Page 18 of The Now in Forever
“What was that? I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Ha, ha.”
“I think you were saying something about being properly stimula?—”
I cut him off, not able to handle the rest of that sentence while holding his hand in mine. “Your heart line starts at your middle finger, so you are restless in relationships.”
Ed takes his hand back. A customer walks in, and he says, “Let us know if you need anything.”
My hand feels cold and weightless. He swipes the book and goes to put it back on the shelf. I wonder if the last thing I said hit a nerve.
CHAPTER 4
SUNDAY, JUNE 23RD
When we get back to the house, I hop into the shower. By the time I get out, there is an email at the top of my inbox from Ed with his manuscript attached. I pad downstairs and grab a cup of coffee and a banana. Then I head back up, tuck myself in the window seat with my baby blue writing journal, open the Word document, and dive in. Ed’s use of language is astounding, and this is just an early draft. It makes me a little jealous. But he’s right—the pacing is off if he wants people to keep turning pages. I add comments to the document, making sure to note things I like as well as things not quite working for me, and jot down some thoughts in my journal.
I’m not even sure how much time has passed when there is a knock on my door. “Come in.”
Robin walks in with a cup of coffee, a freshly washed face, and bright eyes. “You look hard at work for a Sunday.”
Closing my notebook, I shrug. “I guess.”
“We’re going to go to this glass-blowing place then stop for lunch on the way back at this cool bar on the top of a cliff called the Hideout. Do you want to come?”
I stand and stretch my muscles, feeling stiff from the run and then the complete inactivity that followed. “That sounds great.”
Robin claps. “Yay. Ed is coming too.” She sings the last word, andher meaning is clear. “You two went for a run together this morning, I hear.”
I nod but don’t say anything, just dig my sandals out of the closet.
“Both runners, both writers, both smoking-hot single people.” She waggles her eyebrows and has an absolutely devilish smile.
“Don’t.”
She raises both hands like a criminal surrendering. “Don’t what? I’m just saying a little romance wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen this summer.”
Nathan and Robin are nearly engaged, clearly headed that way, but no one has popped the question yet. Anh and Melissa are engaged. Melissa asked Anh in the most romantic Valentine’s Day proposal earlier this year, spelling it out in rose petals on the hardwood floor of their glamorous condo in LA, the kind that only two lawyers can afford. And I am the lonely friend. The divorced friend. The one they’re always trying to fix up with somebody—sometimes it feels like withanybody.
They don’t understand. It makes it harder to put yourself out there after being so thoroughly squashed. But I want a family someday. I want to check one thing off my list of life goals. I want to find love, like the one my grandparents shared.
But not with Ed.
I can work with him on our writing. I wouldn’t even mind running together again, but I will not let myself fall head over heels for him. Not this time.
“Please don’t try to fix me up. I just want to spend the summer finishing my book and looking for a new job. Okay?”
Robin’s smile falls. “I worry about you, honey. I know Chad broke your heart, but that was years ago.”
“It's only been three years. Either way, this isn’t about Chad.”
“Then why haven’t you had a boyfriend since then?”
“I haven’t met the right guy.”
Robin puts a hand on my arm. “Maybe Ed’s it? He could be the one.”
I turn toward the window so she can’t see the flush in my cheeks. “He’s not. Trust me, he’s not.”
