Page 31 of Rewrites of the Heart

“You couldn’t be so lucky. But for a moment I thought you said you were with JJ Spritely.”

“I did.”

“Not the JJ Spritely.” JJ could her his mom’s comment, and she felt her cheeks get hot.

“I don’t know. How do you know JJ Spritely?”

“Well, personally, I don’t. But my book club has just finished her latest work,Love’s Revenge.” She paused, then gave a disappointed sigh and said, “No, it couldn’t bethatJJ Spritely.”

She enjoyed Kenn’s bewilderment. “Uhm, I don’t know. Let me ask her.” He moved forward so he was sitting on the edge of the chair. Moving the cell phone from his ear, he held it out so his mom could hear and asked, “IsLove’s Revengeyour latest book?”

He motioned to her to talk loud enough so his mom could listen in. “Yes, Mrs. Cooper, that is my latest book.”

“Kenn, let me talk to her right now, and don’t you dare tell your mother no.”

He rolled his eyes and panic flooded his face. JJ, however, remained calm and motioned for him to give her the phone. She enjoyed the moment tremendously.

“Oh, really? Well, thank you. Oh, you are? Well, I’m not sure. Oh, I see.”

She gave her teaching partner an amused look and shrugged her shoulders as she continued to listen.

“Why, of course, I’d be delighted to do that. Sure, I’ll get that from Kenn.” She ended the call and handed the phone back to him.

“What was that all about?”

“Two things: Your lack of a love life and an autographed copy of my book.”

Hearing the words love life he shrank as deeply into the chair as he could. It wasn’t difficult to sense his embarrassment, so laughingly, she said, “You’ll have to give me her address. She’s a fan.”

He straightened up a little with that comment. “Is everyone a fan?”

“According to my royalty checks and several reviews I’ve read, no, if that comforts you at all.”

“I did come in for one other reason,” Kenn continued, apparently determined to remain on track. “I was hoping—”

Chapter 23

“Uno, uno, uno! We’re number one!” Enthusiastic voices echoed throughout the hallway.

Kenn looked toward the door. A group of young men, one of whom was dressed as the football team’s mascot, trooped around like soldiers on a five-mile hike. Following close behind were the men’s backup singers—a group of lightly clad cheerleaders. All were festooned in the school colors of purple and lime green. And Alex was among them.

When the group arrived at JJ’s door, the mascot stopped. Not expecting the sudden end of the march, the rest of the pep squad bumped into one another, causing a domino effect. The cheerleaders then crashed into them.

The mascot, a six-foot tall hand with the index finger pointed upward, indicating the Number One, casually said, “Hi, JJ.”

The costume muffled the voice, but there was no mistaking that English accent. Blake.

“See, I told you I knew JJ Spritely, the romance author,” Alex said. “She’s my cousin.”

The mascot took the top knuckle off the extended index finger revealing his head. The static electricity created by the headpiece made his hair a worse mop of a tangled mess than it usually was. Einstein’s frightened hair looked manageable by comparison.

Seeing who was in the costume, Kenn bubbled up with laughter. JJ gave him what she hoped he understood to be a don’t-encourage-him look. But, evidently, seeing her open annoyance only made the situation that much more outlandish. His natural reaction to the comical situation started her laughing as well. Blake feigned indignation.

“I’ve got to go,” Kenn said, barely able to speak he was laughing so hard. He made his way through the group of approximately a dozen young men like Moses parting the Red Sea and walked away. Part of her mourned his departure. They were actually talking civilly to each other, and she liked it.

Blake’s new friends, all members of the university’s men’s pep squad, also dispersed quickly. So did Alex’s fellow cheerleaders.

“See you at practice,” Alex told one, as they exchanged hugs. She walked into the office and Blake followed her. But his attention was on his love and not where he was going.

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