The Shifter Romances The Writer

Roxy locked the door after Undrea left, then went to sit and watch her fish. It was just as peaceful as she remembered, and she smiled wistfully as she thought about her dad. He would have loved this tank.

Minutes slid by with the memories. At last, she got up and went back to work, this time to finally make some progress on her book.

She was just getting into the zone when her cell phone rang. Naturally. She didn’t recognize the number, but the area code was local. “Hello?”

“Ms. St. James?”

“Speaking.”

“Hi,” a very enthusiastic voice said. “I’m Agnes Miller. I own the bookstore in town, Bell, Book & Candle, and I am so excited that the Roxy St. James is now a resident of our little town. I hope you don’t mind that I bribed Birdie Caruthers into giving me your phone number, but I just had to talk to you and see what it would take to get you to do a book signing.”

Roxy was dumbstruck for a moment, then she went into author mode. Business was, after all, business, and booksellers were some of her favorite people. For now, she would overlook what Birdie had done, but made a note to say something to Alex about that not happening again. “I hope you mean Bell, Book & Candle as in the Jimmy Stewart movie.”

“The movie! Oh my gosh, I love you even more for knowing that. Please say you’d be willing to do a book signing here.”

Roxy took a breath. The woman’s enthusiasm was overwhelming, but very sweet. And impossible to say no to. “Of course I would. Did you have a date in mind? I’m still in the process of moving in, so my life is a little hectic at the moment.”

The woman let out a small, happy shriek. “That is so wonderful, thank you! I have a huge database of your fans that I can access. I can promise at least a hundred pre-solds, if not more.”

A hundred pre-solds? Roxy blinked in awe. “Wow. I had no idea.”

“Oh, yes. As soon as you put a new book out, I email my customer list and they reserve one. You know a lot of bookstores don’t carry your books.”

Roxy sighed. “It’s the curse of being indie published. But there’s not much I can do about it. Interesting about your list. I’ve seen big bumps in my print sales after a release. I had no idea that was you.” She pretty much had to do the signing now.

“Yep, that’s me. I’ll get to work on this immediately. As for a date, it’ll take me about five days to get the books in, which corresponds nicely with the weekend of the Panic Parade, which is next weekend. The town gets flooded with tourists for that event, so we might as well take advantage of that and really crank up the walk-in sales.”

“Okay, sounds good.” She vaguely remember Delaney telling her about the parade. “Why don’t you email me the details?”

“Absolutely.” Agnes hesitated. “Is there any way you could come by today and sign the stock I have on hand?” She laughed nervously. “And so I could meet you in person?”

Roxy bit her lip. That meant another chunk of time she wouldn’t be writing. But this was part of the job. And necessary. “Sure, I’d love to. Two o’clock okay?”

“Perfect. Thank you so much. See you then!” Agnes hung up.

Roxy put the phone down and leaned back in her chair, then remembered the fish tank. She swung around and watched the wrasses darting in and out of the coral. Part of being an author was meeting fans and doing events.

But in a perfect world, Roxy would probably never leave the house. Oh, she could rock an appearance. On the outside. On the inside, she was a nervous mess who couldn’t wait to be home again, writing her books and living in the bubble of her own making.

She smiled as the wrasses did their thing, oblivious to their human observer. She was definitely more of an introvert than an extrovert, but then, so were most of the other writers she knew. At least today would just be meeting Agnes and signing stock. She’d have time to prepare for the big signing.

She checked the time. Maybe she could get her pages done before she left. She nodded. Sometimes deadlines were a good thing.

And meeting with Agnes would definitely be a good thing. Roxy loved her fans. They were the reason she worked as hard as she did. The reason she’d made enough money to leave Thomas and move here.

In fact, the more she thought about it, she decided a little trip to Delaney’s for a gift of chocolate for Agnes would be just the thing.

A little gift of chocolate for herself wouldn’t hurt either. Because if she couldn’t have Alex, she at least deserved chocolate. Not at all the same thing, but infinitely safer. Although, having Alex and chocolate, now that would be something.

And just like that, her mind went to a very different place than the book she was supposed to be working on.

Alex poured the last of the pancake batter onto the griddle as Diego walked into the kitchen. They’d both slept late. Alex because he’d stayed up all night reading Roxy’s book and Diego because he’d worked the evening shift at Howler’s. “Morning. Such as it is.”

Diego scratched his head and yawned, looking about as awake as a bear fresh from hibernation. “Mm-hmm. Coffee,” he mumbled.

“In the pot. How was your first night on the job?” Alex checked the pancake for bubbles around the edges. Nothing yet.

“Decent.” Diego shuffled to the coffee maker, grabbed a cup from the cabinet above and filled it. He added a couple heaping spoonfuls of sugar before going to the fridge for creamer. He splashed some in, then drank half the coffee in one long gulp. That seemed to fortify him enough to string words together. “Money was on point.”