman pounced, wrestling the book out of his grasp.
“I can’t believe it!” she squealed.
Donovan’s eyes widened. Eva knew Mrs. Nordemann was not a squealer. She was a schemer.
Mrs. Nordemann held up the book to Eva’s face. “I can’t believe Ava Franklin lives in my town!” She was drawing a crowd. “You need to speak at Book Club,” she decided, yanking out her phone and opening her calendar.
“Now, we were Skyping with Thalia Price this month, but we can reschedule her.”
The woman wanted to reschedule aNew York Timesbestselling author who had three of her books made into movies forher? Eva felt dizzy.
Donovan took the book back from Mrs. Nordemann. “Evidence,” he explained.
“Oh, of course. I have a copy at home.” She waved her friends over. “Ava Franklin is a Mooner, and she’s going to speak this month!”
Amidst the excited chatter, Donovan leaned in. “If you have anyone who doesn’t know, you’d better tell them immediately.”
“Oh, for the love of—” Eva dug through her bag and pulled her phone out. She scrolled through her contacts frantically and pushed Call.
“Dad? Yeah. Hey, listen. I’m a romance novelist. I quit my job a year ago and have been writing books for a living. I gotta go. Bye!” She disconnected, scrolled, dialed.
“Emma? Where are you? Is Gia with you? Great. Put me on speaker. Can you guys hear me? Awesome. I’m a romance novelist, and I quit my job. Bye!”
She fired off a group text to Summer and Joey to fill them in and then silenced her phone and shoved it back in her bag.
“Eva—or should I say Ava?” Mrs. Nordemann asked coyly. “Can we get a picture with you? We’re your biggest fans!”
Donovan was roped into taking a group picture with Eva sitting next to a handcuffed Aretha and a grinning group of Mooners. Approximately forty seconds after that, the picture and announcement of Blue Moon’s famous author-in-residence was uploaded to Facebook. Within five minutes it had two dozen comments and Eva’s phone hadn’t stopped buzzing. She turned it off and went in search of her date.
Donovan was taking notes on property damage when she approached. She tapped him on the shoulder. “I think I’m going to take a raincheck on dinner tonight,” she said, her smile wavering.
“Don’t even think about sneaking off. We have some talking to do,” he began. His radio cut him off.
“Hey Sheriff, we got a problem…”
He swore.
“I think we’ve given each other a lot to think about tonight. So I’m going to go home and… think,” she said, pointing toward the door.
“Let me drive you.”
She shook her head. “It’s two blocks. I could use the fresh air and it looks like you’re going to be a while.”
They looked around the store. The dozen people in the store had doubled in number. Entire shelves had been swept clean, and Fitz was arguing with Aretha again.
“This isn’t over, Eva,” he warned her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Eva snuck like a thief into the backyard. They’d be waiting to pounce and she was in no shape to answer the millions of questions they’d throw at her. And the novelist outing was only one of her worries. Donovan had kissed her until her heart needed a restart and then calmly announced that she was it for him. Was it some stupid planets wreaking havoc, or could there be a thread of legitimate love there?
Shouldn’t a romance novelist be an expert on these things?she wondered.
Eva let herself into the cottage and locked the door behind her.
She’d just buy herself some time to think things through. Without turning on any lights, she grabbed her laptop and trudged upstairs. She’d write in bed, her phone off, until she fell asleep. A temporary escape from the chaos.
She changed into pajama pants and a tank, dug out her glasses, and wrote by the glow of her screen. Donovan had given her enough character material that it came pouring out in a spontaneous character sketch of her main character.
