Page 62 of The Fast Lane
He crossed his arms. “Historical romance.”
Who was this guy? “Right. Historical romance. My bad.”
“With pirates,” he said quickly.
I arched a brow, trying hard to rein in my smile. “Historical pirate romance? That’s…specific.”
“I have a good fan base.” His cheeks were a charming shade of bright pink. “They like pirates.”
I grinned. “So, do these pirates kidnap innocent young women?”
“Sometimes.”
“Are these all set on the high seas?”
“Mostly.”
“Are they all swashbuckling bad boys?”
He sighed and stood. “You aren’t going to forget about this, are you?”
I ignored such an obviously dumb question. “Oooh. Does someone have to walk the plank?”
He shrugged. “It happens, although it’s not historically accurate. But the readers…”
“The readers like what the readers like, right?” I snapped my fingers. “This explains your thing with oranges. Keeps away the scurvy.” With that, I collapsed into the chair overcome with laughter. Because this was hilarious. Theo Goodnight, romance author? My quiet, thoughtful Theo? “Who are you?”
Theo rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, no one knows about it. No one. I want to keep it that way.”
“Not even my brothers?” Oh, man, they’d have a field day with this info.
The look he gave me had a tinge of panic to it. “Please don’t tell them.”
“Huh.” I moseyed over to him. “So, how do I find these books?”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? Do you think now I know this I can forget it exists?”
His head dropped back, and he stared at the ceiling. “They’re online. Under a pen name.”
“Well, what is it?” I asked, already pulling out my phone.
“I don’t want to tell you,” he muttered.
“Why?” I put my hands on my hips.
He refused to make eye contact. Oh, this was bad. Or really, really good. “Because?—”
The door burst open, and Karen raced into the room, yapping like she’d seen a robbery at a dog bone factory. She made a beeline for me and my ankles.
“Stop it, you gremlin,” I said, but Karen was not playing around. She got ahold of one of my shoelaces and began to shake her head back and forth violently while yanking on it, all the while growling at the offending piece of string. “Someone get it off me.”
I tried gently, and then not-so-gently, to remove her by shaking my leg. Teetering on one foot, I put a hand on Theo’s shoulder, but it was a losing battle. While Mack laughed like this was the funniest thing he’d seen in ages, Theo attempted to shoo her away, but Karen got the shoelace untied and scrambled between my legs. And that was that.
One minute, I was standing and the next I was falling…right on top of Theo. His hands caught me at the waist but not fast enough to prevent the inevitable. Theo fell on the bed, and I went with him. We both landed with an “Oophf,” followed by stunned silence.
Or rather, Theo and I were silent. Karen was well on her way to a barking-induced brain aneurysm and Mack was laughing so hard, he was wheezing. Our eyes collided in shock. I dropped my forehead on his chest and we both began to laugh. His laughter traveled through my body, and I was certain I’d found a new perfect moment. This one right here with Theo.