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your company.”
    Jen was surprised by that statement. Pleasantly surprised. During the first few days, she was certain Ryan was cursing herself for rescuing her. But now, two weeks later, they’d settled into an easy friendship. At least, for her it was easy.
    “Thank you. And for being a hermit and someone who doesn’t like people, you’ve been a most excellent host.”
    Their conversation was interrupted by a chattering squirrel perched on a pine limb. Jen couldn’t tell if it was fussing at them or the dogs. “It’s beautiful. What kind is it?”
    “Abert’s squirrel,” Ryan said. “Or tassel-eared, as it’s most commonly called. We’ve apparently interrupted lunch.” Ryan started walking again, and the dogs immediately ran ahead of her. Jen followed, glancing back once to look at the squirrel, which continued its tirade.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Jen was tapping away on her laptop. Ryan watched, staring as Jen’s lips lifted in a smile. Her curiosity got the best of her.
    “Are you still working on the exercise I gave you?”
    Jen shook her head. “Oh, I finished that. I’m just writing in my journal.”
    “A journal, huh?”
    “Yes.” Jen glanced at her and shook her head again. “And, no, you may not read it.”
    “Wouldn’t dream of asking,” she said. “How about your story?”
    Jen’s fingers stilled, and she was quiet for a long moment. “It’s not very good,” she finally said. “That’s why I never told you I finished it. I must have started over five times.”
    Ryan nodded. “I want to read it later, but first I want you to tell me about it.”
    “What do you mean? I thought you were going to critique it. You know, my first writing exercise,” Jen reminded her.
    “I will. But I want to get your verbal take on it.”
    Jen closed her laptop and tucked her feet under her. Ryan closed hers as well, giving Jen her full attention.
    “Okay. I admit it, I had a really hard time with it,” Jen said. “It sounded simple enough when you gave it to me. I mean, shopping spree, how hard can that be?”
    “But?”
    “But I did like you said. I made her a real person, with a real family. And I told her story.”
    “So tell me.”
    “Well, first thing she did was...oh, and I named her Carla,” Jen said. “First thing Carla wanted to buy were clothes. New clothes. She’d always had hand-me-downs. She was the youngest of four sisters. So she goes into this expensive shop and is shocked by the prices. She is almost afraid to touch anything. She knows that the thousand dollars won’t go far in there, so she leaves and ends up at a department store. The prices are better, and she finds several things she wants. But each time she picks something up, she thinks that her sisters would like it too and it would be unfair for her to go home with new clothes. So she doesn’t buy any clothes. Then she thinks…jewelry. She’s wearing cheap, over-the-counter earrings, and she sees some pretty gold ones, even some with diamonds. She still can’t justify buying them. She goes to all these different stores, looks at all the things she doesn’t have and wishes she did. But she doesn’t buy a thing. She finally leaves the mall with nothing. Except the thousand dollars.” Jen looked at her expectantly. “Silly, right? I mean, that I couldn’t decide what to buy.”
    “Not silly at all. The point of that exercise is to tell you something about yourself. You’d be surprised at how often the story reflects the personality of the writer, despite it being fiction. So what did Carla do with the money?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe she gave it to her parents to help with bills. Maybe she split it up between her sisters. Or maybe she put it in a savings account for college,” Jen said with smile. “That would be the sensible thing to do.”
    “And the least fun.”
    “So where did you come up with that exercise?”
    “It was something a professor did when I was in college.” As soon as she said that,