“My book is terrible,” Caley wailed. “I can’t make any of it work. At this stage, I’m never going to get it ready in time to send it to Daisy. It’s just one, giant crappy mess. I’m going to be up all night trying to fix it.”
“You’ll be going to bed at your usual time,” a familiar bark came from down the hall. Marisol peered round to find Doc walking towards them with a frown. Linc was behind him. He sent her a wink.
“No cookies. Doc lied,” he told her with a sigh.
“And now all the cookies are gone!” Caley wailed, throwing her hands up in the air. “Will the blows never stop coming?”
“Hush,” Doc told her, walking close and grabbing one of her hands gently, looking it over. “There’s still some cookies left. I just told Linc there were none because I didn’t want him eating them all.”
“Jeez, Doc. I feel so loved.” Linc shook his head.
“You’re not loved. I love Caley. She gets a cookie. You don’t.”
Archer sighed. “It’s hard to be your brother sometimes.”
“Just sometimes?” Linc asked dryly.
“What about Marisol? Does Marisol get a cookie?” Caley asked. “She looks like she could use one.”
“I think I’ve got some sugar free ones she can have,” Doc replied.
“You don’t eat sugar, Marisol?” Caley asked with interest.
“I’m diabetic,” Marisol explained shyly, wishing she could kind of disappear now. Even if it was fascinating watching Caley with her two Docs.
“Really? That’s great!”
“Um, it is?”
“Argh, Caley, think about what you just said.” Archer nodded over at Marisol.
“Oh no, I’m such an idiot.” Caley reached for her with the hand that Doc wasn’t holding. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m so sorry. It’s just the character in my story has diabetes and I’m having trouble figuring everything out. I can’t believe I said that. Forgive me?”
“It’s okay,” Marisol told her.
“Oh good. So would you mind?”
“Um, mind what?” It was hard to keep up with Caley.
“Would you mind answering some questions for me? Or maybe even reading through the story to make sure what I’ve written is accurate? Do you like reading?”
“M-mind? I would love to! I love your books. I’ve read all of them. Several times.”
“She got nervous about coming here when I told her your pen name,” Linc explained.
“Nervous? To meet me? You don’t have to be nervous. I’m just Caley.”
“Just Caley is beautiful and smart and sweet,” Archer told her. Wow, he was so sweet.
“Your hands are swollen,” Doc snapped. “You need to sit with some heat packs on. Have you not been using your dictation?”
And Doc was so grumbly. She guessed they evened each other out.
Caley looked instantly guilty. “The words aren’t coming, so I switched to typing.”
“Caley,” Doc growled in a disapproving voice. “That’s going on your chart.”
With a sigh, Caley pouted up at Doc. “My characters aren’t behaving. What was I supposed to do?”