Taivon: Book Three of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Nine

“So what you're saying is that you want to write a completely different book?”

Alix gripped her phone more tightly, glad that Matthew couldn't see her sarcastic eye roll. When it came to her writing, it was simple. If she had a solid plot that she thought about constantly, then that was that. The next installment of her four-part series just wasn't coming to her at the moment. Team that up with this whole new idea she had going, and there was only one solution: write something new, not related to the series.

“Yes,” she said. “Just a stand-alone novel, ya know? I've been thinking about it a lot, and maybe, after I finish it, I'll be able to write the next book.”

“And you want me to edit it?”

“I figure people will still want to read it. It's just an idea, really. Vivian doesn't even have to look at it if she doesn't want to. I just wanted to know if you'd be interested in something like this.”

From the other end of the line, papers were shuffled, and Matt cleared his throat. “I guess I can take a look at it.”

“You don't sound too excited.”

“Plot?” was all he said.

Like always, Alix felt her body go warm as she told him just what she had been obsessing over. It'd be about a divorced, single mother and her two-year-old son's move to Canada. There, and because of the son's intense love of all things construction, she'd meet the hardware store owner who was great with her son and even better with her.

Alix still didn't even have the names picked out, but she had the descriptions all set up. The hardware store owner was tall, had a beard, and a little bit of a gut. The single mother was a seventh grade teacher, with blonde hair and mom hips. Her two-year-old son's favorite word was “no.”

She loved them all already.

“How long ya thinkin' it'll be?” he asked, after she'd finished.

Alix shrugged. “Two hundred-ish pages, I guess. Two-year-olds can be a handful.”

Her little sister, Mabel, had a three-year-old son. His name was Michael, and he had the most adorable smile Alix had ever seen. She was his godmother but didn't get to see her nephew all that much. Mabel lived with her boyfriend down in Fremont, which was about an hour away from here and five hours from her subleased apartment in Denver.

“You got anything written yet?”

She looked down at the blank word document on the screen. “Well, sorta.”

“What do ya mean 'sorta'?”

“I have all of the main events and conflicts in my head, but the first chapter's a little tricky. I'm working on it, though.”

“E-mail it to me when you're done, okay?”

“Okay,” she said. “Maybe in a few days?”

“Sounds good. Talk to ya later, Alix.”

“Thanks, Matt. See ya.”

She hung up and looked down at her laptop. Ever since she'd smacked her head on Taivon's nose, she just couldn't stop thinking about this idea. It was as if the nose smack had somehow pushed her a little ways past the writer's block.

It also didn't hurt that the main male character would sort of resemble him. That was sort of a no-no, but Alix figured that if it was just physical traits that resembled Taivon, her male character wouldn't be a Gary-Stu. Her sudden attraction to beards and tucked in shirts had just exposed her to a whole new group of men, and she wanted to write about somebody experiencing it.