“Want me to make a few calls?” Julian offered. “I can at least make sure he’s in capable hands.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
He tipped my chin up to look me in the eyes. “You can, and I would. Let me know if you change your mind.”
I released a held breath. “Thank you.”
He pushed himself off the wall and extended a hand, helping me upright. “I should get back inside before my dad leaves me with the check.” He opened his arms for a parting hug. “I’m happy for you, Finlay. Nick’s a great guy.” Julian’s smile was wistful when he finally pulled away. “If things get too complicated, you know where to find me.”
I watched him walk back into the restaurant, feeling both lighter and heavier than I had in a long time. Talking to Julian was like confessing to a hot priest. I felt cleansed and absolved after every conversation with him (and wouldn’t have minded occasionally worshipping under his cassock), but I couldn’t make myself feel about him the way I felt about Nick.
There was only one man I truly wanted to be with, and confessing my sins to him wasn’t an option.
Steeling myself, I walked back into the restaurant. Nick wanted me to tell him something that scared me. This damn TV series was only the start.
CHAPTER 13
“So let me get this straight,” Vero said, fingers pressed to her temples. “You had a meeting with a TV producer and your agent, and you worethat,” she said, pointing to the drooping gaps in the top of Sylvia’s spandex dress that had contained my socks less than an hour ago, “and you did not tell me?”
I sat down at my kitchen table and massaged the blisters on my feet. If it had been any closer to five o’clock—and if Mrs. Haggerty and my daughter had not been in the next room—I would have poured myself a very large glass of wine after the day I’d suffered. “It didn’t seem as important as nearly dying of hypothermia.”
“I saved you from hypothermia! I could have saved you from this!” She threw a balled-up sock at me while I gestured for her to keep her voice down. “Please tell me the producer was visually and olfactorily impaired.” She pulled a face as she sniffed her hand. “Is thatlavender?” she whispered. “Seriously? Did you learn nothing in Atlantic City about covering up foul—”
“Randall Wolfe offered me a TV deal.”
Vero went unnaturally still. The only sound was Delia’s quiet counting in the dining room, where Mrs. Haggerty was giving her a lesson in math. Vero blinked at me. “Can you repeat that last part? I think I misheard you.”
“He and Sylvia negotiated it over lunch.”
Vero eased slowly into the seat beside me, as if she’d lost the feeling in her legs. “How much?”
“Nothing is signed yet.”
“Spit it out.”
“Seventy-five.”
“Thousand? That’s it?”
“And an executive producer credit.” Vero gasped before I got to the tiramisu and surf and turf. “But there’s a catch.”
“I knew it. You never should have gone without me. What did Sylvia screw up this time?”
“They want Nick to consult on the script.”
For a moment, Vero gaped at me. Then a low laugh rumbled in her chest.
“It’s not funny, Vero!” I dropped my voice to a frantic whisper when Mrs. Haggerty shushed us. “It’s one thing to read my book and notice a few subtle coincidences. It’s another to market the show as being inspired by a true crime and invite the lead detective from the case to the set to make the whole thing feel even more authentic! Especially considering the fact that my ex-husband is being detained on suspicion of anewmurder that will bring everything that happened in that book—and his farm—back under scrutiny.”
Vero’s laughter died. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know yet. I put Sylvia up at a hotel for the night. I’ll deal with her tomorrow.” After the bottle of champagne she’d split withRandall, she’d been too tipsy to argue when I’d pulled over in front of a Hampton Inn and put a room on my credit card.
Zach streaked through the kitchen, naked as the day he was born. He zoomed into the dining room and tugged on Mrs. Haggerty’s pant leg. “Me do school, too!”
“Absolutely not,” she replied. “You must be properly dressed to attend school. Come back when you can behave like a young man.”
Zach stomped his foot. He tore out of the room like his tiny ass was on fire, ran to the playroom, and slammed the door.
