“What are you doing?” Dash asked as Chris killed the car engine.
Chris clapped a hand on Dash’s shoulder with a grip firm enough to remind him he’d once played major league baseball. “You are not your drinking. You don’t have to live the rest of your life alone just because you made a choice to drink yesterday. You’re always going on about choosing. And guess what, you can choose to allow yourself happiness or to be miserable. That is your choice. But don’t say Sophie doesn’t love you. She does. Love is a word, but more importantly, love is action. She has shown you over and over again that she loves you. What she did these last twenty-four hours? That is love.”
Dash’s mouth pinched closed as he held back all the reasons why he wasn’t good enough for Sophie and never would be. Instead, he deflected. “You and Mira are different. You are a better person than I am.”
“If you want to tell yourself that so you can feel good about shutting Sophie out, then be my guest.” Chris held his hands up in surrender. “But you forget that I didn’t retire from the Dodgers, I got fired. And not just for drinking—for being so drunk that I pissed in the mascot’s uniform.”
“Sort of funny,” Dash admitted.
“And then shit in the umpire’s hat.”
Dash held back a laugh. “Still funny.”
“We are not different, Dash. I’ve just worked to forgive myself, while you’re not there yet. You continue to punish, but don’t be like Kitty. Be your own best friend. You have to be, otherwise you’re going to lose the woman you love.”
Dash stared at Chris and knew his friend wasn’t just saying these things to try to make him feel better. Chris genuinely believed in Dash. But Dash couldn’t yet see a world where he’d believe in himself.
When they arrived at the rehab center, a valet placed all of Dash’s luggage on a cart. Dash and Chris hugged goodbye and made promises to see each other at the first open visitation. As his friend’s car drove off, Dash reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper Sophie had given him.
When he unfolded it, a shirtless Richard Gere stared back.
37
SOPHIE
It had been over a week since Dash had left for rehab, and Sophie hadn’t been able to communicate with him during that time. Not because she hadn’t wanted to, but the center required a tech detox for the first half of the stay.
So she’d buckled down on writing and poured every single feeling she’d had for Dash into the book she’d started at the spa with him, when they’d first begun to like each other. She was almost to the end, just past the all-is-lost moment, and should’ve been able to see her way to the happily-ever-after finish line...
But she’d gotten stuck, again, and couldn’t seem to write her way out of it. Instead of wallowing in the self-pity she’d grown used to whenever the writer’s block hit, though, she got out of the house and took herself on the bookish date of her dreams to try to clear the debris.
Sophie got off the subway at the Culver City stop and made her way down the stairs to the street, where she’d take a short walk to the bookstore she loved most. The Ripped Bodice was just off the main downtown street, with a pink storefront and an enormous glass window with rotating and impressive displays. Their current summer window was no exception, with the bottom covered in sand and book-sized beach chairs holding copies of recent summer releases. A glittery rainbow sun hung over the top and twinkled in the afternoon light.
The door of the bookshop dinged as she walked through, and the familiar warmth of the place made her smile. A few shoppers browsed the aisles as Sophie walked through the store. She allowed her fingers to skim the spines of the fantasy-romance section and stopped at a copy of a new Regency romp she’d seen a lot of chatter about on Instagram. She decided to take the book home with her and brought it to the register.
“Sophie?” The woman behind the register recognized her, and Sophie instantly brightened as she set the book on the counter. “It’s been a while!”
“The window display is fantastic,” Sophie said.
“I’d love to have your next book up there.” She waved to the window as she rung up Sophie’s purchase. “When can we expect another from you?”
“Hopefully soon.” Sophie nodded, and she felt those words so deeply that it sent a rush through her. Her book was technically due the next day, but she’d already prepped her agent that the book she’d agreed to write—the meteorologist who falls for the storm chaser—wouldn’t be what she was turning in. If she was lucky, she’d find a way to finish the new book and cross her fingers that her editor would like this unexpected surprise.
“Good to hear.” The bookseller shrugged happily and smiled as she handed a bag with the book to Sophie.
As Sophie turned and walked toward the exit, she felt a new energy ripple through her. A kind of motivation to have another book on the shelves of this store that had meant so much to her. She’d dreamed of being the kind of author a store like The Ripped Bodice would carry. And here they were, encouraging her to write more. She wasn’t going to let this be the end of her story. She had a book nearly finished, and she planned to get to the end this time.
She made her way to the boba tea store down the block, ordered an oat milk boba for fuel, and sat at a cozy booth to write.
There was no hesitation when she cracked open her laptop. She had a fully charged battery, enough caffeine to fuel a jet plane, and fingers that were anxious to type. She was going to finish her new book, the one that was, more or less, about her and Dash.
A grumpy-sunshine, best-friend’s-brother story, all set in a spa. And the hero had tattoos and piercing blue eyes. And the main character was a wavy-haired health nut who had a Cinderella-esque charm over animals. She’d already written the loose framework—a humiliating meet cute, being forced to help each other, only one bed, and outside circumstances that took them apart. And as she sat, she started in on the ending she wanted her characters to have.
She found herself exploring the issues she’d faced through her TikTok experiment while she wrote. Her main character, like Sophie, was a people pleaser to her core and wanted everyone to like her. When things got hard, she bailed instead of dealing with the issues. But she was also a hopeless romantic with grand, sweeping dreams of what love could look like. And the hero of the book was able to make those dreams a reality. With him by her side, she was finally able to acknowledge what she wanted because he encouraged her to be exactly who she was.