I press the delete key on my computer over and over, erasing the only two sentences I’ve managed to squeeze out in the last hour. My forehead falls to the keyboard.
This is it. My short writing career is over.
If I can’t write two decent sentences, how will I ever have a manuscript to turn in to my editor in two months? I won’t be able to pay my bills. I’ll lose the house. I won’t be able to clothe or feed Adley.
A whirl of cold air gushes through the back door, alerting me that someone’s here. Winter has officially arrived in my small town of Lake Starlight, Alaska.
I grab my cochlear implants and put them on.
My parents had tried to get me the implants when I was younger, but I wasn’t a candidate, but as technology advanced over the decades, that changed.
I don’t bother standing because I know who’s coming in, and the two of them have been used to seeing me in this exact position for the past several months.
Hudson sits on the chair next to me and stares at me with those judgmental eyes. Does my best friend really think writing a novel is so simple? Maybe he should try it sometime. The man makes his living gallivanting around ski slopes. I glance around, searching for our brown-haired little girl.
He says, “She’s with Theresa. They’ll be over in five.”
I nod, standing and lifting my coffee mug.
He follows me into the kitchen and grabs the pot before I can. “How many have you already had?”
I roll my eyes and swipe at the pot, but he holds it up high. I sigh, but his smirk says he’s not going to give in until I answer.
Setting my mug down, I lift my hands and sign, Three. Sue me, it’s crunch time.
He chuckles, pouring my cup of coffee, his jokester face on the entire time. “One day, you’ll need an IV to get enough.” Grabbing his own cup from the cabinet above the sink, he pours himself a cup, goes to the fridge, and grabs some milk to put in. Again, he shakes his head at the lonely items in my fridge. “And I trust you to take care of our daughter? Good thing I’m only next door.”
I roll my eyes again and give him a vulgar gesture before heading to the kitchen table. After taking a sip, I put my cup on the table and lift my hands. Although I have cochlear implants, I still sign a lot. Force of habit, I guess. Plus, Hudson and I have always signed in front of Adley, even if we’re talking to help her learn, along with the weekly class she takes.
Let me guess, you made her a three-course breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice? I lift my eyebrows because when she stays at his place, Adley usually has a Pop-Tart in hand as she goes out the door, hair barely brushed.
His lips tip up, and he looks out the window toward his house before he takes a seat across from me. “Theresa brought breakfast over this morning.”
She didn’t spend the night, right?
“No. I’m abiding by the rules.”
I’m just saying it seems like it’s getting serious.
“Um…not sure about that.”
I kick him under the table. I bet you the time is coming.
“Time for what?”
She’s going to want more.
I love Hudson. He’s my best friend. The lines blurred one drunken night, and that’s how we were blessed with Adley, our three-year-old daughter. Just as I knew he would, he stepped up, leaving his nomad life to settle down in my hometown of Lake Starlight. He even bought the house next to mine so we could raise her together.
Hudson isn’t the kind of guy who wants to settle down, so his commitment to his daughter is usually what pulls on the heartstrings of his conquests first. Unless it’s his thick, dirty-blond hair that’s only ever styled by his fingers and the scruff along his jaw that grabs their attention first. My best friend isn’t hard on the eyes.
“She knows where we stand.”
I sip my coffee and stare at him over the rim of the mug.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” I can tell by the tone of his voice that he knows he’s grown closer to Theresa than any other woman he’s taken to his bed.
Theresa has a six-year-old daughter, and she’s a teacher, so she’s one of those women born knowing how to interact with children the minute she meets them. I don’t know how far she’s wormed her way into my daughter’s heart, but since Hudson has kept her around this long, I have to wonder if she’s wormed her way into his. I rub my chest.
“What’s the matter?” Hudson’s eyes follow the movement of my hand.
Heartburn.
He laughs. “Coffee and a crap diet will do that.”
More cold air wafts into the house, and the vibration on the floor of little feet running warms my heart. Even though she’s only been next door for the past two days, I’ve missed her. I put my coffee down and turn in my chair, ready for her to run into my arms, but Adley stops right before she reaches me.
“Mommy, look what Theresa gave me!” She holds out a lipstick, and that’s when I notice the red all over her lips.
“Oh, lipstick,” I say aloud.
A knock sounds on my back door.
Why doesn’t she just come in? I sign to Hudson.
“I don’t know.” He stands and reaches to ruffle Adley’s hair, but she ducks so he misses.
I can see why. It’s beautiful, woven in two braids that come together in the back. I could never pull it off. I guarantee Adley’s preschool teachers will know who got Adley ready this morning just based on her hairstyle alone.
I sign to Adley. Come here.
I open my arms, and she runs into them, squeezing me hard. I kiss her cheek, and she does the same to me before drawing back and laughing at the red lips she’s left there.
There are muffled voices as Hudson opens the door for Theresa. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but by the time they reach us at the kitchen table, Theresa looks flustered with Hudson. The two of them couldn’t be more opposite. Hudson is laid back, and Theresa just isn’t. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it surprised me the first time I saw them together. Hudson doesn’t mind dirty dishes and folded laundry on the couch, and Theresa is always very put together. I imagine her house looks like a home decorating catalog.
“Look!” Adley points at the red lips on my cheek.
“Oh, I’m sorry. She was watching me freshen up after breakfast and asked if she could have some.” Theresa clutches Hudson’s arm as if she’s afraid he might leave her alone with me.
I lift my hands. It’s okay. Thanks for making her breakfast.
She looks at Hudson, and he translates for me. These are times I should speak, but I’ve never been comfortable hearing my own voice.
Theresa shoots me one of her plastic smiles. “You’re welcome.”
I smile back and nod. That’s about the extent of my conversations with Theresa, though I don’t blame her. She shouldn’t be expected to learn sign language just because the baby mama of the guy she’s dating is deaf.
“Mommy!” Adley pulls on my shirt. “Theresa said she could take me to school today.”
I glance at my laptop sitting on the table. I never work here, but this morning, I thought maybe being in a different spot than my couch would make the words fly out of me. There’s a plate with half a tuna sandwich on it with five Cosmic Brownie wrappers on top. Yeah, I’ll have to break it to Adley that I dug into her Little Debbie stash. Not the first time. Won’t be the last.
I catch Theresa looking back at me after following my line of vision to my three in the morning snack. I lift my hands, and Theresa automatically looks at Hudson. I’ve got it, but please tell her thanks.
Hudson gives no expression as he tells Theresa, and her eyes focus on me. “I didn’t mean to upset anyone.”
You didn’t.
After Hudson tells her what I signed, he puts his hand on the small of her back. “Let’s go.”
Theresa seems reluctant at first but eventually walks out of my house without saying anything.
Hudson crouches down, and Adley wraps her arms around his neck. “Have a good day at school and please keep your hands to yourself. I can’t keep giving Mr. Grier free ski lessons to keep you there.”
Adley smiles one of her wicked ones. The one that says she’s not making any promises. She likes this boy named Holden and tries to kiss him every day at recess. “He likes me too.”
Adley runs into her room to grab her coat and backpack. Hudson nods, pushing his fingers through his hair.
Hey, she gets it from you. The last man in my bed was…I let it hang there because it’s embarrassing how long ago that was.
“You want me to remind you how you were back in the day before I knocked you up?”
You know how I love the phrase knocked up.
“I’m just saying you were just as horny as me.”
But now you’re settling down. I can hear all the ski bunnies on the mountain crying from here.
“Theresa knows the score. She’s not going to ask me to change.”
I raise my eyebrows. Okay then.
“I have a new client today, so I gotta get to the slopes. I’ll see you later, and maybe if you got a little, that romance book of yours would write itself.”
As if sex solves everything.
“At least go somewhere and get out of your head.”
I wave goodbye, and he huffs, shutting the door behind him. I pour myself a to-go cup of coffee and watch Hudson saying goodbye to Theresa. He embraces her, and they kiss, but it doesn’t last long before they separate, and he waves, going inside his house.
She walks carefully so as not to slip on the icy concrete of his driveway, then climbs into her compact SUV and reverses down the driveway. She’s almost too perfect. She must save her toenail clippings or something gross that no one would ever suspect. No one can be as perfect as she is.
After she’s gone, I clean off my cheek and Adley’s lips, then I get her into my Jeep and drive to her preschool. She sings to the music, pointing at things out of the window, while my mind continues to try to work out this story. I have no choice but to call my editor and face her wrath.
The best thing about Adley’s preschool is you drop off without having to leave the car line. So she unbuckles when we reach the point, climbs between the seats to kiss me on the cheek as always, and exits out of the back door after the helper opens it. I wave and smile, driving off.
The worst thing about Adley’s preschool is that I only have about two and a half hours to get to whatever I need to do before she’s done. Heading into town, I park my car along Main Street and go into Lard Have Mercy, needing a coffee and a muffin to tide me over. But I didn’t think this through, because as soon as I’m through the door, a bunch of people in the back call my name.
Shit.
It’s a group of my cousins. Since there are so many of us, we’ve naturally split into smaller groups, and the ones here are what have always been referred to as the Bailey Triplets. Although all three were born to a different set of my aunts and uncles, they were all born within the same twenty-four hours, hence the nickname.
I walk over, concerned they’ll keep me here the entire time Adley’s in school.
Lance slides over in the booth to make room for me.
“What’s up, Palmer?” Easton stands to hug me. “I’ll be right back.” He heads into the restroom.
“How’s it going?” Brinley asks, tucking her long blonde hair behind her ear.
It’s not that busy in here this morning, so I can hear them fine with my implants. Maggie hands me my muffin and sets a to-go coffee on the table, knowing my usual.
“I’m behind on the deadline. Can’t get into the story,” I say.
Brinley and Lance share a look.
“What?” I look between them.
“We have just the solution,” Lance says, laying his tie back in place now that he’s finished eating.
“What?” None of them are writers, so I can’t imagine what they have in mind.
“You have time to go on a short drive?” Brinley asks.
This is just the thing I was dreading. But since I’ll do about anything in an attempt to get this book done, of course I say, “Sure.”