Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Beatrice sighs at me and walks over to her bed and lies down with a snort. “Could I have offered her advice?” I look up. “Probably.” I sigh. “Did I judge her for buying a boat without knowing how to drive it? Yes. Did I do the same thing? Again, yes.”
I take my fork and take another piece of the pie. “Will I try to be nicer to her? No,” I admit. “Will I be cordial? Fine.” I look at Beatrice. “Only because she likes you.” I chew the bite of pie. “Will I let her get to me?” I look out the window toward her boat. “Absolutely not,” I vow. Beatrice sticks her head up now and barks at me, probably calling me on my bullshit. “Oh, please, whose side are you on?”
CHAPTER 7
VIVIENNE
I walk into the boat before he says another word. “Xavier,” I mumble his name, putting my phone on the counter. “Definitely not a name I would give him,” I say, walking to the back of my room and stripping off the wet clothes and putting them in the sink. I turn on the shower. “Xavier,” I repeat his name again, touching the water to make sure it’s hot enough before I step inside.
Closing my eyes as I let the hot water rush over me, I still hear his voice. “What the fuck?” I swear. At that moment, I wish it was anyone else but him. I would have even gone with the asshole I last dated, who decided we were going to have an open relationship and never told me until I caught him with his dick in a blonde’s mouth. At that point, I would have gone with every single ex I’d ever had instead of him.
I step out of the shower, grabbing the towel I hung up the night before and wrapping it around myself. Walking out to start another cup of coffee, I press the button, moving over to the fridge and grabbing the pie. I’m slicing a piece of pie when my phone rings. Leaning over to grab it, I turn it over and see that it’s Lisa. “Hello,” I greet, smiling.
“Vivienne,” she says my name, and I look over and see that it’s just a bit past eight o’clock.
“Uh-oh,” I reply, grabbing the pie and a fork before walking over to the dining area. I walk up the two steps and sit down. “It’s not even nine.” She laughs. “Is this a good or bad phone call?” The nerves in my stomach start, my leg moving up and down as I wait for her to answer. I put the fork down beside the pie, holding my breath.
“I stayed up all night reading,” she gushes. “Even though I know better than to pull all-nighters I just couldn’t stop reading.” The smile fills my face now. “It was so good, Vivienne. I can’t wait for more.”
I put my head back and sigh loudly in relief, picking up the fork and stabbing a piece of pie. “I wasn’t sure, it’s a bit different from the rest.”
“It’s so refreshing. This has to be the best book to date.”
“Out of the forty books I’ve written, this one is the best?” I ask her as I chew a bite of pie.
“Yes,” she confirms. She’s been my editor since book five when I was signed with the publishing house. “Now the question is, when are you going to be done?”
“In about a month,” I tell her.
“Ugh, fine,” she huffs. “I can’t wait to see where this is going to go.”
“You and me both,” I admit to her and she laughs. “But I promise, as soon as it’s done, I will send it over.”
“Fair enough. I have to get going. I’ll be dragging my ass the whole day.” She chuckles. “But it was worth it.”
“Thanks for calling, I’m always nervous when you start fresh.” I hang up and walk over to grab my coffee, going back to eat more pie.
I never thought I would end up becoming an author. I mean, I didn’t even like writing in high school, but that all changed when I started college. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do with my life, so I just took the basic college classes.
The truth be told, I was so homesick I would stay in most nights, then one night I stumbled upon this fan fiction page. I went down the rabbit hole reading story after story. So much so that an idea popped in my head, so I opened a Word document and started at chapter one. The one thing I was obsessed with was murder mysteries. I just couldn’t get enough of them, and after watching all the murder mysteries on television, I was hooked.
So I created Lucinda Cartwether, a little small-town girl who lives in a little small town solving the mysteries. Until the CIA gets wind of how good she is and now she works for them going around the world solving mysteries.