Page 57 of Hidden Shadows
But then, she couldn’t keep going either. Yesterday had been a wake-up call, and honestly, she needed some time to herself. The chance to keep her life private so this kind of thing couldn’t repeat itself.
With a long inhale, she clicked send, her heart thumping against her ribs when it disappeared off the screen.
“Hey, you okay?”
She turned to look at Nixon, her gaze colliding with his beautiful eyes. “I just canceled my next job. And even though it feels like the right thing to have done, it also feels…heavy. Like I’m losing something.”
He brushed some hair behind her ear. “Of course it does. You’ve spent years building up your platform, and taking a step back is hard.”
Her breath caught at his unexpected words. This entire time, she’d thought he didn’t understand what her work meant to her.
“I have,” she said quietly. “A lot of people don’t understand what I do, and some even think it’s not a real job, but it’s been hard to get where I am. It’s a saturated industry with a lot of people vying for the same events. And the thing about this work is you can lose momentum and be forgotten quickly, then never get back to where you were.”
He ran a thumb down her arm. “The work you’ve put into your job is evident, Finley.”
“Thank you for seeing that. As much as I want to keep doing it, though, I need a break, and I need the people around me to be safe. I don’t know what I’ll do in the meantime, but for a while at least, I need to not be in the spotlight.”
“Is there anything else you want to do?”
She nibbled her bottom lip. “There has been something that’s been on my mind for a while.”
“What?”
“When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher, but I didn’t think I’d like being confined to a classroom all day.” She studied his expression. “I was thinking…maybe I could help others buildtheirplatforms. Like one-on-one sessions. Or I could even design a course.”
One side of Nixon’s mouth lifted. “I think that’s a great idea.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You can do it from anywhere, no classroom required. And I think you’d be in high demand.”
Something bubbled inside her. Little crumbs of excitement at the new path she could embark on.
“And if anyone can make a success out of a career change, it’s you.” He leaned over and kissed her.
She couldn’t stop the beam of a smile. “Thank you.”
One more kiss and he leaned back. “Let me know when you’re done, and we’ll grab something to eat.”
“Room service?” She’d basically tried everything on the menu now, and she loved it all.
“Actually, I booked somewhere for dinner.”
She frowned, confused. She’d thought he wanted to remain in the room until they left. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He lifted a shoulder. “It’s Christmas Eve. We’re leaving tomorrow. I wanted to do something nice.”
God, this man was just full of surprises.
“That sounds wonderful,” she said quietly. “I just need to post my final fair content, then we can go.”
“Sounds good.”
She was still smiling when she looked back at her screen. She’d already edited her footage. It was supposed to have been of her tobogganing. Obviously, there was no way she could post that. So instead, her last content creation for the fair was a mash-up of everything they had to offer. The food and drink, the snowman building and ice-skating. The horse and sleigh rides and general footage of the tobogganing.
The fair would be open for the rest of December, but since she wouldn’t be here, this was her last push to get people to attend.
Her smile slipped as she watched the footage. Just about every part of the fair had been tainted by this stalker of hers. She hated him. Hated that she’d been so excited about this job and trip, and a single person had set out to target her and ruin that.
