Free Three Hot Wishes (Fantasy Come to Life - Magic in the Real World Novel) by Elodie Chase Page A

wind swept in, the snow swirled, and even as it melted he was already gone.

 

 
 
    Chapter 16

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    I sat there on the edge of the bed for a while. Part of me wanted me to go to the laptop and start the story of Keller and Lacey. I'd spoken of Northern Lights, and I liked that as a name. I wanted to build their world, to push through to the part where she found him and he found her, if only to fulfill my promise to Keller.

 
    "Not yet," I said out loud. There was no way I was going to forget the world I'd built in my mind for them, and first I needed to speak to someone.

 
    But who? Did I have anyone in my life who would understand any of this?

 
    Grace, perhaps. She'd been writing for twice as long as I'd been alive, if I believed her stories. If any of my author friends had gone through something similar, it would be her.

 
    It wasn't a bad idea, I supposed, but it wasn't a great one either. Odds were that she'd be as clueless as anyone, and once I explained enough to really ask her if she'd had characters leap out of works in progress and come storming into her house, I'd be in too deep to play it off as a joke. Worse, she'd think that the drinking she was always half-teasing half-scolding me for had finally pickled my brain.

 
    And there was every chance she was right.

 
    David? Maybe. I did want to thank him for helping me out with the whole Logan Mercado situation earlier, even if I couldn't do it in so many words. I was worried that he'd only think I was calling about my advance though, and knowing me I'd make a mess of the conversation anyway. If there was a person on the planet that could turn a thank you into a perceived demand for more money or a nullified contract, there was no doubt it was me.

 
    I sighed. The life of a hermit author had never really bothered me before, primarily because whenever I felt cooped up I simply hopped into the car and piled on the credit card debt at the mall until the feeling passed. It was only now, when I was truly looking for someone to confide in that I saw how devoid of meaningful relationships I really was.

 
    My Dad was gone. Not dead, just gone. I hadn't heard from him, though the pen name at least stopped my Facebook feed from clogging up with old friends and long lost relatives messaging me for a piece of the pie. Mom was doing okay out in Boston, living the life of the newly retired, spending time with her 'man friend', a term that made me cringe every time she said it, and volunteering at the Salvation Army. She called me every Sunday, rain or shine, primarily to ask why I wasn't also volunteering at Salvation Army or spending time with a man friend of my own.

 
    No help there.

 
    And then it hit me.

 
    Gina!

 
    Of course! She'd been the start of all of this, her and her seemingly genius ideas for simple, run of the mill romances that I could right without having to waste too much of my brain thinking about. She'd been the one who had set me on this path, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to call her out on it!

 
    I fished through my purse for the notepad again. I knew she'd written down her phone number or address or something on it, and when I couldn't find the paper I dumped the purse out onto the bed, sifting through the crap I carried around everywhere for some reason with increasing frustration. It had to be here somewhere. It couldn't just...

 
    Disappear ? that voice in my head said, completing the thought for me. Why yes, it would be strange if a piece of paper could just up and vanish. It'd be almost as odd as it happening to, oh I don't know, let's say a billionaire playboy or a sexy Bear Shifter?

 
    Sometimes I hated that voice... It was right far too often for my liking.

 
    "Aha!" I shouted, snatching the notepad up from where the universe had made it fall face down, right on the edge of the bed and just about ready to slide between the mattress and the headboard, never to