He hadn’t tried to stop her when she left the morning after he’d asked her to marry him. He’d said nothing when she’d made her goodbyes to Sarah. Nothing at all. Perhaps they’d both known that he’d said all there was to say the night before. He’d looked at her once, and she’d nearly wavered. Then Lee had climbed into the car with Bonnie, who’d driven her to the airport that was one step closer to L.A.

He hadn’t phoned her since she’d returned. Had she expected him to? Lee wondered. Maybe she had, but she’d hoped he wouldn’t. She didn’t know how long it would take before she’d be able to hear his voice without going to pieces.

Glancing down, she stared at the twisted gold-and-silver ring on her hand. Why had she kept it? It wasn’t hers. It should’ve been left behind. It was easy to tell herself she’d simply forgotten to take it off in the confusion, but it wasn’t the truth. She’d known the ring was still on her finger as she packed, as she walked out of Hunter’s house, as she stepped into the car. She just hadn’t been capable of taking it off.

She needed time, and it was time, Lee realized, that she now had. She had to prove something again, but not to her parents, not to Hunter. Now there was only herself. If she could finish the book. If she could give it her very best and really finish it …

Rising, Lee went to her desk, sat down at the typewriter and faced the fear of the blank page.

Lee had known pressure in her work on Celebrity. The minutes ticking away while deadlines drew closer and closer. There was the pressure of making not-so-fascinating seem fascinating, in a limited space, and of having to do it week after week. And yet, after nearly a month of being away from it, and having only herself and the story to account for, Lee had learned the full meaning of pressure. And of delight.

She hadn’t believed—truly believed—that it would be possible for her to sit down, hour after hour, and finish a book she’d begun on a whim so long ago. And it was true that for the first few days she’d met with nothing but frustration and failure. There’d been a ring of terror in her head. Why had she left a job where she was respected and knowledgeable to stumble in the dark this way?

Time after time, she was tempted to push it all aside and go back, even if it would mean starting over at Celebrity. But each time, she could see Hunter’s face—lightly mocking, challenging and somehow encouraging.