Page 94 of Out on a Limb

“You don’t miss working in Hollywood? You don’t miss writing scripts?”

“Sometimes, I do think about what could’ve happened if I’d stuck with it, but I know that ultimately, it wasn’t the place for me. And I never stopped writing. I actually got into writing children’s books, since I read so many with my kids. I just landed a literary agent.”

“Congrats!”

“We’ll see what happens.” She showed Cameron a picture of her family on her phone. Three kids, all with matching red hair. “It’s funny.”

“What is?” Cameron asked.

“If you had told me at twenty-two where I’d be at forty-two, I never would’ve believed you. I would’ve laughed in your face. A professor mother of three living in the middle of Pennsylvania? But that’s the fun part of life. There are plenty who stay on the path, and I still keep in touch with them. They kept pursuing their dreams, and now they’re executives, producers, writers, actors. Many of them have families, too. My husband went to medical school right out of undergrad and still practices today. And then there’s people like me, who let life take some crazy twists and turns.”

Cameron held his script against his stomach. His throat went dry as his mind scrambled with thoughts. “Are you happy?”

“I am.” She had to think about it. “But it’s a different kind of happy.”

He pictured mornings he and Walker laid in bed with Hobie about to bust the door down. It was a different type of happy he experienced, too. He felt accomplished and proud when he secured the job with Arthur. But there was an everyday joy that coated his life when he spent time with Walker and his son. It wasn’t the happy moment that came with a career victories, rather a general feeling that was so stealth, he hadn’t realized it until now.

“What if I don’t want to move to Los Angeles?” He couldn’t believe the words left his mouth, but they didn’t sound as scary aloud. “What if I make the wrong choice?”

“Then it’s just another twist in your path.” She hugged him with a mom hug perfected over three children. “Keep in touch, Cameron.”

CHAPTER thirty

Walker

“I’m really okay, Lucy.” Walker pushed away the oversized cupcake from his keyboard. She nudged it back with her finger.

“It’s okay to eat your feelings.”

Walker was not going to get away from this cupcake-free. They always cheered each other up with food. “Let’s both eat my feelings.”

He sliced the cupcake in half with a plastic knife and scooted the larger half over to Lucy.

“Talk to me,” she said before taking a bite. Lucy pretended she was always on a diet until half a cupcake was put in her way.

“There’s still a puddle of Hobie tears on my bedspread.” Walker didn’t know the protocol for telling Hobie that Cameron was gone from their lives. He told him the truth, that Cameron had to leave early. “But he didn’t even say good-bye!” Hobie had whimpered through tears. That hit Walker the most.

“He’ll be okay. This is just the initial shock,” Lucy said. “Kids are resilient. My kids survived burying all four grandparents who they were close with.”

“He’s not dead, Lucy,” Walker said, and the look she gave him reminded that Cameron wasn’t coming back either.

Walker dug into his treat, and his knees wobbled at the deliciousness. “This cupcake is amazing.”

“I got it from Dollop. It’s a really sweet lady who owns it. For how much longer, I don’t know.”

He licked his fingers. Sweets hadn’t been as delicious to him these last few years. All the sugar went to his head. He was told that’s what happens when people get older. Yet another downside to aging.

But this cupcake was a grand exception.

“What do you mean, you don’t know how much longer?”

“We chatted in the store, and she says business is not doing too well. The Duncannon cupcake craze is over, it seems.”

He thought back to her atrocious billboard he saw outside Cherry Stem. That probably cost her more than a pretty penny. What a waste.

Walker heard the familiar ping of a new email in his inbox.

Subject: Can you come into my office?