“Because it’s unique, and even though part of it was damaged by moisture, it’s breathtaking. Besides, a message in a bottle is a curious thing that grabs people’s interest. Can I ask why you put this in a bottle and tossed it into theocean?”
“No.” She sank further into her chair, shying away from him. She wasn’t about to have that conversation with a completestranger.
“Fair enough. Still, we’d like to buy the rights to this image. Well, actually a version of thisimage.”
“No—”
Connie stepped between her and Josh. “How much are you willing to payforit?”
Josh smiled. “We can negotiate, but I have initial approval from my client to pay around twenty thousand dollars for all rights to theartwork.”
Connie’s eyes sparkled as she glanced down at her, and Lily suppressed a groan. It seemed the goddess of ocean romance had a poor sense of humor. Bringing a handsome businessman to her front door with a painful reminder of her failures was in bad taste in Lily’s opinion. Great, she was living one of her paintings. Perhaps she should have been kinder to hersubjects.
Connie looked back at Josh and offered her hand. “Not a penny under twenty-fivethousand.”
No one was going to pay that much for a washed-upartist’swork.
Josh slid his hands into his pocket and rocked onto his heels. “I’m not sure I can gothathigh.”
“Then I’m not sure she can sketch what you need. Good day, Mr.Raymond.”
“Fine.” Josh removed his hands from his pocket and held them in frontofhim.
Lily shook herhead. “What?”
Connie shot her an evil glare to shut her mouth. “She’lldoit.”
