To Be a Family. Joan Kilby
her so. How was she going to get Lizzy out of trouble? On that hike years ago, by sheer luck she’d stumbled on another path that led back to the parking lot. But luck wasn’t good enough. Lizzy had to triumph using pluck, resourcefulness and brains.
She wrote in a patch of clear sky so Lizzy could track the movement of the sun and figure out the compass points. That way, knowing the road lay to the west, Lizzy could navigate her way out of the swamp.
The phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hey, Katie,” Paula said. “Riley and I are going to try the new French restaurant in the village. Do you want to come?”
“What, now?” She was just getting into the zone.
“It’s six-thirty on Friday night. Not a bad time to get a bite to eat. What do you say? Jamie’s at a sleepover birthday party so I’m free, free, free.”
“You and Riley should enjoy a night to yourselves. I’d be a third wheel.”
“You’re never in the way. We want you to come. Please.”
Katie glanced at her watch. She would be lucky to make her daily word count and get to the gym before it closed. As well as a healthy diet, she’d adopted regular exercise as part of her rigorous regime aimed at achieving maximum health. “Thanks, but not this time. I have too much to do.”
“Has anyone ever told you, you work too much?”
“No,” Katie lied. John used to say that to her all the time.
She had to work, to keep writing proposals till another book sold. Her agent had sent out her latest several months ago. Every day she hoped to hear good news when she hurried to check the mailbox as soon as she got home from work. A new contract would add more pressure but without one…well, she wouldn’t be a real writer, would she?
She promised to meet Paula and Riley for coffee at the deli on Sunday morning and hung up. Not ten minutes passed before the phone rang again.
Groaning, she reached for the phone. “Hello?”
“Katie, glad I caught you,” Adele, her agent in New York, said rapidly. “Have you got a minute?”
Katie hit Save and sat up straight. “Have you heard something about my book proposal?”
“Have I heard something?” Adele brayed out a laugh. “Yes, but first I want to give you some news. Are you sitting down? I want you to be sitting down.”
Katie’s heart rate kicked up. News that was more important than the publisher’s response to her proposal? “I’m sitting. Go on.”
“Lizzy And Monkey debuted at number forty-three on the USA TODAY bestseller list.”
“Wow.” Katie forgot to breathe. “Just…wow.”
“You’re on to a winner,” Adele chortled.
“Does the publisher know? What did they say about my new idea? Did they like it?”
“Oh, I let them know about the bestseller list, don’t you worry. They want to buy your next book—”
“Oh, thank God!” She wasn’t going to be a one-hit wonder.
“Plus two more.”
“What?”
“They’re offering you a three-book contract.”
Katie’s mouth opened and closed. Light-headed, she blinked against the spots in front of her eyes. Then she realized she was holding her breath and let it out with a whoosh. “Three-book contract. That’s amazing. Are you sure?”
“You’d better believe it. The catch is, they want to release the books bang, bang, bang, to take advantage of your bestseller status and build your name.”
“Oh, Adele…” This was a far greater success than she’d ever dreamed of. Well, okay, she’d dreamed of hitting the lists but it had been a fantasy. She’d never actually thought it would happen. Now it had. Suddenly a whole new world was opening up to her. She wasn’t just a small-town grade-one teacher who dabbled in children’s stories. She was a writer.
Adele brought her down from the clouds. “Before you say yes, I want you to be sure this is what you want. I know you’re committed to your teaching. We’ve talked about your career goals and your workload. You only wanted to write one book a year. Are you going to be able to do three books in twelve months?”
“I—” Her chest tightened again. Could she write that quickly? Not just write, but paint the illustrations? Three books. She’d only plotted out one more book. Did she have that many stories in her?
“Do you want some time to think about it?”
She pressed a hand against her stomach and forced herself to breathe out. There was no way she was going to pass up such a golden opportunity.
“No,” she said firmly. “I can do it. I will do it.”
But as she hung up, her bubble of elation burst with a tiny pop. She’d given her word. Now she had to do it.
No, she wouldn’t give in to anxiety. Que sera sera. She, evidently, was meant to be a writer, and a prolific one at that. She laughed aloud, partly with nerves, partly elation. With three new stories to write she would have to have adventures of her own now.
CHAPTER THREE
JOHN BLINKED HIS EYES OPEN. Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains. For a moment he lay spread-eagled across his king-size bed, savoring the sheer comfort of waking up in his own home. A cool, dry breeze drifted in through the open window, bringing with it the scent of pine and eucalyptus and the kookaburra’s laughing call.
Their plane had landed at ten last night and it had been after midnight before they’d gotten home. Tuti had fallen asleep in the car. He’d carried her in, still sleeping, in his arms and tucked her into the single bed in the spare room he used as a study.
Now he rose, remembered to put his track pants on, and walked barefoot down the hall to his study. He peeked in the door. The folding cot, crammed between a desk and a filing cabinet, was empty. On the floor, a black pigtail poked out of a bundle of blankets. Her feet were stuck between the legs of his computer chair.
He needed to make some big adjustments around here for Tuti to feel at home. Starting with getting her a proper bed and dresser and clearing space for her to put her things. Where, in his two-bedroom bachelor apartment he would move his computer and desk, he didn’t have a clue. Certainly not in his bedroom. Nothing quelled romance like a workstation next to the bed.
Romance? Huh. With no woman in his life at the moment he didn’t need to worry about that. Anyway, with Tuti around, for him to go out at night, come home late, sleep with a woman in his bed… It was simply out of the question. His love life wouldn’t come into contact with his daughter’s life until and unless he was serious about a woman.
Yep, his romancing days were over for the foreseeable future. Dead in the water at the ripe old age of thirty-five. Overnight he’d gone from being a carefree bachelor to single dad. This was going to be one helluva steep learning curve.
Tuti shifted in her sleep. Carefully, he pushed the chair back and crouched to touch her shoulder. She blinked sleepily. “Hey, Tuti. Why are you on the floor?”
She stared at him.
Because that’s where she was used to sleeping, dummy. “Do you want some breakfast?” Again a blank look. “Are you hungry? Food?” He mimed eating.
She sat up, the blankets falling away, exposing her bare arms in a thin T-shirt. Shivering, she pulled the blanket around herself.
“I’ll turn the heat on.” The room temperature was comfortable but after living in the tropics she was bound to feel the cold. “May I?” he asked, picking up her faded pink backpack to find her something warmer.
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