The Audacity of Sara Grayson by Joani Elliott

Author:Joani Elliott [Elliott, Joani]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642937831
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2021-03-25T15:06:19+00:00

Nik stopped by Sunday evening. Sara sat on the porch editing pages on her laptop. She wore cut-off shorts and a t-shirt, her bare legs stretched out on a wicker ottoman.

Nik walked up to the porch, and Gatsby hopped around him happily. He wore dress pants, a light blue button-down shirt, and freshly-shined dress shoes.

“You look nice,” said Sara. “What’s the occasion?”

“Church with Bernie at St. Andrews.”

Sara nodded her head thoughtfully. She had heard how important faith can be in addiction recovery.

Nik sat down in a chair next to Sara and gently scratched the base of Gatsby’s ears. “So my dad’s helping you write?”

“Yeah. Quite a bit, actually.”

“Well, I hope you get through this without wanting to kill your editor.”

“Too late for that. He basically took the first novel I ever wrote and bludgeoned it to death. Despised him for years.”

Nik squeezed one eye shut.

Sara realized how insensitive that sounded. “That didn’t come out right. I mean Phil’s very talented.” She felt her face turn red and stopped talking. She took a breath. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

He shrugged his shoulders and stretched his legs out in front of him. “All I can say is…welcome to the club. I hated him for half my life, so I think I’ve got you beat.”

He gave Sara a sweet half-smile, and she felt relieved she hadn’t offended him, but sad for his situation. She closed her laptop. “So, not a great relationship with your dad?”

“Come on. Are you surprised?”

“I guess not.”

“We’re good now. Actually, I have your mom to thank for that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. When my dad first started dating your mom years ago and she found out how rocky things were with us, she put serious pressure on him to patch things up. She pretty much told Phil to man up and be a father.”

“That sounds like her.”

“He’d bought a home up here—where I live now—and invited me to work on it with him. Maine became this thing that connected us like nothing ever had. I owe that to your mom.”

Sara smiled.

“So what about you? I heard your dad passed away when you were young?”

“Yeah. He died of colon cancer when I was seven.”

A gentle breeze moved through the trees.

“I’m sorry.”

“It was a long time ago.”

The evening was cooling down. Sara slipped her mom’s sweater around her and tucked her legs beneath her. She felt Nik’s eyes gently watching her.

“Do you remember much about him?”

“Quite a bit, although a lot of my memories feel more like snapshots. He used to tell me and Ann these amazing stories about a crime-solving girl named Billie Donovan. She was the daughter of a famous East End detective, Brandt Donovan. We would hang on every single word.” Sara smiled at the memory. “He loved to write. He’s the one who dreamed of being the famous writer, not my mom.” Sara looked up at the sky. “Funny how life turns out.”

“Did he ever publish?”

“Writing journals, mostly. He won a few awards in college. He was

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