Midnight Heat (Firework Girls #2) by J. L. White Read Free Book Online Page A

anything. No restrictions. No barriers. No baby brothers to mother. If you could live any dream you wanted...”
    I shrugged helplessly. “Still the food blog thing,” I said. “Not a little one either. I’d want it to be huge. National. I’d have tons of great recipes, like my Turtle Brownies.”
    “Mmmm, that’s sounds good.”
    “They’re fucking amazing,” I said, and he laughed. “But I’d also want to do reviews of local restaurants. I think it’d be fun. I love food. And not just the snobby stuff either. There’s this place in Rosebrook just a block from my college. Delsa’s Diner. They serve a concoction they call Volcano Fries.”
    I stopped long enough to make yummy sounds. He laughed.
    “There’s nothing upscale about those fries at all, but they’re soooo good. I think it’d be fun to have reviews of places like that right alongside reviews of The Net.”
    He nodded. “Yeah, and you could do profiles of the owners or chefs or something. Then when your posts go live they’ll tell everyone they know to check it out and that’ll help drive traffic to your site.”
    “Good idea!”
    “So why aren’t you doing it?”
    “Well...”
    I didn’t know the answer to that. I’d never talked with anyone who thought blogging could be a viable career path. I knew people did it, but like Brad always said...
    I stopped my train of thought, wondering why that asshole was still up in my head. Everything with him was about being practical. But maybe I didn’t want to be practical anymore.
    Still, even with Grayson sitting right in front of me and making anything seem possible, I discovered letting go of old fears was not so easily done.
    “Statistically, only a small number of bloggers actually make a living,” I said.
    He shrugged. “What difference does that make? You know how many YouTubers aren’t making money? Why should that stop me from doing it?”
    I blinked at him. “Just... the odds?”
    He shrugged again. “It’s good to know what you’re up against, sure. That’s part of knowing what you have to do to succeed. But I enjoy what we’re doing enough that I’m willing to put in the work required to beat the odds. And it is work. And it’s hard. And we’ve had all kinds of setbacks we’ve had to get through. There were times I wondered if we were crazy for doing it. But I just kept thinking, this is what I want to do, so I’m doing it. It’s no different than the guy who works his tail off in law school, right? I’m not afraid of work. I just want to spend it doing something I actually enjoy. Is that so crazy?”
    “It sounds amazing,” I said. “Like a fantasy.”
    He furrowed his brows at me and cocked his head, as if he sensed both my deep desire for this and my fear of even trying. Then he leaned in and asked the question that started to change everything.

Chapter 6
     
    “Come on, Chloe. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
    It wasn’t a casual question. It was serious, and I knew it. We were getting to the heart of things now.
    “Just,” I said quietly, “I don’t know. I guess that I’d put all that work in and nothing would happen. In the end I’d be right back where I started.”
    “Because it’s not making money?” he asked.
    “Well...” I shrugged, “yeah.” But that suddenly wasn’t feeling like a very good reason.
    “If you try and fail,” he said firmly, but gently, “that’s not going back to where you are right now. Where you are right now, you’re always going to wonder. You’re always going to wish .” He gave my hand a little squeeze and held my eyes. “It’s always going to be a regret.”
    I felt that in my heart. How awful it sounded, too, to just always be wishing and hoping and feeling defeated before I even started.
    “Some people feel safer regretting and not trying and they’re okay going on with the status quo,” he continued. “So if that’s you, then there’s nothing you need to change. But,” he said,