A Very Married Christmas: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella(14)

If this were any other time, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell him. But with the shooting and him being so miserable…well…the timing of this call really sucked.

“There’s been some interest in the movie rights to my first book,” she said carefully. “Actually, we’ve been in talks with a production company for a couple of months now.”

Josiah’s eyes went wide. “What? Why haven’t you said anything?” Then he smiled. “This is amazing news!”

Melanie could feel herself blush. “I didn’t want to get my hopes up. You hear of this sort of thing all the time and more often than not, it doesn’t amount to anything.”

“But still, Mel, this time it could!”

She nodded. “That’s why Christine was calling. We have an offer and they are motivated to start filming in the spring.” With a soft sigh, she looked at him helplessly. “She wants me to go to Manhattan and meet with her and the producers to sign contracts.”

“That’s fantastic!” He stood and walked over to her and gently pulled her to her feet with his good arm. Wrapping it around her, he said, “I’m so proud of you!”

Mindful of his wounds, Melanie gently hugged him back. This was really good news for her—for her career—but she hated the thought of traveling right now and leaving Josiah home alone. On the few trips she’d had to make to meet with Christine, he’d never come with her. It was always easier for her to go alone and he didn’t particularly enjoy walking around the crowded city—especially when she was in meetings all day. He was quite possibly the only person who couldn’t find something to do in the city that never slept.

Go figure.

Together, they sat down on the sofa. “So when do you need to go?” he asked. “Is there a rush?”

“I think if I said I couldn’t go right now, Christine would do what she could to reschedule. But as it stands right now, she’s got a meeting scheduled for Monday.”

“Okay, wow. That’s five days away.” He looked at her expectantly. “You’re gonna go, right?”

She hesitated ever-so-slightly and Josiah immediately jumped on it.

“You don’t have to worry about me and I certainly don’t want you missing out on such an important meeting because of me. I’m fine, Mel. Everyone is making more of a big deal out of this than they need to. Even the doctor said he couldn’t believe what a clean wound it is—the bullet didn’t hit anything vital. I just have to baby my shoulder for a few weeks.”

“Josiah, I know that but it doesn’t mean I want to just pick up and leave you so soon. Your arm is in a sling and there are a lot of things you still can’t do on your own. I mean…you can’t drive and you certainly can’t cook with just one hand. What if you needed help with something and I wasn’t here and…”

“Okay, okay, okay,” he said softly, soothingly. “I get it. I do. And as much as I appreciate how you want to take care of me, Mel, you have a job to do and you need to be able to do it. I’m sure your dad could come and stay with me. It won’t be a big deal.”

“It’s a big deal to me,” she murmured. Studying him hard, she said, “If I was injured, would you leave?”

Melanie didn’t even have to wait for his answer. She saw it in his eyes.

Never.

He would never leave her.

“Don’t ask me to,” she said firmly. “If I have to, I can Skype the meeting with Christine. I told her what was going on here and she understands. We’ve handled contract negotiations via email before and we can do it again.”

And they had. Granted, they were standard publishing contracts that she’d been signing with her publisher for years and there wasn’t anything new other than more money in advances, but Melanie still felt confident they could handle movie negotiations the same way. She would talk to Christine beforehand and talk about what they were offering and if she had any counter offer and see how much creative control she was going to have and…it should all be okay, right? What benefit could there possibly be to her going and meeting with these people in person?

And on top of that, there was so much for Melanie to be handling here at home. Besides taking care of Josiah, she did still have a book to write. If she took time off to go to Manhattan, chances are she’d go a few days before the meeting and stay for a day or two after to take in the city and it was time away from her keyboard that she really couldn’t afford to take.

And as if that wasn’t enough, they still had a wedding to start planning.

Josiah shifted beside her, his dark eyes studying her.

“What? What are you looking at?”

He gave her a lazy grin. “You looked like you were thinking about something pretty hard there for a minute.”

Why deny it? Josiah was scary-good at reading her. “I guess I’m just working it all out in my head—the reasons not to go. We live in a day and age where meetings can be held without everyone involved being in the same room, so really, it makes things so much easier.”

“Mel…”

“And Christine is always telling me how I am easily distracted. Like all the time. No doubt if I step away from this book for four or five days, it will take me weeks before I get my groove back. And nobody wants that. Things are going well—the words are flowing and I feel like I’m finally in my characters’ heads and it would be crazy of me to think it will all just come back after an extended break.”