“That’s the other thing,” she says. “With Once, there was all this time. I had your notes before we sold the book, and—this is all happening so fast, and I knew with Sharon, we could make it work, but—I feel sort of panicked.”
“If you want my notes, I’ll get you notes,” I promise. “We can fold them into Charlie’s, so you’ll have two sets of eyes on it. Whatever you need, Dusty, I’ve got you, okay?”
She lets out a breath. “Can I think about it? Just for a day or two?”
“Of course,” I say. “Take your time.”
If Charlie Lastra has to sweat, I won’t complain.
* * *
Four of my clients have decided to have simultaneous meltdowns, about everything from overzealous line edits to lackluster marketing plans. Two more clients have sent me surprise manuscripts, mere weeks after I read their last books.
I do my best to honor my promise to Libby—to be fully present with her after five every day—but that just means I hardly come up for air during the workday.
As different as we are, my sister and I are both creatures of habit, and we fall into a rhythm almost immediately.
She wakes first, showers, then reads on the deck with a steaming cup of decaf. I get up and run until I can barely breathe, take a scorching shower, and meet her at the breakfast table as she’s dishing up hash browns or ricotta pancakes or veggie-stuffed quiche.
The next fifteen minutes are devoted to a detailed description of Libby’s dreams (famously grisly, disturbing, erotic, or all three). Afterward, we FaceTime with Bea and Tala at Brendan’s mom’s house, during which Bea recounts her dreams while Tala runs around, almost knocking things over and shrieking, Look, Nono! I’m a dinosaur!
From there, I head to Goode Books, leaving Libby to call Brendan and do whatever else she wants during her treasured alone time.
Charlie and I exchange sharp-edged pleasantries and I pay him for a cup of coffee and then settle into my spot in the café, where I refuse to give him the satisfaction of glancing his way no matter how often I feel his eyes on me.
By the third morning, he has my coffee waiting by the register. “What a surprise,” he says. “Here at eight fifty-two, same as yesterday and the day before.”
I grab the coffee and ignore the dig. “Dusty’s giving me her answer tonight, by the way,” I say. “A free coffee isn’t going to change anything.”
He drops his voice, leans across the counter. “Because you’re holding out hope for a giant check?”
“No,” I say. “It can be a normal-sized check, just needs a lot of zeroes.”
“When I want something, Nora,” he says, “I don’t give up easily.”
Externally, I’m unaffected. Internally, my heart lurches against my collarbone from his closeness or his voice or maybe what he just said. My phone buzzes with an email, and I take it out, grateful for the distraction. Until I see the message from Dusty: I’m in.
I resist an urge to clear my throat and instead meet his eyes coolly. “Looks like you can forget the check. You’ll have pages by the end of the week.”
Charlie’s eyes flash with a borderline vicious excitement.
“Don’t look so victorious,” I say. “She’s asked me to be involved every step of the way. Your edits go through me.”
“Is that supposed to scare me?”
“It should. I’m scary.”
He pitches forward over the desk, biceps tightening, mouth in a sultry pout. “Not with those bangs. You’re extremely approachable.”
* * *
Most days I don’t see Libby until after work. Sometimes I even get back to the cottage before her, and she guards her alone time so jealously that every time I ask her how she spent those nine hours, she gives me an increasingly ridiculous answer (hard drugs; torrid affair with a door-to-door vacuum salesman; started the paperwork to join a cult). On Friday, though, she joins me around lunchtime with veggie sandwiches from Mug + Shot that are about eighty percent kale. With a full mouth, she says, “This sandwich tastes exceptionally unplugged.”
“I just got a bite of pure dirt,” I say.
“Lucky,” Libby says. “I’m still only getting kale.”
After we eat, I return to work and Libby turns her focus to a Mhairi McFarlane novel, gasping and laughing so regularly and loudly that, finally, Charlie’s gruff voice calls from the other room, “Could you keep that down? Every time you gasp like that, you almost give me a heart attack.”
“Well, your café chairs are giving me hemorrhoids, so I’d say we’re even,” Libby replies.
A minute later, Charlie appears and thrusts two velvet throw pillows at us. “Your majesties,” he says, scowl/pouting before returning to his post.
Libby’s eyes light up and she leans over to stage-whisper to me. “Did he just bring us butt pillows?”
“I believe he did,” I agree.
“Count von Lastra has a beating heart,” she says.
“I can hear you,” he calls.
“The undead have famously heightened senses,” I tell Libby.
Throughout the week, the rings around Libby’s eyes have faded, her color returning and cheeks plumping so quickly that it feels like those strained months were a dream.
In direct contrast, every day darkens the circles around Charlie’s eyes. I’d guess he’s having trouble sleeping too—I have yet to fall asleep in our dead-silent, pitch-black cottage before three a.m., and most nights I startle awake, heart racing and skin cold, at least once.
At precisely five, I close my laptop, Libby puts her book away, and we head out.
My concerns about Sunshine Falls disappointing her have largely come to naught. Libby’s more or less content to wander, popping into musty antique stores or pausing to watch an impressively brutal seniors’ kickboxing class in the town square.
Every so often we pass a placard proclaiming to be the site of a pivotal scene from Once. Never mind that three separate buildings claim to be the site of the apothecary, including an empty space whose windows are plastered with posters reading, RENT THE APOTHECARY FROM HIT NOVEL ONCE IN A LIFETIME! PRIMO LOCATION!
“I haven’t heard anyone say primo since the eighties,” Libby says.
“You weren’t alive in the eighties,” I point out.
“Precisely.”
Back at the cottage, she cooks a big dinner: sweet summer corn and creamy potato salad with crisp chives, a salad topped with shaved watermelon and toasted sesame, and grilled tempeh burgers on brioche buns, with thick slices of tomato and red onion, all smothered with avocado.