Pointing at her, I muttered, “What she said.”
Chewing on her lower lip, Santana whispered, “I write romantic thrillers. I’ve got some psychological ones and some all-out bloody thrillers, but they all work around romance in some way.”
My jaw almost hit the water. “Why didn’t you tell me this before now?”
She lowered her head and shrugged. “No one knows. I do it in my spare time, but I have an agent who keeps me in line with publishing dates and stuff.”
“Hold on a minute.” Sadie held her hand up. “How many books do you have out?”
“Thirteen.”
I sat back against the side of the tub hard enough to move the inflatable side. “Well, shit. What name do you write under?”
“Amy Dalton. It’s my middle name and Mom’s maiden name mixed together.”
I felt bad when the name didn’t ring any bells, and judging by the look on Sadie’s face, she was feeling the same way.
“I think I need to read one of your books,” I decided. “You need support and for people to help you out when you’ve got a deadline.”
Grabbing my hand, she hissed urgently, “You can’t tell anyone.”
“I’m not going to. But if you’re on a deadline and, say, you need to eat and don’t have time, I can sure as hell bring you dinner if you text me. There are a number of things I can do to help out.”
Raising her hand in the air, Sadie shouted, “I’m in. I mean, I know I don’t live close and all, but anything I can do to help, I’m here for it. Girl, you shouldn’t be carrying this on your own. That’s got to be stressful, and you basically don’t have a support system to help you through that stress.”
Looking relieved, Santana smiled gratefully at us both. “It does get hard, and I struggle to sleep a lot of the time, even though I’m exhausted from working on the ranch. I guess—” she broke off and chewed on her lower lip for a second. “It would be nice to have people I could talk to about it when I get stuck on something.”
“Then consider us your author bitches,” I told her. “This is so cool, Santana. I had no idea.”
“No one does.”
How she managed to do it, I had no idea. I could write a song, compose music, think of lyrics, and play instruments, but the thought of writing an actual book? I don’t know if I could ever do that.
Telling them this, Sadie snorted. “Babe, I can’t even do that. For a moment, I was nothing but a jug of milk for Bronte. Now I’m a mum, a wife, I help Elijah sometimes with his business, and then I clean the house. It’s not a bad life at all, in fact, it’s an amazing one, but you both have artistic skills. I’m feeling a little left out.”
Looking between us, Santana asked softly, “Would you both like to read the one I’ve just finished?”
Sadie sat up straight. “Is a duck’s arsehole watertight?”
Both of us blinked at her random question.
“Um…” I mumbled, unsure what the best response was. I was reasonably sure they were, now that I thought about it, because they didn’t sink when they were in the water, but I was also confused about what it had to do with what we were talking about or if she even wanted an answer.
Rolling her eyes, she glared at us. “It’s like one of those ‘does a bear shit in the woods’ types of questions. Of course I want to read it.”
“Okay,” Santana breathed, looking excited but nervous. “If you both give me your Kindle addresses, I’ll send it over later.”
Squealing, I clapped my hands. “I’m going to read it in my downtime now.”
“Oh,” Sadie breathed, “I can read it while I’m here, and we can have a book club meeting.”
Holding my hand up, I high-fived her. “It’s on.” Then something occurred to me. “You haven’t told Remy, honey?”
Shaking her head, Santana looked back out in the direction of the stables, almost like she was looking for him. “We’re not that close. My family doesn’t even know. I kind of wanted to surprise them with it, but then I got scared in case my career failed, and I made a fool of myself.”
Raising an eyebrow, Sadie asked, “And have you?” When Santana shook her head, she added, “Then don’t you think maybe you should tell them? They’ll be proud of you.”
“My brother’s away just now. He’s deployed with Remy’s brother, and I want to tell them when he’s home, too.”
I’d be the same with Dan. “When I was offered the contract for what I’m working on just now, it was my dream and a huge deal for me. I didn’t tell my family until we were all together. My sister’s in college, and my brother’s in the Navy—”