I paused again. “But I don’t have anyone that I trust enough to do that. Even Martin failed me,” I frowned. “He better be—”
A hand wrapped around mine, pulling me away from my purse and turning me around to meet icy blue eyes.
Everett pressed his lips against mine, warm and passionate, fierce, his tongue dancing with mine as he deepened the kiss, my mind spinning, every other thought leaving my head but the way his lips felt against mine.
He pulled back a few seconds later, my lip gloss coating his lips, his eyes burning. “Focus. We’ll take care of everything else later.”
I was breathless. “Okay,” I whispered, my head spinning.
He watched me for a second longer before releasing my hand and turning to Evelyn. “Fix her, I need to make a call.” He headed for his room, flexing his hand carefully.
Evelyn was doing her best to hide the smile as she nodded and took a spot right in front of me. “That was hot,” she told me, grabbing a napkin off the table and easily dabbing around my mouth.
My cheeks flushed. “He’s…he’s never done that before,” I told her, feeling self-conscious about the way he handled that, flexingmy own hand at the feeling he had left with me. I loved his hands. I wondered if he would ever get to the point where he would feel comfortable holding mine. It was okay if he didn’t, I understood, but it would be nice.
“I know,” she nodded, picking up my gloss, her eyes shining. “You got in his head, little miss writer. Things are changing, but that’s okay,” she went on, carefully swiping the wand against my lips. “We were trained to adapt, so here we are, adapting, just not in a way I ever expected from him.” She beamed. “There, perfect.”
I smeared my lips together and offered her a small smile. “Thank you,” I said just as soon as my alarm went off.
My eyes widened. “Shit, I have to go.” I lunged for my purse and headed for the door, only to pause and glance back, Evelyn smiling, Everett’s bedroom door shut once again. I never really had anyone worth saying goodbye to. No one other than Lucy, that is, who was currently waiting right beside the door for her goodbye scratches.
Evelyn glanced at the door and back. “I’ll tell him, you go.”
I nodded, my eyes still drawn to that door, willing him to come out, but unfortunately, it wasn’t in the cards. So, with a sigh, I opened the door and gave Lucy some goodbye scratches before heading out.
~~~
The venue Katie rented out was huge. Certainly not the size of an Auditorium, but larger than the average bookstore.
I snuck in the back, Katie waiting for me anxiously, her eyes wild when she finally caught sight of me. “Oh, thankGod,” she breathed out, grabbing her chest as if she had been on the verge of a heart attack.
I gave her a look. “I was always coming.” I did feel guilty insituations like this when she was doing the job an agent should have been doing, but she always seemed more than happy to do it, until that was, I was 30 minutes early rather than 45 minutes early.
“It’s fine, we’re fine,” she said, looking over her clipboard filled with papers, the contents of which were unknown. “Okay, so you’re going to talk for the first thirty minutes, answer questions, all of that,” she waved off as we headed down a dimly lit hall. “And then you’re going to start signing. Only 1 minute max per person, okay? We’ve got hundreds out there, if not a couple thousand. You’re going to be wearing a microphone, it’ll be great,” she assured me when my head whipped around.
Microphone? So…what? People on the street would be able to hear me? “Why didn’t you get a bigger place?” I asked, only to wince at how rude that must’ve sounded to her.
But she didn’t seem to care. “Didn’t think the turn out would be like this,” she said. “Only water, no more coffee until it’s done, keep your throat clear. Donotmake any promises about future books, understand? None. Not even a hint. We can’t deal with the PR nightmare again.”
I sucked in my lips. It had been my second event, and I apologized. I hadn’t realized talking about the possibilities of my next book would bring so much chaos. Never doing that again, I still had nightmares about it.
“Okay, you got everything?” she asked, looking me over. “You’re looking good,” she smiled and then her smile dropped. “Phone on silent. Um…” She went quiet, staring into the abyss as we continued to walk.
I watched her, concerned about her health. I was exhausted, yeah, maybe not completely mentally ready for this, but Katie? Damn, she deserved a bonus.
“No, no, I think that’s it,” she nodded and then took a deep breath. “It’s going to be great,” she assured me with a brightsmile.
Right. “Next drink is on me,” I told her as we finally reached the door she was leading me towards.
She laughed nervously. “Yeah, okay, go get your mic on and then it’s time to mingle before the event starts.”
Super.
~~~
Mingling was the absolute worst. The fake smile, the acting cheery, the hugs. Everyone wanted hugs, and while I fantasized about beinghugged, doing this, in my mind, never counted.
“Hey, nice to meet you,” I said for the billionth time, sliding into meaningless conversation, avoiding topics of future books, certainly not speaking of the book I was currently working on.
