Love at First Letter ✔️

Love at First Letter - 4

        But thank you for sending Mr. Brett Tinsley my way with those pen pal letters of yours. I can tell that he is going to be a good friend to me and I've decided to keep up with the letters. Now it just depends on him and what he decides.

        I'm not sure what else to tell you. But I have a favor to ask of you. When you talk to Aunt Jenette next will you tell her that I'm sorry.

        I've got to go now. I'll talk to you later. I love you Uncle Tate.

        Hazel.

I didn't even know what to say. Of course I would forgive her. But what she doesn't know is that I forgave her the moment she left. I didn't care that she didn't answer our calls or my letters, all I cared about what that she was okay and everything was going to get better. I knew it was going to take her a while to get over what happened. And I knew that even now she wasn't over the death of her parents, of my brother and his wife, but I knew that she was getting there. She would never truly be over their loss but she would learn to live with it, and deal with it.

I was glad that she found someone she could confide in, even if it was one of my soldiers. He was a great officer and I knew that he was the perfect match for my neice. Even if they didn't know each other, yet.

I had something up my sleeve and they wouldn't know what hit them.

Hazel's POV

For what seemed the hundredth time that day, I wiped my word screen clear of all the words I had just written and stared at the cursor as it blinked at me. It was making fun of me. I had tried desperately to come up with something, to stop thinking so hard and just let my fingers move over the keyboard. It didn't work. I had come up with a lousy character with no substance, and a plot that has been remade a hundred times. The boy likes the girl, the girl doesn't want the boy, the boy fights for girl, and they fall in love. But before they proclaim their love something tragic happens and they overcome it, and then they live happily every after.

It was overused and tired. I needed something new, something fresh. But nothing was coming to me. I pushed my laptop away from me and slumped back into the booth I was sat in, at the local cafe. It was busy today and there was a constant chatter and laughter around me. I struggled to listen to the conversations, needing something to grasp my attention and inspire a great story. But again, nothing.

I was jealous of all these authors who pump out stories like they have nothing better to do. One minute they're publishing their debut novel, and the next minute they had five best sellers and I'm still sitting in this cafe wondering what my next novel is going to be about.

I closed my word page and went to youtube, maybe something on here would help me out. But instead it just wasted my time as I spent the next hour clicking on videos in the suggestion box. It was a time warp. One minute it was lunch rush and I was working - and not succeeding - on my story and the next there's about nobody in here and lunch rush was over. And still there was no progress on my story. So far all I had at the top of the paper was two words. Chapter One. But then I would delete them and decide I was going to start off with a prologue.

Closing my laptop and paying my bill at the cafe, I tucked my laptop underneath my arm and started home. To no surprise Joanna and Cara were both lounging on my couch and watching television. I knew they would be here, since they seemed to spend more time here then they do at their house - which they share by the way. They had been roommates now for two years, and were rarely at their house. I didn't see why they didn't just move in with me.

"Anyting?" Cara asked as I slumped into the kitchen and ruffled through the various bills on my table. Joanna and Cara joined me at the table.

"Nothing." I told them. "I just need a little bit of help."