Page 77 of First Love, Second Draft

“Dad.”

“I’m kidding. You know I love her. And I love you too. Now get back to work. We’ll talk more later. Say good night, Gracie.”

“Good night, Gracie.” Gracie set her phone back on her desk. So much for focusing on the memoir. All she could think about now was her dad. And Betty. Trapped inside four walls. Gathering dust.

She really did need to go see him. But he was right. She couldn’t today. Not when she desperately needed to make progress on this memoir. She shot Noah a look. “Ready to focus?”

“I’m here. I’m ready. Let’s focus.”

“I mean it.”

“Me too, babe.”

Babe.It was starting to sound so natural, she almost didn’t catch it anymore. Her inner ice queen was slipping. “You know, sometimes I wish I was working with that silly horse from my rom-com novel instead of you,” she muttered.

“Ah, c’mon. I don’t bite. Plus I’m way cuter.”

Yeah, that was the problem. The more time she spent with him, the cuter he got. Even when his nose was covered in brownie batter.

She slammed her eyes shut.Come on, ice queen, get back on your throne. Your ex-husband isn’t cute.

Besides, they’d just been goofing around. Reminiscing a little. That’s all. He hadn’t been about to kiss her.

Okay, maybe he had. But she wouldn’t have liked it.

Okay, maybe she would have. But only because she was a big fan of brownie batter. Not Noah’s lips.

A loud slurping sound caught her attention. She opened her eyes to find Noah watching her from over the rim of his mug as he drank. “Is this part of the focusing process? Because I’m going to need a refill if we focus much longer.”

“We’re done focusing.” Gracie grabbed her pen and tugged her notebook in front of her. “I mean, we’renotdone focusing. We are focusing, just not on the things we shouldn’t be focusing on.”

“Pretty sure I lost focus halfway through whatever you just said.”

“Focus!”

“Got it.” He smiled at her, then took another sip.

Good grief, even her inner ice queen couldn’t deny his smileshad gotten cuter. Gracie shook the thought away and stared down at her notebook. “So here’s what I’m thinking for the outline. The first chapter will be short. Touch upon the big game since that’s the only reason readers are going to buy this book. Sort of a teaser. Then we’ll jump back to your childhood in chapter two and—”

“My childhood?” Noah jumped out of his chair.

Gracie bit back a sigh. She really should’ve used duct tape. Less than a minute and he was trying to escape again. “Yes, Noah. Your childhood. Where else would we start a memoir about your life?”

“Not there. Nobody cares about my childhood. I don’t even care about my childhood. Let’s just focus on the one game.”

Gracie yanked a pencil out of the blue plastic cup covered in stickers that she used as a pen holder, a gift from Matt when he’d been around four, and banged the pencil against the edge of her desk like a heavy metal drummer. “You want the entire book to be about that one game?”

“Isn’t that the point of a memoir? To focus on one thing? I didn’t think this was going to be my entire autobiography. Besides, you said yourself that one game is the only reason readers are going to buy this book.”

“Buy it, sure. But like it? They’re going to want more.”

“Start in college then. When I quit and joined the minors. I’ve got some great stories from those days. Or we could go back to high school and talk about how we met.”

“We’re not talking about how we met. Our marriage isn’t part of this story.”

“Our marriage is a huge part of this story.”

“But it’s none of the readers’ business.”

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