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"Ha! That’s kind of a pun," said the woular basis She’d guzzled two inning to slur But what did I care? These omen I’d smiled at, chatted about harmless topics with, and never, ever bothered to invite into ood for theured I owed it to theroup walked into reetedkiss on the cheek, then Rhiannon and Byron arrived, joined by Seth, whoed them all warmly and sent them in the direction of ourskinny jeans and his oh it had to be at least ninety-five degrees in the shade He kissed arden with a mix of awe and confusion

"What do you think Petra Polly would say about what I’ve done?" I teased hihtful I felt al to answer honestly "I think she’d say you were going for the brass ring" He s Frank it nearly took ot to say I hope this doesn’t eat up all of your creative energy," he added "But itthat will rejuvenate you, Paige"

Disappoint? "Do you think I’m in a slump?"

"Look, I paid attention when my dad told stories about his ereat storyteller he was?"

I nodded,with tears "You always felt like you were really there," I ed

Lukas briefly touched my arm I could tell that even casual waresture "The stories about you, well,theh An impossible deadline, a difficult client, a technical apocalypse--you soet the job done He had total faith in your abilities"

"And you don’t share the sae And I haven’t seen anything yet to confir until the day I have e stories to tell I don’t have the same perforet the point across"

"I will take that as a challenge," I said, and I ood," he said "Now let’s see if you can be again" He glanced at the relaxed, laughing group at the bar, generously helping the, you know Talent needs energy It needs life They’ve got fire running through their veins"

And probably a few other things, I thought, but I nodded in agree, but it’s there"

"You’ve got e to the bar "Find a way to reignite theht blue polo shirt that enhanced everything--his coloring, his build, the fine dusting of hair on his strong forearets cuter every tier at her first dance The fluttering inup the driveway, and it turned into a full-scale tsunami by the time he kissed my cheek and handed ht as the flowers

"You look nice," he said

"Doesn’t she?" interrupted Jackie "I picked out the dress Well, not in the store We found it in the--"

"Officer Doherty doesn’t need to knowJackie a reminder of Sean’s profession

Her et a drink

"My coworker," I gave as an explanation "But she’s also my friend I’ve worked with her for seventeen years"