The Shifter Romances The Writer (Nocturne Falls Book 6) (12 page)

That probably wasn’t super healthy either, but screw it. After all those years with Thomas, who could blame her for being attracted to a guy who treated her like she was a sexy, desirable woman?

She stripped off her workout clothes and stepped under the hot spray. The water beat down on her, the heat easing the muscles she’d just worked out.

What if the only reason she was attracted to Alex was because he was nice to her? Other than the fact that he was unbelievably sexy. The man was hot with a capital H. Or could her attraction be because he was so different than Thomas? Would she be attracted to any guy who was nice to her? Wasn’t there always a rebound guy? That could be all this was. She was getting excited about a nice guy simply because she hadn’t been around a nice guy in a long time.

She leaned her head under the spray and realized that was exactly why she wasn’t ready to get involved again. She couldn’t trust her emotions right now. Everything was still so raw and on the surface.

Being friends with Alex was fine, but that was absolutely where things had to stay.

By the time Undrea arrived, Roxy felt mostly back to rights. She left the woman alone with the tank and went off to the kitchen to fix some coffee.

Undrea walked into the kitchen as Roxy was putting the creamer back in the fridge. “The water’s perfect. I’m going to add some pajama wrasses, and we’ll see how they do for a week or so.”

“Sounds perfect. After all, I’m basically in my pajamas all day.”

Undrea laughed. “I do try to match the fish to their environment. Be right back.”

“Okay.” Roxy sipped her coffee. That tank was going to be amazing when it was done.

Undrea came back a few minutes later with a large bucket and good-sized box under one arm. “Did you know there’s a rose on your car?”

Roxy frowned. “A rose?”

Undrea nodded. “Yep. It’s tucked under your wipers.” She smiled. “You must have a secret admirer.”

Roxy made herself smile back while her belly went cold. “I’m sure that’s what it is. I’ll go get it.”

Undrea headed to the office as Roxy went outside. Sure enough, her driver’s side wiper pinned a single long-stemmed red rose against her windshield. There was no note that she could see. She checked the ground to make sure it hadn’t blown off, but it wasn’t that windy, and she already knew who it had come from.

Thomas.

The how was just as obvious. He must be in town. And he must have come by last night, seen her car in the driveway and done this. The why was a lot less clear. Did he think this kind of crazy was going to win her back?

Because in her mind, their marriage had been over a long time ago. Sure, he still needed to sign the papers to make the divorce final, but nothing was going to change her mind. Certainly not high school stunts like this.

She grabbed the rose and marched it over to the trash receptacle, stuffing it in the big green can.

The garage bay where her hybrid would eventually be parked was still filled with boxes of stuff she needed to unpack. Apparently, this was the universe’s way of telling her to get on it. Because there was no way she was parking the Vette outside to make room for the hybrid.

She shook her head at Thomas’s nonsense and went back inside.

Undrea stood at the end of the hall. “The fish are getting accustomed. I’ve got a drip line set up in the bucket. Should take about thirty minutes to an hour and they’ll be ready to go in. I’ve got another job to check on a couple houses over, but I’ll be back in time to get them swimming.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you when you get back.”

Undrea left, and although Roxy really wanted to watch the news while she finished her coffee, she decided to get some work done before Undrea returned. Because there was always something to do. And she needed to take her mind off of Thomas’s latest stunt.

But first she checked out her new fish in the big five-gallon bucket where they were getting used to the water in their new home. They were gorgeous—deep blue with brilliant orange stripes. She grinned, totally ready to see them in her tank.

Happy, she sat at her desk and got to work. She began by making a to-do list for the week, which was daunting in its length. Then she started answering the fan emails that had accumulated in the last few days. Twenty minutes later, she was working on another email to her assistant about the giveaway for the week.

She was halfway through the creation of a new teaser graphic when her doorbell rang. She got up from her desk and looked out the office window. Undrea’s van.

That had been a quick half an hour, but checking the time told her it had been more like forty-five minutes.

She glanced at the bucket holding the two wrasses. It
was
getting full. She hustled to let Undrea in.

Within minutes, Undrea had the colorful pair swimming in the tank.

Roxy clasped her hands to her chest. “They’re gorgeous. I could be happy with just the two of them.”

Undrea laughed. “Then you’re really going to like it when it’s fully stocked, but it’s good you like it with those two in there because it’ll be at least a week before I come back to add more.”

“And all I have to do is feed them?”

“Yep. The folder I gave you has all of that info, but you can always call me if you have any questions.”

“Great. Thank you so much.”

Undrea collected her bucket and dripline. “No problem. See you in a week.”

Roxy locked the door after Undrea left, then went to sit and watch her fish. It was just as peaceful as she remembered, and she smiled wistfully as she thought about her dad. He would have loved this tank.

Minutes slid by with the memories. At last, she got up and went back to work, this time to finally make some progress on her book.

She was just getting into the zone when her cell phone rang. Naturally. She didn’t recognize the number, but the area code was local. “Hello?”

“Ms. St. James?”

“Speaking.”

“Hi,” a very enthusiastic voice said. “I’m Agnes Miller. I own the bookstore in town, Bell, Book & Candle, and I am so excited that
the
Roxy St. James is now a resident of our little town. I hope you don’t mind that I bribed Birdie Caruthers into giving me your phone number, but I just had to talk to you and see what it would take to get you to do a book signing.”

Roxy was dumbstruck for a moment, then she went into author mode. Business was, after all, business, and booksellers were some of her favorite people. For now, she would overlook what Birdie had done, but made a note to say something to Alex about that not happening again. “I hope you mean Bell, Book & Candle as in the Jimmy Stewart movie.”

“The movie! Oh my gosh, I love you even more for knowing that. Please say you’d be willing to do a book signing here.”

Roxy took a breath. The woman’s enthusiasm was overwhelming, but very sweet. And impossible to say no to. “Of course I would. Did you have a date in mind? I’m still in the process of moving in, so my life is a little hectic at the moment.”

The woman let out a small, happy shriek. “That is so wonderful, thank you! I have a huge database of your fans that I can access. I can promise at least a hundred pre-solds, if not more.”

A hundred pre-solds? Roxy blinked in awe. “Wow. I had no idea.”

“Oh, yes. As soon as you put a new book out, I email my customer list and they reserve one. You know a lot of bookstores don’t carry your books.”

Roxy sighed. “It’s the curse of being indie published. But there’s not much I can do about it. Interesting about your list. I’ve seen big bumps in my print sales after a release. I had no idea that was you.” She pretty much had to do the signing now.

“Yep, that’s me. I’ll get to work on this immediately. As for a date, it’ll take me about five days to get the books in, which corresponds nicely with the weekend of the Panic Parade, which is next weekend. The town gets flooded with tourists for that event, so we might as well take advantage of that and really crank up the walk-in sales.”

“Okay, sounds good.” She vaguely remember Delaney telling her about the parade. “Why don’t you email me the details?”

“Absolutely.” Agnes hesitated. “Is there any way you could come by today and sign the stock I have on hand?” She laughed nervously. “And so I could meet you in person?”

Roxy bit her lip. That meant another chunk of time she wouldn’t be writing. But this was part of the job. And necessary. “Sure, I’d love to. Two o’clock okay?”

“Perfect. Thank you so much. See you then!” Agnes hung up.

Roxy put the phone down and leaned back in her chair, then remembered the fish tank. She swung around and watched the wrasses darting in and out of the coral. Part of being an author was meeting fans and doing events.

But in a perfect world, Roxy would probably never leave the house. Oh, she could rock an appearance. On the outside. On the inside, she was a nervous mess who couldn’t wait to be home again, writing her books and living in the bubble of her own making.

She smiled as the wrasses did their thing, oblivious to their human observer. She was definitely more of an introvert than an extrovert, but then, so were most of the other writers she knew. At least today would just be meeting Agnes and signing stock. She’d have time to prepare for the big signing.

She checked the time. Maybe she could get her pages done before she left. She nodded. Sometimes deadlines were a good thing.

And meeting with Agnes would definitely be a good thing. Roxy loved her fans. They were the reason she worked as hard as she did. The reason she’d made enough money to leave Thomas and move here.

In fact, the more she thought about it, she decided a little trip to Delaney’s for a gift of chocolate for Agnes would be just the thing.

A little gift of chocolate for herself wouldn’t hurt either. Because if she couldn’t have Alex, she at least deserved chocolate. Not at all the same thing, but infinitely safer. Although, having Alex
and
chocolate, now that would be something.

And just like that, her mind went to a very different place than the book she was supposed to be working on.

Alex poured the last of the pancake batter onto the griddle as Diego walked into the kitchen. They’d both slept late. Alex because he’d stayed up all night reading Roxy’s book and Diego because he’d worked the evening shift at Howler’s. “Morning. Such as it is.”

Diego scratched his head and yawned, looking about as awake as a bear fresh from hibernation. “Mm-hmm. Coffee,” he mumbled.

“In the pot. How was your first night on the job?” Alex checked the pancake for bubbles around the edges. Nothing yet.

“Decent.” Diego shuffled to the coffee maker, grabbed a cup from the cabinet above and filled it. He added a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar before going to the fridge for creamer. He splashed some in, then drank half the coffee in one long gulp. That seemed to fortify him enough to string words together. “Money was on point.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Let me guess,” Diego grunted. “Rent is due.”

Alex smiled. “Since you brought it up, that was kind of the point of you getting a job. So you could start paying your way.” He flipped the pancake, then took a sip of his own coffee, which was strong and sweet and just the way he liked it. “But hey, I hear Mom keeps your room just the way you left it, so you know, there’s that.”

Diego rolled his eyes and took his coffee to the table. He lounged in one of the chairs and let out a long sigh. “Don’t remind me. I’ll get you the rent soon but the Camaro needs an oil change first.”

Alex shot his brother a look. “I understand you want to take care of your car, but how about a little something toward groceries at least?”

“Quit hassling me.” Diego grimaced. “You’re so much like Dad. Trying to parent me.”

“If you really feel that way, maybe you need to reconsider what’s going on here, because that’s not what I’m doing.” An ironic statement considering he
had
made breakfast. He added the last pancake to the stack and carried it to the table where the syrup and butter already waited. He refilled his coffee before sitting down across from Diego. “This is my house, after all. I get to say what happens here. That doesn’t mean I’m trying to parent you.”

Diego forked three of the Frisbee-sized cakes onto his plate. “Look, I get it. You’re hot for the shorty next door and I’m wrecking your scene, but I need to build up some scratch before I get out of here. Giving you money isn’t going to help my financial report, you dig?”