“I have to have it, Lachlan. I need this book! When can we meet up to talk about covers?”
He'd been so thrilled that he'd spent an hour on the phone with him, talking about ideas for the cover that were only in the vaguest terms, then promising to leave it in Darren's hands. He was great with the creative stuff.
Nicholas tilted his head and frowned, as he reached out to brush his finger over the drawing.
Lachlan cringed as he reached out and opened his mouth to stop him only to be too late. It was drawn with an artist’s pencil which smudged under his light touch. “I'm so sorry,” he apologised to Darren, who was unusually quiet.
Normally he would be disappointed, try to pass it off as okay when it really wasn't or he would be visibly upset. None of that appeared to be true, as he tipped his head to one side and then the other. “Actually,” he reached out and added a few more lines, smudging a few more, before sitting back and smiling, “your son is a genius. That was exactly what it needed,” he claimed, looking up to grin at him. He lifted the sketchbook and held it up for him to see.
And, really, he had a point.
Lachlan was blown over by the beautiful drawing of a male dancer mid-backflip, with so much detail added to the clothing, facial features and attitude of the overall image. Nicholas' inadvertent smudge gave it an added depth of motion that he hadn't imagined possible on paper. “It's beautiful,” he whispered.
Nicholas beamed as if it was all his doing. Without a word, he retreated back to his play nook to pick up his favourite train and begin driving it around the mat where he sat.
Lachlan chuckled and lifted his cup for a sip of coffee.
Darren laughed with him, but Giovanni merely smiled and went back to typing on his laptop. The two were so well synced and aware of each other that it was a pleasure to watch them interact. “Well, it needs to be rendered on the laptop, adapted and given some colour, but I do think it's a great start,” Darren agreed, continuing to add notes and shading to his drawing.
Lachlan nodded, knowing that what he could see now would end up a hundred times more stunning than something he already loved. But that was the genius of D&G Publishing. The owners might be friends and fast on their way to becoming family, but they were smart, creative men who knew just how to read Lachlan's mind.
Having them as a part of his life was a miracle. He looked forward to keeping them a part of that family well into the future.
