30. CHAPTER THIRTY #2
Effie considered. Though she needed to touch up her mascara and was in desperate need of a tissue, hoping she didn’t leave a snot trail on Theo’s shirt, she had to admit it felt better to uncork.
“It could be good if I didn’t wait so long to let it out .
. . this was, pent up, I think.” Effie looked at him, bashful behind her damp lashes.
She didn’t need to voice everything that had gone into her rant.
Though it was obviously more than what transpired in the last half hour.
“Does the night feel ruined?” Theo asked in earnest.
“No,” Effie admitted. If anything she was falling even harder for Theo. He cupped his hand around her cheek and looked straight into her heart.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Effie shook her head, no. She leaned forward and sank into a kiss. He wrapped his strong arms around her, and Effie knew it was safe to feel everything with Theo. “Thank you,” she mumbled.
He tucked a stray curl behind her ear. “Anything for you, sunshine.”
The Book and Bar was bedecked with faux candles, midnight-blue streamers, and a plethora of poster-size versions of the cover of Magic Ensnared, the final installment of Hope’s Web of Realms series.
The family-style tables were covered in hors d’oeuvres and postcards with Hope’s author portraits.
The QR code on the back gave access to special bonus chapters as an incentive to come to the live events.
This one was the closest and the one Hope always planned on attending, but a few others were happening in Boston, Portland, and Burlington as her most recent novel was anticipated enough for a midnight release and parties to match across New England.
Hope hadn’t ever let the success of her debut series go to her head.
She knew that one series did not a career make, and she intended to keep proving herself to her readers.
She kept it humble as she grabbed a cookie from the platter before her.
It was shaped like Kiernan’s sword, while others depicted the Goddess Arachnia and Dominique’s family sigil.
Effie had uncharacteristically allowed the bookstore to pay her for themed baked goods, and she’d truly outdone herself.
She told her as much as Effie sidled up to her, glass of champagne in hand and Theo on her arm.
“Well, remind Grams of that when she discovers all the food coloring I couldn’t get out of her favorite tea towel.”
“Is she going to be here tonight?” Theo asked hopefully. Hope didn’t bother to comment on how she’d watched Effie strategically avoid the Thatchers present since they’d arrived, and would likely manage it the rest of the night.
“Sadly, midnight releases are too late for dear old Grams. But she did send this.” Effie paused to wrap Hope in a hug. “And this.” A peck on the cheek had Hope smiling wide. Effie looked at Theo like she realized a grave error. “Sorry. Hope, Theo. Theo, Hope.”
Hope laughed. “Yeah, we’ve met.”
“Briefly before she whisked Schilling away for his birthday dinner,” Theo added before reaching out a hand to shake Hope’s. His gaze never strayed from hers as he offered his sincerest congratulations. “On the launch and the baby.”
“Thank you,” Hope said. She couldn’t help the flood of curiosity that hit her. What did he know about Brayden? Would he be coming? Did Theo think she was awful?
Hope wasn’t certain what her face revealed, but Theo leaned in while Effie was distracted with Basil and said, “He told me he was coming. He’s excited to be a dad, Hope. I’m glad he’s doing this with you.”
Hope’s shoulders eased. She gave him a terse nod but didn’t dare show any more emotion.
She didn’t want Brayden to think she rallied his friends to their cause to try to win him back.
Across the room, Heather waved Hope over.
“Excuse me.” Theo cleared from her path.
She looked back to catch him placing his hand affectionately on the small of Effie’s back.
The jealousy that rang through her was unwelcome, but she felt it nonetheless.
“Hope! I just got off the phone with the rest of the midnight release venues. We’re going to stream your reading so they can all have that book launch experience with you.”
“Sounds great,” Hope said, a little surprised at the redundant information. They’d decided weeks ago that it was only fair since she couldn’t make an appearance at every event. But Hope knew Heather. She was easing her into something.
“We want you to read chapter fifty-four.”
Hope’s stomach lurched. “We agreed on chapter one. Wasn’t the whole point not to give it all away?”
“Yes, you and I did, but the team decided that we’ll make more sales tonight if you read fifty-four. I sent you an email about it.”
Hope chastised herself for letting her personal drama distract her. She recovered quickly enough. “Must have missed it.”
“Right. You’ll stop at the POV shift and leave them wanting more.”
Hope grimaced wanting to read anything, anything but chapter fifty-four, especially if Brayden was coming, but she kept her mouth shut.
“Between the six venues tonight you have well over twelve hundred readers waiting to see what happens between Kiernan and Dom. Give them something to yearn for, Hope. Plus the sound bites will be useful for your socials.”
Hope rolled her eyes, gut churning at having to read this particular chapter, the one that she had split open her heart and bled onto the page for in front of her audience. In front of Effie. In front of him . “You truly think this is the right move?”
“Don’t you trust me?” Hope and Effie’s conversation with Grams echoed in her mind.
She wasn’t the PR team, she wasn’t the marketing team.
She wasn’t even the publisher. She was the writer, and the people who had taken her career this far—who had made it so she could have moved into her own home months ago without needing to take out a loan—were the ones that got her there.
She wasn’t ready to throw the train off the tracks, not when raising a baby was so expensive, not when her readers were so devoted, and not when it wasn’t only her livelihood that rested on the book’s success or failure.
Hope took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do it. ”
When Brayden finally arrived at the Book and Bar, everyone had gathered around the small stage in the corner that was used for open mic nights and poetry slams that Theo had once been a frequent participant in.
He crept toward the stage on stealthy feet until he found himself standing beside Theo and Effie. “What’s going on?” he whispered.
“It’s time for her reading,” Effie whispered back.
Brayden took in the room. Everyone in the crowd eagerly waited for a brand-new copy of Magic Ensnared and gazed at the stage where Hope stood, with a mix of awe, delight, and utter anticipation.
The adoration for her work, for her , was unmistakable and it made him proud to know her.
He had read the first few chapters of the book as she drafted it, but she wasn’t as keen to share pages that weren’t polished, so he hadn’t read more.
He had lost all track of her deadlines and the release with everything else that had gone on in the last few months.
Hope approached the microphone with her book open.
Her navy dress stretched snugly across her chest before draping in slightly ruffled tiers over her pregnant belly.
It reached the tops of her sandaled feet and gave the impression of a medieval peasant skirt.
The waterfall of loose brown curls she always wore unbound cascaded over one bare shoulder nearly reaching her hip.
Brayden recognized the white-gold drop earrings with tiny sapphire flowers she wore as the ones he’d gifted her for their six-month anniversary.
She was radiant.
If she weren’t launching the final book in a national best-selling series he wouldn’t have been surprised if all eyes still fell on her.
Despite the distraction of seeing her up there aglow in the café lights and candles that warmed the space, he managed to clock the terse look Hope gave Effie.
She seemed to make a show of how far into the book she went as she pulled out her bookmark.
Brayden’s gaze shot to Effie whose eyes were round with alarm. She let out a quick breath through puckered lips before nodding firmly at Hope. Whatever was going on here, Effie was worried about Hope and doing her damnedest to give her some confidence. “Everything okay?”
Effie considered, her face crinkling between a frown and genuine curiosity. “Could be. Might be. Probably fine.” Her face lightened. “Might be fantastic, actually.”
Brayden was lost. Effie shrugged refusing to give him anything else before turning her attention fully on Hope. Brayden nudged Theo in the arm, surely he knew more . “Don’t ask me. I think they might be telepathic.”
Effie shushed them both as Hope cleared her throat.
“First, I want to thank you all for being here, it means so much to me,” she began, and Brayden caught the tremble buried beneath the speaking voice she’d aimed to perfect for such occasions.
“And I know you all are dying to know what happens with Kiernan and Dominique . . .” A well-timed pause allowed shrieks, giggles, and gasps to ring out amongst the hundred-person crowd.
“So I thought we ought to get right to it and start with my favorite chapter in the whole book.”
More shrieks and applause. Was Hope a rock star? He had assumed so, but to see it in the flesh, even more so than that first reading they’d met at, had him glued to the floor. He couldn’t wait to see what she’d do next.
Hope’s hazel eyes flicked to him for a too-brief moment. He couldn’t tell if it was an apology or something else that flashed there before she took a sip from her water bottle and started to read.