“I know you! You’re Teagan McAlister! I loved your Mulgong Valley trilogy!”

Teagan grinned at the young woman with the thick glasses. She was still a relatively unknown author, so when a comic con employee recognized her name, it brought a smile to her face. “I’m so glad! If you like stories about aliens, have you read the first book in my other series?”

“I haven’t. Is it on Amazon?”

Teagan dug through one of the boxes stacked on her dolly, pulling out a book and handing it to the bespectacled woman. “Here you go. Enjoy.”

Her eyes lit up. “Thank you! You’re so sweet.” She searched her list of names until she found Teagan’s. She highlighted it and handed her a program. “Willy sent you your badges already, right?”

Teagan nodded. “Got ‘em.”

She pointed. “Just follow the others to the showroom.”

Teagan lugged her heavy dolly across the convention hall to her table, still sweating from having to haul it three blocks in 100-degree heat. And she still had to go back for a second load. On the showroom floor, exhibitors pushed carts and carried boxes in all directions, scrambling to set up their displays of goods before the doors opened to throngs of people in less than an hour. Teagan found Author’s Row and dumped off her stuff. After retrieving the second load, she gulped her root beer, thankful for the AC, and began setting up her display banners and stacks of books.

The other author tables had books of all kinds, their covers showing everything from vampires to dragons to dark planets with looming spaceships. She introduced herself to the authors on either side of her as she rushed to get set up, knowing she wouldn’t be quite ready when the showroom opened. She preferred setting up earlier, giving her a chance to talk with other authors and look around before she got stuck behind a table all day. Her lingering to chat with Army Dude—Aaron—had cost her that time.

She giggled to herself. So serious, that guy. Was he always so reserved, or was he still nursing a few bruises from getting pummeled by divorce? Hell, he probably couldn’t stand the thought of women any more than she could stand the thought of men.

Yeah, he was hot. The way he looked at her sent currents through her, the good kind. She was off men, but she wasn’t blind. She had needs, for crying out loud, and she could almost imagine him quenching them. But then she shook her head. Nope. That was the last thing she needed.

He wouldn’t show anyway. He was probably too busy to brave the heat, the hour-long drive, and all the crowds. Only a true nerd would go to such efforts.

Which was kind of too bad. A guy like Aaron could inspire a character for a future book. Handsome, military, interesting job… he even had leading man potential. Of course, she’d have to switch him from Army to Navy. She wrote sci-fi, and sci-fi took place on starships. Starships were ships, and ships were Navy domain. At least that’s what she told herself to avoid learning a new set of ranks.

She giggled at Aaron’s reaction to her explaining how she knew naval ranks. The look on his face was priceless, as if the notion that she was a hardcore nerd—a nerd with pink hair—had fully cemented in his mind. At one time, admitting her love of Star Trek would have embarrassed her, especially around a hot guy. She cared about such things once, and look where it got her—hiding behind tacos while her ex traipsed by with Harry and his purple-flowered lady, and Hannah looked at her like everyone did. With pity. So, now, she no longer cared what men thought of her nerd-dom.

Shawn had never understood her nerdy side, either. Near the end, he’d made a couple of cutting remarks about it in front of his friends, including calling her a dork. “Dork” was still considered derogatory, and even one of his friends grimaced at the comment and glanced at her. She laughed it off. What could she do? Get angry? Then she’d be humorless bitch instead of dork. If she had it to do over, she’d toss a few choice names right back at him. Or just have Big Ben go rough him up a little.

Although, there were better ways to exact revenge. In her next book, she could cast her ex as some hapless warrior who gets charred by an energy beam. Or, even better, a hapless warrior who gets kidnapped and placed in some dark room, where a hot military intelligence officer with long eyelashes grills him with questions until he cracks…

She laughed aloud at that. That bastard Shawn should have remembered Rule Number One.

Never fuck with a writer.

During a lull on Saturday afternoon, Teagan wrapped her denim jacket around her shoulders, slightly chilled in the air-conditioned confines of the convention center. She hadn’t sold much Friday, filling her with dread that she’d made a mistake driving all the way to the Fires of Hell. The truth was, every con was different. At some she sold well, at others she took a loss. But she couldn’t afford a loss right now, and she hoped the Tucsonians proved to be the curious types who loved reading sci-fi. The trip would cost her several days of camping fees, two thousand miles worth of gas, and more miles on her aging truck… and it needed to yield more than sweat, dust, and a chance to see yet another cactus. Fortunately, Saturday had been better. There was still a chance she could break even.

Just after 7:00, Teagan left the convention center, the desert heat blasting her like someone had opened the door to a giant oven. Yet, as much as she appreciated the AC, it felt great to be outside in the fresh air. She preferred being outdoors as much as possible, no matter what the weather.

She picked up dinner and drove to her new campsite, a place that resembled an RV park more than a campground. The big campers and even bigger RVs dwarfed her truck, and there was no grass and barely any trees. Not really camping, in her opinion. Yet, the place was nice, with real bathrooms and a swimming pool and wifi.

She sat at her picnic table under a tree, whose tiny desert leaves offered little protection from the setting sun. The sound of people chatting across the way, along with the occasional buzz of a cicada, felt far more peaceful than the nonstop din of comic con. Thirsty, she went to open the twist cap to her cold root beer, struggling to loosen it and eventually dropping it on the ground. When she managed to pry it loose, it sprayed her with the sticky beverage. She sighed and ate her chicken tacos, surprised at how good they were, how juicy and perfectly spiced. Even the corn tortillas tasted better than any she’d had before.

Once it got dark and the stars began making an appearance, Teagan set up her telescope. Saturn would be viewable for another couple of hours. After re-sighting it, she located Saturn with her stargazing app. There it was… a yellow sphere surrounded by a thick yellow ring. Even with that simplistic view, not the gorgeous and detailed view that NASA could produce, it still amazed her that she could see a celestial object that was 750 million miles away, and with a device that cost her $350.

“Is that a telescope, Daddy?” said a girl’s voice.

Teagan looked over. A couple walked by in cutoff jeans, cigarettes hanging from their mouths. A girl of about seven lagged behind them.

“Yup, that’s a telescope,” her father replied.

“You want to come look?” Teagan said to her. “You can see Saturn!”

The girl hesitated until her father spoke up. “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Look right in here.” She pointed at the eyepiece and the girl peered into it. “You see that yellow ball with the ring around it?”

“That’s Saturn?”

“It sure is.”

The girl turned to her mother. “Mom, it’s Saturn!” She peered into the viewer again, then begged her father to look. He tossed his cigarette down before coming over to look.

“I don’t see anything.”

“It moves out of view quickly, due to the Earth’s rotation,” Teagan said, readjusting it. She motioned to it again, and both parents peeked, looking semi-impressed. She also let them view Saturn with her better lens, where Saturn was clearer now and they could see color variations on the planet as well as in the rings.

“Thank you,” the mother said. “What do you say, Carly?”

“Thank you!” Carly said.

“My pleasure!” Teagan replied, waving goodbye.

Teagan watched as the family walked away. How normal they seemed. Being a family, camping together, even if just an overnight while en route to some other destination. That’s what she wanted. Someone to camp with, to travel with, to enjoy the outdoors with. It’s what she’d always wanted. Somehow, it hadn’t worked out that way. Here she was at thirty-four, camping alone and traveling to comic con alone.

Maybe that was her fate. Maybe she wasn’t meant to have what others had. Maybe her calling was to be that loner writer up in the mountains, with her romantic horror novels and her many cats.

Teagan laughed a little. It was a real fear of hers, but at least it was a funny one. She put away her telescope and got ready for bed.

Sunday morning, the first hour or two started out quiet like Sundays often did. But come noon, the convention center filled up again and the time passed quickly. When Teagan took out her lunch and her bottle of root beer, she considered when to begin her long drive back to Denver. Get a head start tonight and leave an easier drive for tomorrow? Or relax, watch a movie, and be well-rested for the thirteen-hour drive? Either way, she’d be glad to leave this scorching desert and return to Colorado and all its summertime promise of camping and hiking.

During a lull, she talked with her neighbor, Lucia, a fantasy author whose books had giant swords on their covers. “Good day?”

Lucia nodded. “Very. You?”

“Not bad. Some quick math tells me I might break even.”

Just as she picked up her sandwich, two men stopped at her table and asked about her books. She gave them the quick spiel on her two different series, handing each a book to peruse while she took a few bites of her lunch. As one of them asked her a question, someone else approached. That’s how it worked—long periods of nothing at all, followed by everyone wanting to talk to her at once. When she glanced over to greet her latest visitor, a jolt of excitement ran through her. It was Aaron.

“Oh… hey!” she stammered. “You came.” He wore a plain gray t-shirt with his shorts, his muscular arms and chest filling out his shirt nicely. His sunglasses rested on his hat.

“It took me a while to find you. This place is packed.” He glanced around the crowded showroom, awe in his expression. “I had no idea.”

“You should’ve seen it yesterday.”

“More crowded than this?”

She nodded, realizing the two men had left. Her mouth suddenly dry, maybe from her sandwich, she picked up her root beer and began wrestling with the cap. Aaron held a clear plastic bag, inside of which was the back of a poster. “Did you find some art?”

Without a word, Aaron took the root beer from her hands, removed the cap with one easy twist, and handed it back before turning his poster around. It was an artist’s rendition of an all-American, blue-and-red uniformed man holding a round shield.

She grinned. “You like Captain America!” She took a swig of root beer.

“He was my favorite, growing up. Are you supposed to frame these things or just hang them as is?”

“They look better framed. Yours is a standard size, so a finding a frame should be easy.”

Two more women approached and picked up her books. She greeted them and offered to answer any questions.

Aaron glanced at her new potential customers. “I’m going to look around more. I’ll stop by again before I leave.”

“Perfect. Have fun.”

The rest of the afternoon flew by. During that time, she sold enough books to pay for her trip, which filled her with relief. But when someone announced over the PA system that the showroom had closed, Teagan glanced around. No sign of Captain America. He’d probably had all the comic con he could take, and left. She took a deep breath, disappointment coming over her.

It was ridiculous to be disappointed. She barely knew this guy. It’s not like he came to see her.

“I guess I’ll find myself a new leading man for my next book,” she muttered.

“What was that?”

Teagan looked over to find Lucia staring at her. “Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself. Again.”

Lucia laughed.

Teagan took a quick inventory of her remaining books before running to the restroom. She could probably get it all in one trip, albeit a really heavy one. She dreaded those three long blocks to her truck in the scorching afternoon heat. Yet, she wasn’t tired, so she decided to pick up a quick dinner and hit the road. Driving in the evening meant cooler temperatures, and she’d be heading east, away from the glare of the setting sun. But when she headed back to her table, someone was waiting for her.

Aaron.