Liv crossed out all the remaining names off her hero list, and scrubbed the mishmash male character she’d been working on. She decided to create a brand-new leading man for Georgia instead, and she named him Frank. He was a handsome American with dark hair, a fellow novelist who now owned a bar in Texas. He and Georgia had sizzling chemistry together.

Liv finally started to craft her own sentences and paragraphs. She drew on her experiences in Croatia and from meeting Essie’s men, and she added them into her work.

Except, as she developed Frank’s character further, a sour taste crept into her mouth. Hank had cheated on Essie. The author might have loved him, but that love was tainted. Liv couldn’t give Georgia’s heart fully to her new hero.

Georgia pressed her body against his. She sought out his lips with a feral urgency she couldn’t contain. “I’ve waited so long for this moment,” she murmured.

“Don’t talk, just kiss me,” Frank said, pulling her toward him. His skin was warm against hers. He smelled of cedar wood and whiskey.

Georgia closed her eyes and felt like she was melting. But then something inside her seemed to snap in two. She pulled away from him. “Stop. We’ve got work to do,” she said. “Time is running out.”

Liv chewed the side of her nail. Frank felt more like Frankenstein’s monster. He was good-looking, persuasive and confident, but didn’t seem to have a soul.

She pressed on regardless for several days. The deadline was looming. She had to keep writing.

One day, when her wrists started to cramp, she took a break and wrote a couple of quotes on behalf of Hank. She emailed them to him and he replied soon after.

Go for it, doll. Did you say hello to Ess for me?

Liv let her fingers hover over the keyboard, not wanting to lie to him. Her attraction to him still sparked inside her. Her chest ached when she thought about him learning of Essie’s death.

Thanks so much. She wrote back to him, keeping him at bay. Great meeting you!

She emailed Hank’s quotes to Chloe, unsure if the journalist would keep up her end of the bargain or not. Liv sat with her eyes fixed on the laptop waiting for a reply. When nothing arrived in her inbox, she prowled around the apartment like a caged lion.

After printing out a chapter she’d just drafted, Liv scribbled lots of notes on the paper. She pressed down so hard her pencil snapped and she looked in the top drawer of Essie’s writing desk for another one. When she saw a crumpled up yellow note, she picked it out and smoothed it out. Essie had written,

The best day of my life was also my worst.