I snort half-heartedly at that mental picture, then sigh heavily.
“I’m meeting Noah’s parents this weekend.” I drop the bomb without much fanfare, but from her gasp of surprise and squeal, you’d think I just spoiled the ending of her favorite show.
“So you two are together finally?”
That’s not really the important part, but since it’s her, and I know that her need for gossip can be crippling for her sometimes, I let it pass.
“Yes, we are. It’s a long story.”
“You got anywhere else to be?” she sasses.
“No,” I grumble, then admit defeat. I tell her everything that happened after they left the castle, and ever since with Noah.
“You bagged yourself the cutest guy on the planet,” she says, sounding almost wistful, though I know she’s not.
“I did, and now we’re going to have dinner with his parents and I don’t know what the fuck to do,” I whisper-shout.
“Okay, first of all, maybe start acting your age? You’re not a fumbling teenager or a struggling nobody. You’re Chase fucking Knightly, and they’re going to love you just based on how much you love Noah, so...”
That word . . .
Love.
It stays stuck in my mind while I keep trying to listen to every word she says carefully.
“He’s pretty amazing, so you’ve got to figure his parents have had more than a little to do with that.”
“That’s true,” I admit.
There are exceptions, of course, like my family.
I’m definitely not the person I am today thanks tomyparents, more like despite them.
“You just be your charming self, respectful but don’t act scared, don’t act like they’re a lot older than you. The best course of action, I think, is to act as normal as possible. Compliment them on Noah, that’s what all parents want to hear. Bring flowers and a good bottle of wine, and be prepared to maybe be forced to prove you’re worthy of their son.”
Yeah, like that’s not beyond daunting.
“Okay,” I drag on, letting her know she’s got my full attention.
“Is that really all you want to talk about?”
Unlike the start of our conversation, I can no longer hear any sleepiness in her voice, so while I’ve got her, I’m going to take advantage.
“That’s the most important part, yes, but I also wanted to ask how you managed to write your own book without the help of a ghostwriter?”
“Ah,” she says, in a mock-wise tone. “I simply researched everything I could find on how the publishing business works. Then I advocated for my value with the publishing houses, and finally I found the book that I actually wanted to write.”
“Yes, this I understand perfectly.”
“I knew you would.”
“I did have help from one of Adam’s friends from college, like I told you, and of course my brother helped too, but the help from Bennett was invaluable just to put the structure of the book together. He also helped me edit a lot, but that’s mostly because I didn’t want to give power over my manuscript to anyone else.”
That gets me thinking about who I could ask for help... Of course there’s Noah, but as far as I know, he hasn’t written any books.
I’ll have to make sure to ask tonight.
“Did I tell you we changed the whole concept?” I ask, and get ready to deliver another lengthy, detail-fueled recollection of everything that led to Noah having that stroke of genius in my library two weeks ago.