“I do, Grace, but Hank holds a public office, and Travis may be leaving again. And I’m all twitterpated from seeing him again after so long.”
“That’s right! Kate mentioned that she’d asked Travis how he knew you.”
“I figured she’d give them both a good grilling the first chance she got.”
“Can I point out the obvious?”
“What?”
“If Kate had the feeling that something was off with either of them, she would’ve objected to them spending more time with you. You should trust your instincts more.”
“My instincts where men are concerned have gotten me in trouble before. I’m not even sure I have any instincts.”
“How’s the writing coming?”
“Very well.”
“Hank and Travis didn’t fuss at you about your hours?”
Veronica smiled, recalling the look in their eyes as they’d detailed their wishes to her. “No, actually they were encouraging…downright inspiring.”
She followed Grace back into the kitchen and heard her snicker. “I know all about inspiration. Imagine writing erotic romance and having three men to work all of your pent-up…imagination and energy out on. Whooey, is it getting hot in here or is it just me?”
Blushing to her roots, Veronica imagined exactly that—working out all that saved-up erotic energy on two handsome men. “It must be the oven. Yeah, definitely the oven.”
Veronica saw Grace glance her way as she peeled an avocado and said, “That online chat this afternoon was brutal.”
It’d gone fast and furious as expected, and of course BookAddictedWhore had shown up, only the chat had been in a moderation-free chat room. Since Veronica was the guest, she couldn’t count on moderation when the questions had gone from personal to downright confrontational.
Veronica shrugged. “It’s par for the course, I guess.” She looked up in time to catch Grace shake her head negatively but she said nothing else. “I let them think I laugh it off. What can I do? If I fight back, they would just start a flame war, or portray me as an author behaving badly. BookAddictedWhore will eventually lose interest in me and take her minions along with her to find someone else to pick on.”
With a sigh, Grace said, “I hope so.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that new, unfamiliar user who showed up today?”
Grace bit her lip in a lame attempt to hide a smile. “There were so many. Which one do you mean?”
“Duct Tape Dom?”
Veronica very clearly heard a gigglesnort but Grace looked innocent. “Oh, I liked him! He was nice to you! I wish he’d come back on a regular basis.”
Smiling, Veronica nudged Grace and said, “I do, too. Who is he?”
Grace blushed and said, “I know not of whom you speak. He seems like a nice…Dom.”
“All right. Keep your secrets.”
“It looked like you had quite a few readers who were new to your books show up for that chat. I was glad that they kind of balanced BookAddictedWhore and those other troll’s nonsense.”
“It’s a good thing. I was beginning to feel like I bring out the worst in people.”
“Trust me, it’s not you, Veronica. It’s something wrong with them and they see an easy target in you.”
“Like I said, I’m sure BookAddictedWhore will eventually lose interest in me since I won’t engage with her when she does that. Until then, I just focus on the nice readers.”
“Yeah, when they can get a word in edgewise.”
Veronica shrugged nonchalantly and changed the subject. “That’s life online. I should finish writing sometime soon.”
“Good! Then you and I can get some shopping done. I’ve never had such a hard time getting another woman to go shopping with me.”
“I’m sorry, I just—”
Grace put up a hand. “Don’t apologize. I know exactly how it is when you’re writing. My guys know to clear the decks and get whatever needs done, done. I don’t know if I could do it without them.”
Veronica noted the dreamy quality in Grace’s expression and wondered what that was like. In her writing world, she sometimes went without eating, and regularly without sleeping, when she was in the zone. Hank and Travis hadn’t judged the fact that she’d told them she needed to work, not sleep, after they’d left Saturday night, which she’d appreciated. Brent had always snored his way through the night hours leaving her to work in peace with her headphones on.
She thought back to Hank and Travis’s one simple instruction to text them when she went to sleep and when she woke up. It was a simple thing, yet she’d somehow felt anchored by the request. They didn’t try to control when she worked, they only wanted to know when she was resting. And the texts had definitely kept them on her mind.