Erin blinked several times, letting the words sink in, while slowly lowering herself into the chair. “What do you mean there’s no book? What do you do up here all day?”
“I write pages. Every single day. Then I delete them because they’re all crap.”
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. The chant went through her mind as she desperately tried to think of something helpful to say. “Is everything deleted?”
“I have about twenty pages.”
“Let me see them.” Was her voice even and unemotional? She hoped it didn’t show the panic that was slowly creeping in as the magnitude of this situation became clear.
Jack turned on the computer and pulled up a file, then hit the print button. When the last page came out he handed them to her.
Erin started reading and with the turn of every page her heart sank a little more. There was nothing wrong with the writing and there was a wry, masculine voice to the work, but it was all internal dialogue from Mac Daniels’s point of view. Nothing particularly exciting was going on. Quite frankly there was a very high boredom factor but no way could she tell him that. His instincts, however, were right about the quality of these pages.
She looked up and met his gaze. “I have to agree with you. This isn’t your best work.”
“Since you showed up we’ve disagreed on almost everything. I was hoping that streak would continue.” His mouth pulled tight for a moment, then he rubbed Harley’s head when the dog jumped back into his lap and looked at him. The animal apparently felt his tension. “So you think it’s crap, too.”
“I didn’t say that. Don’t panic.”
Jack looked the opposite of panicked—cool, calm collected. And she needed to be that way, too. This was why she was here. But she needed to think.
“I’m going for a walk.”
Instantly Harley jumped off Jack’s lap and began to whine. “Now you’ve done it.”
“What?”
“You said the w word. If you’re not prepared to take him it’s best to spell. W-a-l-k.” There was amusement in his eyes. “There’s very little he likes better. Except maybe raw hamburger. But the w is in his top two.”
“Sorry. I won’t make that mistake again.” She headed for the door, wincing at the sounds of doggy protest behind her.
After going outside, the yelping got worse as she hurried down the stairs. Moments later she heard the door open and in seconds the dog was happily dancing at her feet. He ran several yards away then came back, repeating the exercise several more times.
“You’re not subtle, Harley.” She looked at Jack, who’d come up beside her. “Neither are you.”
“I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, Miss Riley.”
Instead of rising to the bait, she decided to comment on the fact that it wasn’t his usual time to walk and he’d given in to Harley. “You know you’re spoiling that dog.”
He met her gaze and shrugged. He was either avoiding work or didn’t care. “Harley, walk.”
Jack started after the dog, who instantly ran down the path that skirted the lake. She stared at his back, the man’s, admiring his broad shoulders and muscular back that tapered to a trim waist and really nice butt, wrapped with just the perfect amount of snugness in worn denim. How the heck had those two hijacked her walk?
She could go in the opposite direction but since the whole purpose of her being here was to get his book finished, probably talking to him would be a good idea. Even though she was furious.
His long legs had chewed up a fair amount of distance by the time she’d made up her mind and she hurried to catch up. When that happened, she fell into step beside him. Her mind was spinning from his revelation and she needed to organize her thoughts. If she’d been alone that wouldn’t be a challenge, but the manly scent of his skin combined with the smell of pine effectively made thinking difficult.
Apparently Jack didn’t have any thoughts to organize because after a few moments he said, “You’re uncharacteristically quiet.”
“I didn’t think you paid enough attention to me to know what’s characteristic for me.”
“In the army you learn pretty fast that paying attention to your surroundings means survival.”
“And you see me as a threat to that?” She was being petulant. He could just sue her.
“Not my personal safety, no.”
“Then you think your way of life is at risk by my being here? You’re wrong, Jack. I’m only trying to help you.” As they walked she met his gaze and tripped over the uneven ground. Instantly he grabbed her arm to steady her. Being touched by him easily scattered the few thoughts she’d managed to gather. She mumbled under her breath, “Pigheaded...stubborn—”
“Harley—” At his voice, the dog turned and headed back. “I heard that.”
“Ask me if I care.”
“Let me take a wild guess. You’re mad.”
“Give the man a prize.” She refused to look at him and only heard the surprise in his voice. “I am so ticked off. You have wasted so much time. Why in the world didn’t you say something when I first got here? When I tried to have a conversation about what was going on? You had numerous opportunities to come clean, yet you shut me out. Why?”
When Harley sniffed at his boots, Jack squatted down and rubbed his head. He looked up and said, “Because I’m used to being the guy who’s inserted into a hot zone to fix whatever is wrong.”
Holding her breath, Erin waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, she figured that was as close as he’d get to admitting he wasn’t used to needing or asking for help. She sensed he almost never did it and the fact that he had took all the irritation out of her. Or maybe she was just a pushover because of her acute attraction to him, but that didn’t change anything. There was a problem and they had to find a way to fix it.
“Okay, we know you can write a successful book. You wrote a bestseller.” She knew she’d hit a nerve when his jaw tensed and a muscle jerked. “There’s no reason you can’t do it again.”
“Says who? Maybe I only had one book in me.” He watched Harley sniff the side of the path then pick up a stick, which he dropped at Jack’s feet. He picked it up and threw it as far as he could.
“Your creativity just needs a jump start.”
He tilted his head and looked at her. “What happened to if you stared at a blank screen long enough you’ll get bored and write something on it?”
“I did say that.” She thought for a moment. “But it helps if you know what you’re going
