Page 59 of Guys Can't Write Romance
Something warm bloomed in Daisy’s chest. This was a side of Chad she’d never expected. Here was the guy who made fun of everything, who wrote about monsters chasing scantily-clad women, and he’d been secretly studying love stories with the same intensity he brought to sports statistics.
“You surprise me, McKenzie,” she said fondly.
“Is that a good thing?”
“It’s not a bad thing. You really are taking this seriously.”
“Well, yeah.” He dropped onto the couch, looking almost shy. “I figure I’ll be more help to both of us if I learn this stuff. But no telling anyone about my stash.”
“Your secret’s safe with me,” she said as she settled onto the couch next to him, close enough to catch the scent of his soap.
“Did you shower?” she said.
He lifted his arm and smelled his pit. “Yeah. Do I smell?”
“No.” Then she noticed something else. “And you washed your clothes.”
“How could you tell?”
“The pink’s fading.”
Chad laughed. “Don’t remind me.”
She smiled. “This cease-fire’s kind of nice, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “It beats sleeping on the roof.”
She laughed and held up her beer. “To cease-fires?”
He nodded and clinked his beer with hers. “To cease-fires.”
As she set her beer down and opened her notebook, she turned to him. “I have a question.”
“What?”
“In ‘Snow Globe of Second Chances’, what did you think about how she just happened to inherit the Christmas tree farm?”
“The one that’s mysteriously profitable despite only operating one month a year?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I thought,” she said, then they caught each other’s eyes and quickly looked away.
Chad cleared his throat. “So, uh, writing?”
“Right. Writing.” Daisy opened her notebook, still smiling. “But just so you know? We’re definitely discussing your feelings about the three-legged puppy later.”
“I had something in my eye!”
“Sure you did, McKenzie. Multiple somethings. For two hours.”
As they settled in to work, Daisy couldn’t help stealing glances at the cabinet. Maybe a little chaos wasn’t such a bad thing; especially when it came with a secret soft side and surprisingly good taste in romance movies.
She thought about telling Chloe about this discovery, but decided against it. Some things were better kept secret, like Chad’s hidden romantic streak and the way her heart had skipped when he’d smiled at her.
For the next several hours, they got a surprising amount of writing done, pausing every now and then to review each other’s pages or bounce around ideas.
“I should probably head home,” Daisy said finally, stretching as she checked her watch. “It’s getting late.”
“And here I was, just getting to the good part,” Chad said, looking momentarily disappointed before his easy smile returned.
