Page 2 of A Shifter Disaster Thanksgiving

His eyes widened slowly. “No kidding?TheDiane Garrick?”

Diane felt her face flush with embarrassment. Her face wasn’t well-known to the public but her name was. Lots of people knew who Diane Garrick was, especially after her books won several awards.

She’d begun writing romance novels shortly after Walter’s passing. At the time, it had been a way to fill the void he’d left behind, not to mention that the genre fit her lifestyle perfectly. She was forty-five, lived alone with her cats and had coffee stains on the plywood desk she’d managed to cram into the corner of her living room.

However, writing had turned out to be one of her greatest accomplishments. She and Walter had never had children, so when he passed away, she was completely alone.

But that’s how things went, didn’t they? Life wasn’t a journey like those corny motivational speakers claimed. It was more like a walk down the street… if the street was rigged with landmines and ravines. Life came at you pretty fast. But over the years, she’d learned to deal with the pain, to accept it. Opening that laptop and pouring out her ideas, letting her fingers work their magic on the keyboard was the best decision she’d ever made.

Diane Garrick, adventure-seeker, sexy blonde damsel. Dreamer.

She did that sometimes, pretending she was a character in a novel. It was one of the ways she’d dealt with the loneliness. Ifshe could live an imaginary life, then maybe she wouldn’t have to worry so much about things that were real.

“You’ve read my books?” she asked. She’d recently publishedA Flame of Two Hearts, her fifth standalone novel, and while the reviews had been great so far, she couldn’t help but feel a bit self-conscious in the presence of one of her readers.

To her surprise and disappointment—and a hint of relief—Tom shook his head. “My wife—I mean, my sister does. She loves your books. All of them.”

She glanced down and caught sight of a gold band just before he moved his hand out of sight.

“I see,” she told him. “Well, I’m currently working on my next book. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

“So you’re heading to Chicago for…?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “I’ve got a book signing event tonight forA Flame of Two Hearts.I’m guessing you’re heading to Chicago to see your wife and kids for Thanksgiving?”

Tom’s lips parted slightly, but no sound came out.

There. She had him.

Diane couldn’t resist smirking. The guy wasn’t her type anyway. Far from it. If he were a character in one of her novels, he’d be the boring, insecure ex, definitely not a love interest.

She liked her men the way she wrote her male leads—strong, wild, maybe a bit possessive. He had to have confidence along with looks.

Walter had embodied all those traits. It was what had made their marriage so strong along with him being sweet and caring. He’d never passed up an opportunity for an adventure, no matter how insane it sounded.

After he died, she’d modeled all her male leads after him. Horatio inThe Sirenwas a fearsome pirate who fell in love with a woman who’d been lost at sea. Benjamin inA Flame of Two Heartswas a daring firefighter who pulled a doctor out ofa burning hospital and vowed to catch the arsonist. Her next book… well, she hadn’t quite figured that out yet.

Looking at Tom now, she felt nothing. He seemed like the type who’d hang around bars after work and try to pick up some bored woman and take her to a hotel down the street.

She looked out the window again, and her insides quivered just as another shudder filled the plane.

It’s just more turbulence,she reminded herself, placing a hand over her racing heart. They should be touching down in Chicago in the next hour or so.

Diane Garrick gazed out the plane window at the expanse of sky that held her in its grip, threatening to drop her to her death. Panic gripped her heart like an icy hand, tightening with every second that ticked by.

She smiled weakly as her heart rate began to slow.

Not a badidea, she thought and sighed.

Once the plane touched down, she’d get a hotel room and prepare for her book signing. And oncethatwas over, she’d try to get back in time for Thanksgiving. At least, that was what she’d told her agent. All she really wanted was to get back home so she could take her cats back from the sitter.

If I wasn’t single, I wouldn’t need a sitter, she thought.

She brushed that thought away although she couldn’t pretend it didn’t have some truth to it. She needed some romance in her life again. Somethingreal, not what men like Tom had to offer. If she could pretend she was a character in one of her novels, why couldn’t she find someone to play the male lead? It was not as if she hadn’t tried. It was that the prospects were definitely not what she wanted. They were boring, to say the least. And boredom was the last thing Diane needed.

“You know,” Tom said just then, “maybe after we touch down, we can—”

He never completed his statement because at that moment, the plane shuddered violently and she immediately tightened her grip on the armrest, her heart pumping like a piston in overdrive.

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