Premonitions | ✓

thirty-nine

 "Hardest To Love" -The Weeknd

The rest of the school year went smoothly. 

     Lars had officially started his own crafting business and was thinking of buying out the dollar store next door to expand his dinky hardware shop. 

     Anna was able to publish another chapter book, it took longer than normal due to the illustrator taking their sweet time, not to mention her dick of a publisher, who forgot her name. Lars noticed all of this, of course, after the death of her grandmother, Anna had turned serious, cold, detached. 

     They were living day-to-day.

     Anna taught over the summer to keep herself busy while Lars worked long hours at the hardware store. The couple barely spent anytime together anymore, it seemed. But, it was one evening, where Anna had sat down at her desk, where she received an email from a publisher at Penguin. 

     Anna had clicked on it quickly, terrified of what was to await her inside.

     Anna remembered when she was in her mid-twenties, when she first began The Shifter Chronicles, Penguin wasn't interested, telling her to keep up the good work, that maybe one day, with a little luck, they might bring her on. But, once inside the email, Anna read the lines of acceptance, but it wasn't one of her new chapter books.

      It was a novel she had written almost a decade ago.

     "Lars!" She screamed.

     He was downstairs, watching the discovery channel, while Darcy lied beside him on the couch. At the sound of his wife's scream, he jumped, only spending half a second on the couch to listen for her before he quickly leaped off, running up the stairs to their bedroom two at a time.

      On his way, he had successfully dodged moving boxes. Lars hit his shoulder on the door jam as he got to their room. Ignoring the pain, Lars kneeled next to his wife, his knees hitting the hardwood floor.

     "Anna bear, what happened?" Lars raised a hand to push back some hair to inspect the damage but paused when he saw her wide smile and tears.

     He looked up at her, confused, "They're going to publish my book," she whispered.

     Lars had no idea what she was talking about, "Honey...What book?"

     Anna started running her mouth a mile a minute, telling him the plot and characters of the romance novel she had written years ago. How she had gone through three different editors, one of those including Midge Price, how the book was rejected more times than she could count, and lastly, how she had almost burned every copy all those years ago. Anna had sent the manuscript to her friend many years ago, only receiving the copy back, bleeding red.

     "You scared me, screamin' like that..." He said as he rose from his knees with a low groan.

     Anna let out a breathy chuckle, looking back over at her laptop, a beam of a smile across her lips, "I didn't know I was going to be this happy, old man."

     Ignoring the nickname, he said, "How did they get their hands on it?"

     Anna looked up at her husband, "I sent it in months ago when I found it while packing. I changed a few things here and there, tweaking a few things, but before I got really into it, I sent it in, not expecting anything back."

     She let out a squeal, shaking her fists in the air near her chest, the area heaving rapidly. Lars walked over to her side of the bed, opening the top draw of her nightstand to grab her inhaler. It took him no time to get it to her excited state. Anna took it happily, getting a few puffs in before standing, leaping in her husband's arms.

     Lars fell back onto the bed with a grunt as they both laughed. Anna pepper kissed her husband's face with obnoxious smacks, making Lars boast more. Once they calmed down, Anna stayed lying atop her husband, her arms on his chest, her chin resting on her forearm to gaze down at him lovingly. 

     Lars trailed a finger up her cheek and around her ear, a smile adorning his face.

     "I'm proud of you, Wife," he whispered.

     Anna sighed, dreamily, "Thank you, Husband."