Page 20 of Score Her Heart

“Don’t start with that.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. So tell me about the book.”

She looked taken aback. “You want to hear about my work?”

I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

She avoided the question by shoving another piece of sushi in her mouth and then taking a long sip of her wine. I cocked my head at her, waiting for her answer.

“Sorry. Eric never wanted to hear it. He was actually pretty pissed when I quit my job last year. But, I mean, the sales on the first book allowed me to.”

I narrowed my eyes. The more she revealed about her relationship, the more I thought it was a good thing that Eric didn’t show up yesterday. There was no way she would have been happy with him. I curled and uncurled my fist under the table. Man, did I want to throttle that guy.

“I liked the first book, but I haven’t read the second one,” I admitted.

I watched her bring her hands to her chest. “You bought my book? Really? I mean, I know you read the very bad first draft I wrote, but...”

“Of course! I’m so proud of you. You always wanted to write, and you’re finally doing it.”

She clenched her hands to her heart and gave me a look of adoration. “You have no idea how much that means to me to hear you say that. My family hasn’t been that supportive about this career change.”

I nodded. I vaguely remembered my mom saying something about how Katherine thought this was just a passion project. That really rubbed me the wrong way. It was clear that this was what made Fi happy, and when she talked about her writing, her eyes sparkled with delight, and her hands waved about excitedly. I definitely had to remind myself to pick up book two in her trilogy for my upcoming road trip.

“Tell me how it’s going,” I encouraged.

“No spoilers!” she exclaimed and then launched into vaguely telling me about trying to fix the problem she found in her draft today. She had a deadline that she really needed to meet, and she was super close, but having discovered this plot hole today, she was afraid she wasn’t going to meet it. I nodded while she told me all of this, feeling like she really needed someone to listen to her rather than have a solution to her problem.

She paused after a long breath to take a sip of her wine, and then her eyes widened.

“What?” I asked.

She downed the rest of the wine. “Holy shit, I think I figured it out!”

I laughed. “Just like that?”

She nodded, then pulled out her phone and typed away at it. I tried to say something, but she held a finger up to shush me and continued whatever she was doing. A few minutes later, she put the phone down again and looked at me with an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, sometimes I have to write out some notes, or I will lose it,” she explained. “Enough about my stuff. Are you going to truthfully tell me how you think the Bulldogs are doing this season?”

I groaned, and this time, I shoved sushi into my mouth, so I didn’t have to answer.

She laughed heartily at my reaction. “Am I not allowed to ask you that question? I thought since I’m your wife, you’d actually tell me the truth.”

I ran a hand down my face and gave her an exasperated look. “You know how the team’s doing.”

“Yeah, like shit. Are you afraid you’re gonna get traded?” she asked cautiously.

I shrugged. “No clue. We’re past the trade deadline now, but yeah, I’m worried. If they don’t re-sign me by July, I’ll become an unrestricted free agent.”

“You want to stay in Philly?” she asked while spearing another sushi roll. I had to smile at how happy she looked when she ate.

“I do,” I admitted.

“Why?”

“I want to stay near you.”

Her face flushed at my admittance. “Oh.”

“Philly’s home for both of us, Fi. I want to make sure we stay in the same city.”