The Meltdown Match (A Romance Novella) Read Online Free PDF

you,” she said, turning her face toward the sun. “This place really is beautiful.”
    “You’re only now noticing that?”
    She smiled. “No, I’ve always noticed. But there’s something different about leaving and coming home. It sort of feels like a dormant part of me suddenly comes alive. I love that feeling.”
    He shifted positions to look at her. “I don’t get it. If you love it so much here, why not move back for good? You can write anywhere.”
    Courtney took a small bite of her sandwich and munched it slowly. “I need to do research, and I like seeing new places.”
    When she said nothing more, he shook his head. “Sorry, not buying it. You can always put down roots and still travel to your heart’s content.”
    She let out a breath and bit her lip. Did she dare tell him the real reason? Would he laugh? File it away as something else he could tease her about? Probably.
    And yet she wanted him to know, to understand. “Remember how I told you I’m superstitious?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I wasn’t joking.” She paused, plucking the leaves off a nearby bush. “From the time I was little, I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer. In high school, I started submitting my work to agents, but they all shot me down. So I stayed here and went to college for a year in Anchorage, took every creative writing class I could, and went to every writing conference anyone offered. Then I applied what I learned and wrote my first magical realism novel. I thought it was great, but still, no bites. Out of desperation, I took the plunge and transferred to NYU the following year, where I wrote another novel, again with no luck.”
    The bush was beginning to look sparse. Courtney seemed to realize it too because she stopped plucking and began tearing the leaves instead. “Then something amazing happened. I came back here for the summer and felt that feeling I just told you about. It was like my mind woke up. I wrote a rough draft quicker than I’d ever written one, but when I went back to revise, it was like my mind decided to go dormant again. So I transferred my records to Texas—the place where the book was set—and immersed myself in the culture. The fine-tuning came easier there, and I was able to finish my revisions. Then I sent it out and about died when ten agents requested it—five of whom offered to represent me. Two months later, I signed my first publishing contract.”
    Courtney paused, wondering what was going through Mitch’s mind. Did he think she was crazy, or did he understand?
    He picked up a rock and chucked it over the ledge the way you’d throw a rock to skip it across a lake. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “You come here to be inspired, but when that so-called well of inspiration runs dry, you feel the need to move away so it can be full and running over by the time you come back.” Surprisingly enough, his words didn’t sound mocking.
    She nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but writing is now my career, and I can’t afford for Heimel to stop inspiring me.”
    Mitch shifted positions, turning around so he could face her head on. He raised his knee and rested one elbow on it as he studied her. “Have you ever considered that maybe your earlier books weren’t accepted because you weren’t ready? That it wasn’t the right story, or you didn’t have enough experience yet?”
    “Of course,” Courtney said. “And I know that has a lot to do with it. But it still doesn’t change the fact that I really do feel inspired when I come home—and it’s a feeling that doesn’t last. Sometimes I sort of feel cursed—like how Davy Jones can only step foot on land once every ten years. Only at least I get a few months out of every year. ”
    Almost absentmindedly, Mitch began tracing the perimeter of her fingers, up and over each one. Tingles ran up her arm, making Courtney feel like she’d be catapulted back to her beautiful dream from that morning. She clamped her mouth shut and