Devon Vaughn Archer - Say It with Roses

Madison chuckled. “You’re probably right.” She sliced into her steak thoughtfully. “How long does it take you to write a novel?”

“It depends on how much of a handle I have on the plot and what else is going on at the time,” he explained. “But, in general, I’d say about four months.”

“Wow. That’s a pretty quick turnaround,” Madison said. “No wonder you’re so prolific.”

He shrugged. “I guess it’s easy when you don’t have much of a social life outside of your kids.”

“I’m sure they can be a handful at times, though adorable day in and day out.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Stuart said, dabbing a napkin at the corners of his mouth. “I can’t imagine what I’d ever do without them.”

Though Madison suspected this would be a difficult subject, she felt obligated to bring it up anyway. “I read about your ex-wife abandoning you and your daughters.”

“It’s true.” He knew it had made the local news at the time because of his celebrity. It hadn’t helped that his ex seemed perfectly willing to exploit the situation for financial gain and attention. “She met someone passing through and decided to run off with him and that was that.”

“Ouch!”

“Yeah, I know.” Stuart finished off his filet mignon, frowning. “Never saw it coming till it was too late to do a damned thing about it. But I did file for divorce as soon as possible.”

“I can’t say I blame you. For a woman to do such a thing—especially to her children—is unconscionable.”

“You’re right, it is,” he said. “But we’re managing to get by on our own. Her loss.”

Madison was inclined to agree now that she’d had a chance to talk to him. Still she wondered if his girls were really doing that well without a mother in their lives. Or had he been able to make up for her absence through his own love and devotion?

“It’s quite impressive that you’ve gone it alone these past years raising your daughters, yet you still managed to keep churning out bestsellers,” she said. “How have you done it?”

“You do what you have to do,” Stuart responded candidly. “As a father, I owe it to my daughters to let them know I will always be there for them no matter what. I also know that I have to keep up my career to provide for them and myself. It has been a juggling act at times, but I wouldn’t have it any other way right now.”

Madison took that to mean he wasn’t interested in romance at this point in his life. Or was she simply implanting her own thoughts into his? “Maybe someday you’ll find another woman who can give you that balance in life and who can be a mother figure your daughters look up to.”

“That’s certainly possible,” he allowed. “I’m in no hurry, though. If it happens, it happens. If not, well, I won’t have to worry about yet another disappointment.”

“Good point,” she had to agree. “Even if it’s terrible to have to think in those terms.”

“I wish it weren’t the case,” he said. More than she knew. But the baggage of betrayal and abandonment did that to you, no matter how much you tried to erase it from your mind totally. Stuart regarded Madison, remembering that she could relate in some ways. “Now that we’ve gone through my life and times, I’d like to know more about yours—”

Her eyes widened uncomfortably. “I’m not the one being interviewed.”

“I’m not interviewing you,” he stressed. “I just want to talk about what brought you to this point. Obviously, our lives have intersected in a way that was pretty much beyond either of our control. Seems like a good time to put it on the table.”

As much as she wanted to disagree, Madison could not. He had opened up himself to her, over and beyond what was necessary for the interview. So why not return the favor?

“All right,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I’m sure you know all the dirty details of my ex, Anderson, calling off our engagement, only to wind up marrying your sister.”

“Actually, I don’t know the dirty details of it,” Stuart pointed out. “Just the basic facts. As I understand it, your relationship with Anderson ended well before Holly ever came into the picture.”

“That’s true,” Madison confessed as she took a sip of wine. “I honestly never thought I’d ever see Anderson again until I found out he was dating Holly. Before that, I only had the memories of him backing out of an engagement so he could ‘find himself.’ And then, there he was....”

“It must have really thrown you for a loop.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

“And you came here because you couldn’t deal with—”

“No,” Madison cut him off. “I came here because I was offered a good job and a chance to start over. In my heart of hearts, I was over Anderson the moment he walked out on our future. While it may have taken a period of adjustment when he resurfaced, I am over it now. And I don’t blame Holly for any of this.”

“You sure about that?” The one thing he did not want was to see her and his sister at odds for the rest of their lives. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

“I’m sure,” she responded. “She was entitled to find love whenever it found her, which happened when Anderson came into her world. Yes, it did mean that our friendship suffered a bit, naturally, but I really want Holly to be happy and her marriage to work.”

“Maybe you should tell her that sometime,” Stuart said.

“I already have,” Madison said. “But I’ll do so again, so that we’re clear on it.”

He nodded, happy to hear her say that. Though he completely understood her position on this whole situation, Stuart also believed Holly missed the connection with her friend and would welcome the opportunity to jump-start things.

Beyond that, he was intrigued by the woman sitting before him now that he had begun to peel away the layers of defenses she had built around herself.

“So when will this feature appear in the magazine?” he asked, getting back to more comfortable territory.

“The May issue,” Madison told him, “which actually comes out next month. I’ll run it by you before turning in the final draft.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “I’ll be sure to post info about it to my fans on Twitter and Facebook. They usually love these kinds of things.”

“I think it’s more like they love their writers and whatever comes with the territory.”

Stuart laughed. “Yeah, that, too.”

Madison chuckled.

She asked a few more pointed questions about his career, developing plot ideas and upcoming books before they ended the interview.

It surprised Madison that she had felt so comfortable talking to Stuart about herself. Was it his ability to draw that out of her? Or was it something else?

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