David and ?

*****This post contains spoilers from “The Hardest Goodbye”*****

David and Bee, Bee and David.

I had big plans for them. I wrote them together their whole lives and I loved the push and pull it gave Jack and Bill as the kids grew up.

But as I began to advance the series and have the kids grow up, I began to see their lives changing. I had a few specifics that were important. I wanted them to date. I wanted their first real kiss to be with each other. I wanted David to have to face Jack to take Bee on a date.

But then what?

Happily ever after?

Not likely.

I wanted their relationship to be real and true to who they were, but I also began to see something else, a new side to their story.

Life isn’t perfect. We all know that. We might want certain things to happen and they simply don’t work out.

It would be too predictable for David and Bee to grow up, fall in love, and get married.

I don’t like predictable. I like excitement. I like drama. I like passion.

I also saw something in Sabrina and David that just didn’t click.

I had an idea, but a few things needed to happen first.

I needed David to get his heart broken.

I needed David to be blindsided by Bee’s breakup.

I needed him to question everything he knew to be true.

I needed him to be at a low point in his young life.

I needed him to grow.

Cue Desi.

Desi is different from all of the kids I’ve written. She reminds me of the students I have who exist in the background. She is an observer, a brilliant mind who people don’t take the time to notice. She is kind and compassionate and wise beyond her years.

She is sort of an older Courtney, if she had lived.

Desi had a few secrets that were quite important, but I wanted people to find them out in different ways. I wanted people guessing.

Who was she?

What was her purpose?

What was her connection?

Was she good or bad?

I also mirrored her meeting David in a similar fashion to how Tommy met Brittany.

David is a character I have always felt was underdeveloped. Maybe it was because he was the only boy, or maybe because I immediately put him with Bee, I just didn’t know who he was on his own.

I also hadn’t done a very good job of telling my readers about him.

He played hockey. He is a goalie. He’s annoyed by Josie. He has a good friend named Katie.

That was all I had really revealed and I had so much more in mind for him.

With Desi, I was able to show more sides to David because she was learning them, too.

I was specifically vague about Desi at first because I wasn’t sure how she and David would click.

I liked having most of the rest of the kids know Desi and I decided to have Julie know her as well. I always knew there would be a military connection because I have been wanting to beef up that side of the canvas. I also wanted it to be a woman, Desi’s mother this time.

That brings me to Ian.

I have been wanting to write a veterinarian for a long time and I thought a large animal vet would bring a new spin to things. It was also the perfect way to connect Ian and Desi to the rest of the family. The farm was already there and having Ian work there would be a great excuse for Desi to be there and for David to meet her.

Ian’s back story will continue to come out in the next book and I hope you are enjoying him so far.

Giving Desi cancer was another calculated risk. Not only was I introducing a new character, but I was putting her in a position where I needed people to care about what happened to her.

It also allowed me to connect her to Tommy and by extension, Brittany.

This will be important moving forward.

David and Desi are discovering something pretty wonderful. They are both reeling from Katie’s suicide attempt and David is at a loss for how he lived his live without, as Desi put it, paying attention to anything around him.

He is smitten. He is excited. He is completely out of his comfort zone and it’s the best feeling in the world.

Until the dance.

Everything is about to change.

Are you ready?

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