Page 42 of The Dating Contract

Carly nodded. “Yeah. He’s got a colorist, a letterer, and a guy who draws to collaborate on something.”

Collaboration sounded great, but again, the skipping-record sound had played already. Because there weren’t many people who lettered; it was very specialized job on the comics side. She had a feeling though, a thought made of a messy, knotted thread and a remembered bit of a conversation on Saturday.

She had a very strong feeling Samuel was part of the group that was collaborating upstairs.

But she had to ask. “Letterer?”

“Yeah,” Carly said. “I think you know him actually… Was the guy you brought to practice on Saturday named Samuel?”

“Yeah,” she said. Because that’s how life and messy tangled threads worked. At least for her. “It was.”

“Oh great,” Carly said. “They’re doing some very cool stuff up there for the gala, actually.”

And as she and Carly continued to talk, Leah wondered what was going on, and whether she’d want to stay long enough to see him.

*

A few hourslater, Oliver and Liam had to go back to the city; but Samuel stayed behind to talk to Bryce about a few things. There was rideshare in Rivertown, after all, and he’d gotten a text from his brother about picking up his car at the shop over in Briarwood.

Eventually, they went down only to see Bryce’s wife taking coffee cups into the kitchen. There was something off, and he could feel it in the way Bryce looked around, as if he wasn’t seeing what he thought he would.

“I thought your agent was here,” Bryce said.

Agent.

Carly’s agent was…

Leah?

Yes. That’s partially how Samuel got into the practice, and…

But he needed to say something. “Is she still…”

“Yeah,” Carly said with a smile. “She went to the bathroom. We’ve taken the time to talk about a few things.”

“Hi…”

And then anything Bryce or Carly said didn’t matter. She was there and she was staring at him. Not a bad stare, no, but it was an inquisitive stare. What was he doing there? What was she going to ask him? What…

“I saw the others leave,” she said. “You were still here, so you know.”

Carly laughed, but he didn’t care. Leah Nachman hadwaitedfor him. When she didn’t have to. “Yeah,” he said. “Finishing up a few things, having a quick chat.”

“You heading back to the city?”

He wanted to say yes, but he couldn’t. But then again he could give her something.

“Actually,” he said with a smile. “Can you bring me somewhere in Briarwood?”

There was a long pause, and he wondered if he’d said the right thing or made the right choice. But she smiled. “Why not.”

And as they said their goodbyes, he wondered how he’d managed this. Was it luck, friendship or something else?

Strings, threads, ties, things that tied them together. He’d follow them all the way to where they were going.

Chapter Fourteen

Leah found herselfin Briarwood for the second time that week; first, she’d dropped a grateful Samuel off at the mechanic’s to pick up his brother’s car, and now, she was at Shayna and Nathan’s to drop off some of the hockey equipment that she’d found for Ramona.

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