Page 2 of Just Curious

Jackson burst out laughing. “You ought to have seen the dump I left in Silicon Valley that I shared with three roommates. You’d never have suggested I cared a thing about my surroundings. I have a friend to thank for this. I assigned a budget, and this wonderful scheme is what Casey came up with.” He looked at Willa who was still shivering. “So, what can I get you to warm up? I can make Irish coffee, hot buttered rum, tea laced with anything you’d like or just a regular hot drink with no booze if you prefer. You definitely need to warm up.”

“I’ve never had a hot buttered rum, but that sounds amazing. Thank you.”

“Perfect. I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.” He took off toward the kitchen, and she wandered through the open living area to study the paintings on the walls. He must have given his friend one heck of a budget judging by the quality of the artwork. Her favorite was a magnificent seascape on the wall across from the picture window that faced the ocean. It made her feel as if she were surrounded by water. The rest were less representational, but all were exquisite. Staring at the paintings, Willa also wondered what kind of a friend this was he trusted with his home comforts. Did he have a girlfriend? It sounded like a possibility.

Willa heard the beep of a microwave, and a minute later Jackson was back with two steaming, fragrant mugs. He led her to the couch and set down the drinks with a couple of napkins. “Let’s have a seat. I turned up the heat a little bit too. It’s chilly tonight.”

After getting situated on his splendid couch, she gratefully picked up the warm mug and sniffed. The aroma and steam were comforting, so she took a tentative sip.

“Careful. It’s still pretty hot,” he warned.

She smiled at him over the lip of the mug.

“So, what were you working on?” Jackson asked. When Willa looked at him with a question in her eyes, he clarified: “You said you were working like a dog?”

“Oh, I guess you already know from your realtor that I’m a writer,” Willa replied. “I was on a deadline for one book and then had to rush out of town for a multi-city book tour for another one. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be an unfriendly neighbor, but I guess I sort of missed the part where you moved in. I just got back two days ago, and I’ve mostly just been trying to catch up on sleep.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” Jackson replied with a slow smile. “Though I’m glad we’re meeting now.”

Willa’s heart thumped in her chest, but she wasn’t sure how to respond. She really wanted to know about that girlfriend now.

“So, I don’t mean to be a nosy neighbor, but obviously something set you off tonight. I’m all ears if you need to get it off your chest.”

The delicious hot toddy filled Willa’s senses with warmth. She was still wrapped in Jackson’s big jacket that smelled of sea air and leather. She could feel her anger dissipating as she sipped her drink, enjoying its creamy texture and the lightly sweetened cinnamon and rum flavors. She knew the drink had clove in it, but there were other spices that melded together so well, she couldn’t differentiate them. Finally, she gave a big sigh and said, “You’ll probably think I’m the dumbest person on earth.”

Jackson sat at a comfortable distance from Willa. He wasn’t crowding her, but he also made her feel like he was connected to her somehow. His face was open and honest, patiently waiting for whatever she wanted to share. He was calming in the best possible way. Everything about this handsome stranger made her relax.

Willa turned away for a moment and stared at nothing and then said, “I was watching the Academy Awards a little while ago and made a terrible discovery.”

“What did you see?” he asked with his dark brows furrowed.

“Let me backtrack a bit so it makes sense,” she began. “I was just finishing my senior year at Stanford when I saw a flyer about a writers’ meeting at the public library. I was anxious to meet other writers who were hopefully not fellow students, so I went to it. The so-called meeting was run by a woman who said her name was Deborah Abrams. She told us she was a literary agent looking for talent to represent. You can imagine how that got the attention of everyone in the room.”

“Absolutely,” Jackson interjected with a smile. He saw that Willa was looking sort of emotional and added, “Just a sec. I’ll be right back.” In no time he’d placed a box of tissues on the coffee table in front of them.

“Thanks,” she said softly, reaching for a tissue. After drying her eyes and dabbing at her nose, she continued. “She’d ordered everyone to bring a two-to-three-minute sample of their writing and asked each of us to stand and read to the group. She was horrible to some of the writers and told them to leave before they’d even finished.”

“Wow. A real charmer. So, then what?”

“I was so nervous.” She looked right into Jackson’s eyes and the depth of her frustration was obvious. “Deborah narrowed it down to three of us finally. She said she liked our styles. But then she kicked out the other two when she discovered they didn’t have full novels.”

“And I take it you did?” Jackson took a healthy swallow of his hot drink.

“I’d been working on mine throughout college. It wasn’t anything I’d done for a class—it was just a labor of love. I had about ninety-five thousand words, but it was still rough and not edited at all.” Willa let out a long sigh. “I practiced and practiced the passage I’d selected before showing up and reading it to her, and she seemed to really like it.”

“Well, so far so good. What happened then?” His blue eyes bore into hers.

Willa blushed under his scrutiny. “She asked me for the full manuscript so she could supposedly shop around for a publisher for me. She was interested—she said—in representing me and she was impressed with the quality of my writing—especially from someone so young. I offered to email the entire document to her, but she preferred that I give her a thumb drive. We made arrangements to meet the next morning at Starbucks so I could turn it over to her.”

Willa set down her drink and put her face in her hands. “I was so freaking stupid.” She looked up at Jackson with a tortured expression. “All I had from her was her business card, and she had mynovelthat I’d spent years working on. I didn’t even think about how to protect my work, or how I would prove it was mine, you know?”

“You were young,” Jackson said gently. “And it sounds like you were trying to make a connection.”

“Well, it was a big mistake,” Willa said bitterly. “As soon as she got hold of the drive, she took off. And because it was on a thumb drive, I have no proof that I gave her anything.”

“Uh oh.” Jackson looked at her with an understanding expression.

“Yeah. Uh oh. It was the end of the school year, and I had projects due and finals to take—which, in retrospect, she was undoubtedly counting on. Then I had graduation, and my parents were driving up for that. I was so busy, it didn’t even dawn on me for a while that Deborah hadn’t contacted me. So finally, I called her and had to leave a voicemail. After that, I got a brief text from her that said something like, ‘Looking for a pub.’”

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