Sweetly Isolated (The Swallow Barn Cottage Series, Book 1)

Time to Go

Author's Note:

It's a double update today, because although I know what's coming next and that everything will be OK, I got upset writing this chapter. So, don't miss the next one!

And it's the homestretch, my darlings. I think one more after today's two chapters - and it's HEA for these two! Thank you for being on this journey with me <3

Love,

K. xx

***

He was sitting on the sofa, but this time the laptop was on the coffee table. It was open but the screen was black.

"I'm going to take a Nurofen, and then maybe I'll take a nap," Tina said.

He slowly turned his head and looked at her.

"I haven't slept much last night," Tina said, and he raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to join me?" she offered gingerly.

"For a nap?" he asked, and she nodded.

He rose and started walking towards the stairs. On the way he stretched his hand behind him, and she rushed ahead and grabbed it. They walked to the bedroom and silently crawled under the duvet. He wrapped around her and pressed his nose into her hair behind her ear.

"Clem," he whispered.

"Yes?"

He didn't say anything and only hugged her tighter. She closed her eyes and felt tension leaving her body. It felt like sinking into her favourite scorching bath. It felt... right.

She woke up because she was starving. She looked at the clock on the wall. It was past noon. Holyoake was still sleeping deeply, frowning in his sleep, so she carefully slipped from under his heavy arm and went to the kitchen. They had some left-overs in the fridge, but she felt too groggy to make a decision and plate and warm up, so she poured Sugar Puffs and almond milk in a bowl and took it to the study.

There were twenty three emails in her Inbox. Only two were unrelated to the script contract. Tina stuffed a spoonful of cereal in her mouth - and got to work.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed before he came into the study.

"Clem," he called.

"Just a minute, sorry," she answered, without turning to him. "I just need to figure this out. It's from my lawyer."

"Sure," he answered.

She looked behind her when she finished reading the contract, but realised that it had been more than twenty minutes; and expecting him to still stand there would be ridiculous. She turned back to the computer.

Once she sorted through the emails, she immediately opened an Evelyn Cox file, because the narrative violently drummed and rattled in her skull. Sometimes the text was demanding to be written so much it almost hurt.

At some point Holyoake came in with a tray and put some food in front of her. She never ended up noticing what it was, because she just picked it up blindly, sent it to her mouth, while still typing with one hand.

And then the first few ideas for the script came, and she opened another tab. It turned out she was even faster when it came to writing scripts, and pages followed pages. She then pulled out a clean notebook from the box with her stationary, tore it apart, and wrote the events and the characters on the sheets of paper. She spread them out on the floor, and started shuffling and moving them around. The structure of the narrative would have to be drastically different from the book. She was crawling on the floor rearranging the sheets, when he opened the door and looked in.