“I don’t want to see my family.” Kaelee cut her gaze toward Greta.
“Sounds fine.” Charlie made a note before tapping her fingers on the table pensively. “Richmond has an excellent morning news program.…”
She looked so harmless, but it was quickly apparent that Charlie was the queen of fast-fired topics that made it hard to refuseeverythingon her plan. The epiphany made Kaelee hopeful for her book but also cautious about her secrets.
Ultimately, the afternoon part of the meetings stretched until almost three o’clock. It would’ve been longer, but they hadn’t taken the long gap for lunch that had been on the schedule. Various people from different accounts, marketing, library, and design filtered into the room. Kaelee felt more than a little overwhelmed by the number of people dedicating their days to making her book able to reach readers. There was a weight to it that she hadn’t expected.
I won’t let them down. Any of them.
13Greta
At the end of the meeting, Greta casually opened the app on her phone to message Kaelee. Emily side-eyed her for looking at her phone during a meeting, and there was no way to say,Oh, hi, I’m not ignoring her. I’m messaging her to say I need to talk, in person, tonight, because we have been having incredible sex that must now end.There really was nopoliteanswer she could say in public, so Greta simply ignored Emily’s disapproving look and opened the app quickly. She made eye contact with Kaelee and then sent the message.
Marie:Please talk after work?
After everything that had happened, how much Greta had hoped that they could be friends at the least, she felt like a weight was filling her stomach and something acidic was trying to escape her throat. In the next few minutes, everyone else was milling around the conference room, talking socially to Kaelee and trying to make her smile. They all knew she’d been reticent to come to the meeting, aloof in her email, and their charm was on high effort now. It had been the whole meeting, and Charlie, especially, had been adept at managing Kaelee while Ian had been reserved. A few times, Greta glimpsed the strong-willed woman she knew, but in sum, Kaelee seemed to continue to be standoffish.
How was that shy-seeming author the same woman as the one in my apartment last night?
Greta clutched her phone briefly as Kaelee glanced over at her. Then she placed her phone face down on the conference table and turned to smile at Emily. The willowy agent had pulled her hair back in a slightly too-tight chignon. Her eyes had the telltale shadow of frequent long nights with not enough of a recovery between them.
“Are you okay?” Greta asked Emily quietly. They weren’t close friends, but they’d shared enough celebratory and commiserating conversations in the roller coaster of the last year of the Darbyshire book that they weren’t just colleagues anymore. “Work? Life?”
“Work’s good.” Emily’s smile was as tense as her expression. In this industry, long hours were the norm, and they all knew it.
“And outside of work?” Greta pressed.
“There’s an outside of work?” Emily countered, looking slightly more genuine in the moment.
“Fair, but… you’re okay? Toni’s okay?” Greta pressed. She hadn’t known initially that her star author and the typically shrewd agent in front of her had grown up together, but after buying Toni’s book, Greta understood that Emily was protective of her in the way a fierce older sister was. Greta had been grateful for—and occasionally envious of—their friendship. Most of her relationships with close friends had been worn and battered by Tasha’s dramatics.
I need more friends,Greta admitted.Real friends, not fair-weather ones.
Emily glanced over to make sure no one was listening, and then said, “Toni’s fine, and I will be. Had a lump. Then a breast biopsy. It has had me worried, and typically I’d talk to my bestie but…” Emily shrugged. “Toni has a lot on her plate, and she doesn’t need me adding—”
“Bullshit. That woman would chew glass for you. She has no deadline, and her fiancée is doting and happy.” Greta shook her head before piercing Emily with a look. “Last I heard, her motherwas doing as well as she ever is, too. Talk to her. That’s what friends do.”
Emily sighed. “I know I ought to. Toni is somuchwhen she worries. It might not be obvious by her prickly exterior, but Toni is the sweetest woman I’ve ever known. If she knows I’m worrying, she’ll end up camped out on my sofa and making chicken noodle soup.” Emily’s lips quirked in a small smile. “She’s sure soup cures everything.”
“We should all be so lucky to have loyal friends like her.” Greta glanced over at Kaelee, who was now cornered by her increasingly enthusiastic publicist. Charlie would shepherd the release like a mother pit bull guarding a newborn pup; she was a glory to behold when she was allowing her charisma to run free.
“Charlie took a liking to her,” Greta remarked. “Maybe Kaelee will warm up to her.”
Emily followed Greta’s gaze, which couldn’t stay off of Kaelee despite efforts. “What do you think about Kaelee?”
I think she’s stunning, and funny, and needs someone to love her… and in more than a few brief moments I wanted to be that person,Greta thought. Aloud, she said, “She’s talented. More commercial than Darbyshire, too. The sex in the second draft is sizzling, but not gratuitous. Well, maybe alittlegratuitous in the second act, but readers will love it.”
“She has the sequel ready to submit.”
Greta nodded, pretending not to know as much. “Do you think she’d be amenable to having Ian as her primary editor?”
“I thought you loved the first book?” Emily prompted.
“I do.”
“Yet you want to pass it over?” Emily frowned. “Ian’s great, of course, but… why?”
Because last night, she was spread open like a gift while I touched her,Greta thought, cheeks burning at the mental image.
