In short, Juliana was me. I’d somehow become their muse; their inspiration, at least as far as the romantic involvement. The guys had infused their story with their own personal experiences, as most authors did. Only in this case their experience was pretty far out there.
And if I were being honest? Shit, it actually made the story better. Juliana was strong, fierce, funny and smart. She really worked as the story’s heroine, and the four-way relationship she built with the three main characters had been an enormous addition to the entire trilogy.
Not to mention, the ensuing sex scenes had been sizzling hot.
Eventually I had to tell them I loved the story, even with the addition of Juliana. Especially with Juliana, rather than despite her. I could see the book appealing to a much wider audience this way, too. The addition of a spunky, roguish heroine added an all new dimension to the main characters, even if their overall relationship was unorthodox and taboo.
The one thing I hadn’t told the guys about was my creepy coffee-date with Jay, the sidewalk-stalking publisher. I hadn’t heard from Jay since, nor had I ‘run into’ him again. But he was still their publisher… so in the interests of maintaining good relations all around, I’d decided to let it go.
Still, not telling them just felt inherently wrong. My silence could be construed as a betrayal, and the more time passed, the more I regretted not coming clean. They were due to submit new chapters soon, and I knew Jay would be looking for a change. He’d be looking to see whether I’d been able to adjust their direction. Whether I’d tried to talk them out of Juliana overall.
And boy, was he about to be disappointed.
It got to the point where I was ready to tell them. I didn’t want them going into their next meeting blind, without any idea just how much their publisher was against the idea of a shared type of relationship. That he wanted three love interests, not one. And that he’d told me all this in a very shitty way, over an extremely good cup of coffee.
I’d just finished making breakfast: banana-stuffed french toast, and scrambled eggs folded with hot cheddar. I’d set the table. Chase and Nathan were already sitting down, forks in hand.
And that’s when Burke came through the door and changed everything.
Thirty-Four
BURKE
The drive east took all day. Or most of it, anyway. By the time we arrived at Mammoth Lakes it was already snowing. Everyone was getting a little stir-crazy, and we were all looking to stretch our legs. And wet our throats, too.
“Skiing?” Chase had said when I announced our sudden trip. “You want to go skiing?”
&n
bsp; “Fuck no.”
“Then what?”
“I’m taking us up into the mountains,” I’d explained. “Somewhere with snow. Somewhere remote, where we can walk around. Get a feel for some new terrain, other than this godforsaken desert.”
Nathan knew right away what I was up to. It took Chase a little longer to catch on. We were deep into the third book of the trilogy, and all the main characters were together. We were ramping up the suspense and drama. Getting ready to write the granddaddy of all action-packed endings.
And the setting we’d chosen for all that stuff was high in the snow-capped mountains.
“We can’t write a good snow scene from the ninety-degree heat,” I’d said. “We need to get our boots in some fucking snow. We need to immerse ourselves, if we’re going to get the feel of things right.”
Nathan disappeared from the kitchen, grinning. He was back with a duffel bag in under five minutes. Chase took another ten minutes of convincing, but it wasn’t much. And Kayleen took no convincing at all.
“So… a working vacation?” she’d smiled.
“Three days, two nights,” I said. “But yeah, nothing huge. We bring our laptops with us. We write a little, we play a little.”
“We build snow forts and have a snowball war,” Nathan added happily.
“If you wanna get your ass kicked, yeah.”
“Where exactly are we staying?” asked Chase.
“Out in the woods,” I said, “just like in the story.” I could see the last of Chase’s reservations drain away. Like Nathan, he enjoyed the outdoors. “I booked a pretty secluded cabin, but it’s still within walking distance of town.”
Kayleen made two quick phone calls. One to put off some work, and another to find someone to take care of Beast. Her friend Marcy bit the bullet on the latter, and a half-hour later we were all on the road.
It was a long but scenic ride, filled with talking and laughing and listening to each other’s best bullshit stories. We even played a few stupid travel games before stopping for a late lunch, and reached the cabin by nightfall.