Head's up & Rough Around the Hedges Snippet (Patreon)

Hello my friends! I have an editor booked to look at Rough Around the Hedges in mid-March. Which is great! Except I wanted my draft to be done by now and it isn't. It's almost done...but not quite, and I need a little time to go through it again before handing it off to the editor. Which means I need to put a temporary pause on the TBR of Doom posts *and* probably BTLN. I'm hoping for only about a week or so. This is of course filling me with guilt, because I am that type of person.

I'm hoping that by taking a few things off my plate, I can barrel through and get this book done. You have all been very patient in the past, but I also understand if this is a deal breaker for you. It's got to be really frustrating to wait for the next chapter of a story and not get it right away. I'm planning on bribing you with snippets from Rough Around the Hedges...but will totally understand if that's not your bag.

Anyway, with that in mind, here's the next snippet for your enjoyment. This one is in Van's POV, and I enjoy watching her struggle with her sudden shift in perspective toward Will. Enjoy!

--Lish

I closed my eyes. I wanted everything back the way it was—my best friend, with none of this extra and unwanted baggage. I could push it back, right? Get us back on track?

When I opened my eyes, Will was frowning at me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah?” I manufactured a smile. “Busy morning. Guess I’m a little tired.”

Normally Will wouldn’t buy this for a second. He would gently nudge the truth out of me. This new Will simply nodded, breaking off a piece of muffin in his hands.

My hands were sweating now. It was like talking to a stranger. How could I fix this? I licked my lips. “So, with everything yesterday, I didn’t get to talk to Juliet about dad. I was thinking of going over there now. Do you…do you want to go?”

Will chewed a bite of muffin carefully as he grabbed his phone off the coffee table, checking the time. His expression became apologetic. “I can’t. I have a coffee date at two. I still need to shower and shave.” His smile was so faint it was like the ghost of a ghost. “I smell like bar.”

“Oh.” And as I sat there, I realized that I had fully expected Will to go with me. Not that Will didn’t have a life, it was only…Will was always with me. My sidekick. My ride or die. He never missed big life stuff, and talking to Juliet was kind of a big life thing.

It was absolutely reasonable that he had his own stuff. A date. People dated. Totally normal. Normal. I wanted things back to our status quo, and this would get us on the way to that. So, yippie, I guess.

But I was still being haunted by that stupid dream, because thinking about Will going on a date instead of going with me felt like a betrayal. Like I was being left for another woman.

Which was ludicrous.

I smacked my hands on my thighs. “Excellent. Good, good. Yup. Yuppers.” Oh, gods, someone please shut me up.

Will stopped chewing and stared at me, his brows pinched.

I didn’t blame him. I was acting really weird and couldn’t seem to make myself stop. “Right. Let me know how it goes!” My voice sounded bright and tinny in my ears. I stood up abruptly. “I guess I should get going. Hit the ol’ dusty trail.” Holy fuck, what was I a cowboy now?”

Will didn’t even make fun of me. He nodded slowly, finishing off the last of his coffee.