Stargazing (The Walker Family Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

her to be so worked up over having read it. It didn’t mean she’d read his next one.
    In fact, she thought if this was how she felt when she was done with the book, she would make a pact with herself. She’d never read another Kent Black book again.
    Her hair felt silky. The tension in her shoulders faded away and she could breathe. That was better.
     
    ~*~
     
    Kent didn’t have that many clothes, but looking at them all strewn across the bed in his hotel room, he wondered what he was going to wear.
    He’d tried to be edgy with a hip T-shirt. After all, when he’d gone to Comic-Con, the most influential people there were only in jeans and a T-shirt. Usually a printed T-shirt. He’d gone to a few panels where the speaker wore a Captain America shirt.
    Yet, he couldn’t make himself do it. It wasn’t him.
    He’d tied on four of his six ties and yet that hadn’t appeased him either.
    How was it he suddenly didn’t know who the hell he was?
    A glance in the mirror proved to him that he’d needed that haircut yesterday. At least one part of him didn’t look as disheveled as he felt.
    He pulled off the T-shirt he’d put on and slipped into a dress shirt. It was just nerves. He got them every time before he spoke in front of people and was forced to shake hands. Really, it was a crazy world for an introvert to put himself out there like he had. But that was the norm for writers. They were comfortable in their boxers writing stories that transformed the lives of normal people. They themselves were afraid of their own shadow, yet they put themselves on secret display.
    It was part of the job, he reminded himself. He chose this path and it had filled his bank account nicely. Which had made his mother question why he’d bought his sister’s ten-year-old minivan.
    He was simple. He could admit that. There was no need for anything fancy. Usually those things just disappeared anyway. Someone stole them or they were ruined. A nice car would be no different. Seriously, who wanted a faded, gold minivan with a dent in the side door from a runaway shopping cart? No one.
    After nearly an hour, he’d settled on a dress shirt and a sport coat—no tie.
    For his own humor, he had a Superman T-shirt on under his dress shirt.
     
    The book club was meeting in a place called The Garden Room. When Kirk pulled up in front of the building, it certainly wasn’t what he’d expected. The outside looked like a refurbished warehouse. Sure, it was kept up, but it didn’t fit the bill of what he thought a garden room would look like. He parked across the street. There was a sandwich board out front that said Book Club, Featuring Kent Black. He took a deep breath.
    He vividly remembered the first time he read aloud something he’d written. Sophomore year in high school. He’d written a short story, which the teacher had been taken with. She’d asked him to read it in front of the class, much to his dismay. What if someone hated it?
    Well, he got hit with someone’s tuna sandwich from lunch before the class broke into hysterics.
    It didn’t stop the teacher. She had him in the teachers’ lounge reading. That led to everyone in attendance writing him letters of recommendation for a scholarship—in which he received.
    Who’d have thought they’d pay him to do this now?
    As he stepped out of his van he caught a glimpse of a woman running toward a Subaru. Nicely dressed, short dark hair, and bright red lips. She opened the hatchback and pulled out an enormous tray covered in foil and then nearly dropped it trying to close the hatch.
    “I’ll get that,” he called out as he looked both ways and sprinted across the street.
    “Thank you, I…” The woman’s eyes widened. “Oh, you’re Kent Black.”
    Now it was time to put on the charm and act as if he enjoyed the attention. “I am, and you’re going to spill your tray. Let me carry that for you. Are you here for the book signing?”
    The woman placed her hands on her chest.