I Heart Geeks by Aria Glazki, Stephanie Kayne, Kristyn F. Brunson, Layla Kelly, Leslie Ann Brown, Bella James, Rae Lori Page A

blank. The feelings were still present—they were always present—but words, they were gone. Nonexistent.
    With a sound of frustration and disgust, Willow turned from him. “I’m leaving.”
    Everything seemed to snap into place then fall away. His chance at happiness was going to walk out unless he could say something to stop her. Something. Anything! He was an actor. Speaking was his forte. Speaking other people’s words.
    “Your website!”
    Her hand stilled on the doorknob. Again.
    “If you leave now then RetroGrade.com won’t get another opportunity like this again. The movie studio will just call up another blogger and you’ll be known as a flake.”
    He knew it was a low blow. From what he’d read—and heard from the hometown gossip mill—her website was her life. After high school she’d gone to Upper Peninsula State University and after graduation she stayed put in Harlow, Michigan and still works at her parents’ shop on Main Street.
    This trip to Indianapolis wasn’t the first time she’d been out of the Upper Peninsula, but it was rare. He and Willow used to talk long into the night about their dreams. She’d been more open to explore, see what life had in store for her. No firm plans for his Willow. Just hopes and wispy pieces of plans.
    Jack was different. He had always wanted to act in anything and everything. By the time he was eighteen, he’d been in dozens of community productions. Everything he did was to make his dream come true. He never wavered from his path until one night, one weekend almost derailed everything he had worked so hard for. She had made everything he wanted seem inconsequential. Like his whole life should be about them and what they could be together.
    The realization scared the shit out of him. It still did, but he was a grown man now. He’s spent twelve years working with a few dates here and there—enough to know what he and Willow shared was special. The kind of stuff people try to capture in Hallmark cards and sappy romantic comedies. He just had to make Willow believe it too and he only had one weekend to accomplish it.
    She didn’t turn around. She didn’t speak. She didn’t fight back. She just opened the door where the intern was waiting.
    “Done already?” he asked, eager to please.
    Pasting on an overly bright smile, Willow tossed her hair. “Yes, Mr. Kendrick was very…concise,” she said, adjusting her bag.
    She tried to walk past the young man, when Jack asked, “See you at the panel?”
    Turning toward him, her eyes became frosty. “I’ll be there, Speedy.”
    With that parting shot, Willow flounced out of the room. Actually flounced away from him as if she trumped him.
    “Speedy?” the intern asked.
    Jack smiled. His feisty friend was still in there. “I used to be a great marksman like Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy.”
    “Really?”
    He laughed, slapping the young man on the shoulder. “That’s the story I’m going with.”

Two
“Like Jed, we can never forget our past, but he shows that while we may travel far from home—we never truly leave it. Where we’re from, what we’ve done is all a part of who we’ve become. And in the case of Jedidiah Gold, being a U.S. Marshall helped him lead the Resistance against the warlord Haisen OathBreaker.”
    —The Wisp, Why
GoldStar
Still Matters video
    This was a terrible idea, Willow thought as she took her reserved seat—first row, right in front of where Jack will be sitting—at the
GoldStar
panel. She had already tweeted and wrote a brief post about GoldStar being played by Jack Kendrick—last scene on an off-Broadway stage production of
Pride and Prejudice the Musical
. He was Bingley. Rather than spending another second in his company, Willow hightailed it out of the hotel suite and used his studio promo headshots. So far the most popular replies have been “Who?” and “Broadway? Are you freaking kidding me?”
    Which, of course, prompted Willow to respond with a link to a