Page 27 of Twenty Years Later

That word sweetheart coming from those tasty lips. Oy. Swallowing hard, I fought the urge to pounce on him. "So I'm sure you just loved the angsty teen romance aspect."

He leaned forward. "I live for that."

I threw the teddy bear back at him as we laughed together.

"So how did you get into writing anyway?" he asked.

"Well, I have you to thank in some ways." Oh, no. Why did I just admit that?

His eyes narrowed in confusion. "How so?"

"I, um..." I took another sip of wine as he moved closer.

"Okay. Now youhaveto tell me."

My heart pounding, I gulped more wine, looking down at the pile of stuffed animals between us. "Well, I, um, I used to have epic daydreams about you that were kind of like novellas."

He was silent, and I dared to look up, my cheeks flushed.

A grin lit up his face. "So glad I could help."

I launched a stuffed unicorn at him that he easily caught. "You can't take all the credit, though."

He lightly tossed the unicorn back at me. "Fair enough. I'll just bepartof your origins story."

That elicited a much-deserved eye roll from me. "Right. Okay. Moving on. So I started creating stories in my head sometime in high school, and then I majored in English Lit in college which is kind of useless in real life. But anyway, Blake went on to law school, and I was able to get an MFA in creative writing."

His eyes widened. "Wow, that's really impressive."

"Not really. But I loved it. And that's where it started."

"Wait." He frowned. "I thought it started with me."

This time it was a poor stuffed lion that I chucked through the air at him. "You're incorrigible."

"Ooh, the bestselling author throwing out the big words at me."

My cheeks were starting to hurt from all the laughing. "Don't even get me started, Doctor Hernandez."

"I should know better than to mess with the woman who created the kick-ass heroine of Chassidy Rising," he teased, that light shining in his eyes.

I shook my head at him. "That's for sure. I know some moves."

"I bet you do." His suggestive tone wasn't lost on me. "So how did you come up with the idea anyway?"

"It wasn't easy actually," I admitted. "I had to work at what kind of story I wanted to tell. But I've always liked the genre and just really wanted it to be about female empowerment for young girls, first and foremost, and everything else is secondary."

"I totally get that," he said, nodding.

"And fortunately, Blake was able to support us while I struggled with trying to write the first book."

His eyes softened. "That's really great that you had that."

"It was." I didn't know if it was weird to talk about my late husband with this man I had just slept with last night. But it kind of slipped out anyway. "And he always encouraged me, even though I so often felt like it was such a waste of time and why was I even bothering to write it. But he patiently read through it all and gave me a million pep talks."

Alex watched me for a long moment. "You really miss him, don't you?"

I nodded, my eyes watering at the tenderness in his voice. "He was my best friend."

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