Surely, surely, surely…
Then she remembered his words to Nicole. None of our business, stay out of their private life.
“You okay?” He was looking at her, concerned.
She nodded to reassure him and asked, “Where are we now?”
“I’ve gone through the rest and all the images are fine. I can take you through them now if you want.”
It wasn’t her place to advise him about his private life. He was a grown-up and could make his own choices.
She gave him a small smile. “No, I trust you. Let’s just deal with the cover.”
They had left the cover picture to the very end. Pierre had suggested an image of the island showing the early spring flowers, but Gabriel didn’t agree because that required an aerial shot, and they had no time to get one.
“I thought this would work.” He leaned across her and opened up another file.
It was the picture of her hand wrapped in grass stalks and the daisy between her fingers.
“I thought this was more in keeping with the theme of the book.” He waited for her reaction.
The image was magical. Early morning sunlight falling across her hand made the daisy look like a jewel. An engagement ring.
She couldn’t speak so she nodded.
“I mocked up a possible cover. See what you think.” He clicked another link and a page opened up.
The same picture, filtered and enhanced to make the daisy shine and the yellow at its heart almost pop off the page.
The title ran across the top in Olde Worlde font.
HAND-FASTING
A HISTORY OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE ON LA CANETTE.
The breath caught in her throat.
It told the story simply and beautifully, the ancient tradition, the gorgeous location, and the romance all in one simple composition.
The printers would of course use their own cover designer to make it more professional, but otherwise it was perfect.
“Let’s email it to them and see what they think.” She started composing the email.
He chuckled. “We can’t email it like that. The file is about half a gigabyte. No email can upload this much.”
She stared at him. Even without seeing her own face, she knew her worry was all over it. It was too late in the day to travel to Jersey with the portable drive.
“Don’t worry. I deal with this all the time.” He laughed.
Again, he leaned across her reaching for the keyboard and typed quickly. She sat back and let him upload the manuscript file to an image transfer service.
“You just give them permission so they can access it.” He copied and pasted the link into her original email. “Ask them to confirm when they’ve managed to download it on their end.”
It took twenty minutes before they called her back to confirm they had successfully downloaded the manuscript. “It looks gorgeous, by the way,” the woman on the other end said. “If you can make it here by Monday, I should have the proofs ready for you. And the full print run will be ready by the 12th.”
The 12thof March was three days before the wedding. Pierre squeezed her hands together against her chest and danced on the spot with excitement.
They had done it. Until then it had all been a concept, an idea, a dream. But that phone call made it real.
