“It takes a certain amount of stamina and endurance. If you’ve reached your limit and want to quit…”

The answer was no, just as grimly, just as determinedly as it had been in that little tent. Perhaps she’d fail. She shut her eyes as she struggled to deal with the thought. Perhaps she’d fail miserably, but she wouldn’t quit. Whatever happened, she’d made her own choice, and she’d live with it.

The longer she worked, the more of a symbol those typewritten pages became. If she could do this, and do it well, she could do anything. The rest of her life balanced on it.

By the end of the second week, Lee was so absorbed she rarely noticed the twelve- and fourteen-hour days she was putting in. She plugged in her phone machine and forgot to return the calls as often as she forgot to eat.

It was as Hunter had once said. The characters absorbed her, drove her, frustrated and delighted her. As time passed, Lee discovered she wanted to finish the story, not only for her sake but for theirs. She wanted, as she’d never wanted before, for these words to be read. The excitement of that, and the dread, kept her going.

She felt a queer little thrill when the last word was typed, a euphoria mixed with an odd depression. She’d finished. She’d poured her heart into her story. Lee wanted to celebrate. She wanted to weep. It was over. As she pressed her fingers against her tired eyes, she realized abruptly that she didn’t even know what day it was.

He’d never had a book race so frantically, so quickly. Hunter could barely keep up with his own zooming thoughts. He knew why, and flowed with it because he had no choice. The main character of this story was Lenore, though her name would be changed to Jennifer. She was Lenore, physically, emotionally, from the elegantly groomed red-gold hair to the nervously bitten fingernails. It was the only way he had of keeping her.

It had cost him more than she’d ever know to let her go. When he’d watched her climb into the car, he’d told himself she wouldn’t stay away. She couldn’t. If he was wrong about her feelings for him, then he’d been wrong about everything in his life.

Two women had crashed into his life with importance. The first, Sarah’s mother, he hadn’t loved, yet she’d changed everything. After that, she’d gone away, unable to find it possible to mix her ambition with a life that included children and commitment.

Lee, he loved, and she’d changed everything again. She, too, had gone away. Would she stay away, for the same reasons? Was he fated to bind himself to women who wouldn’t share the tie? He wouldn’t believe it.