Page 83 of The Write Off

Shannon arrives after her shift at the hospital just in time for cake. Everyone sings as Travis and Anna carry out a slightly lopsided cake with so many lit candles, it appears to be on fire itself.

“We were going to write Happy Birthday on the cake, but we didn’t have any room after all the candles were on,” Anna says.

“It’s your own fault for being so old,” Travis adds.

It takes me two full breaths to extinguish the flames.

“Did you remember to make a wish?” Anna asks when the last candle is out.

I look around the room at the smiling faces of friends, new and old. At the family who love and accept me as I am. And finally at the woman who I want to wake up next to every day, and fall asleep wrapped around every night.

“I didn’t need to,” I tell my niece without taking my eyes off Rilla. “I’ve already got everything.”

Epilogue

Eight months later

Rilla

“Okay.” My eyes nervously scan the crowded room. “New plan: I’m going to need you to cause a diversion. Walk into the crowd and say that Brandon Sanderson is overrated. Or that Sarah J. Maas should have stopped after Throne Of Glass. Really sell it. And when the angry mob descends on you, I’ll slip out the back exit and meet you at the car. You might get maimed a bit, but I’m sure with your vertical advantage you can handle them.”

“Or,” Logan counters, stroking my back reassuringly. “We stay. You talk to all these nice people who’ve lined up around the block to meet you and sign their books. Then, when you’re done, I’ll take you home, make you pancakes, and ravish you so thoroughly you’ll forget that you were ever nervous and be ready to do it all again tomorrow.”

“Fine,” I huff. “We’ll do it your way. But you owe me so big.”

I’ve been to book signings before, but the fact that people are here to see me, to talk about my book, is beyond surreal.

Life itself has been downright dreamlike since Of Cinder And Sand debuted two months ago. Even though the PR campaign was very successful and early reviews were overwhelmingly positive, I wasn’t prepared for the reception it received. It exploded on Booktok two weeks after its release and was declared an instant bestseller.

More than one million copies have been sold to date. More than one million people have bought my book. It debuted so successfully that the publisher had to rush-order a reprint to meet the demand.

When I met my agent, Angie, for coffee a month after the release, she excitedly told me that the publisher would like to change my three-book contract to one for the entire six-book series. I decided then and there to finally come clean to her about the series being finished.

She screamed. Then she cried. Then she hugged me for what felt like entirely too long while screaming and crying.

I signed a seven-figure contract with Alyson Summers herself not two weeks later. It was the first time I’d seen her since she called the original “whistle blowers” together.

Logan got a well-deserved promotion at Thompson And Daye and I was so proud to see him recognized for all his hard work.

Of Ash And Thorn will be released six months from now and we’re currently working together editing the third book of the Primordial Series, Of Dust And Ruin. Even though promoting and revisions take up most of my time, I’ve been setting aside an hour a day to play around with a new young adult project I’ve been working on. It’s still in the very early stages, but I’m excited with what I’ve come up with so far.

The store manager approaches us, smiling broadly. “If you’re ready, Rilla, we’ll get started.”

Ready or not.

Giving Logan’s hand a final squeeze, I walk on wooden legs to the sprawling table they’ve set up for me. Copies of my book are stacked neatly on both sides of my chair. There is a line of at least fifty people that extends outside the store onto the sidewalk. They start to applaud as I reach the table and I wave awkwardly at them in response.

The next two hours go by in a blur. I sign books until my pen runs dry and the manager has to bring me a new one. My hand cramps, but I push through. I talk to fans, fans of my book, until my voice threatens to give out. Some people gush over the story and the characters, and tell me how excited they are for the second book in the series. One woman tells me that my book got her out of a year-long reading slump. Another woman tells me my book is the first thing to bring her any joy since her husband suddenly passed away two years ago.

Perhaps the most surprising encounter of the day is the young couple with their newborn son that they’ve named Cyprian. I pose for a picture with them, hoping that these lovely people don’t come for me when they realize that the character they named their bouncing bundle of joy after becomes the villain in book three.

It’s not all strangers, of course. My parents were amongst the first in line, each of them carrying a stack of hardcovers.

“You didn’t need to come,” I laugh, scribbling my name in loopy letters inside each book. “I’ve got another signing next week in Maine.”

“And we’ll be at that one, too,” Dad says with a wink.

“Your Aunt Kelly is bringing her entire book club. They’ve picked your book as their next read.”

---