Turns out our guest’s father is the duke.Duke-let just checked in.He’s a viscount and has already asked to hire our staff photographer to accompany him while he’s here.
Duke-let.Chuckling to himself, Heath typed in a response.How would he evernotthink of the man as a duke-let?
Heath
Did you inform him the staff photographer is already booked for the event?
Lia
Yep.And he said he would be more than happy to make it worth our while for us to get someone else.Subtle, anyone?
Heath leaned back in his chair.The nerve of the guy.Talk about entitlement issues.
Heath
What did you tell him?
Lia
That he should have planned in advance, and that he could look for photographers in Payne who might be able to accommodate him.He wasn’t pleased.
Heath
Does Mom know?
Lia
No, but he did ask if he could speak with the owner.*sigh*
Their mother was so worried about this guy and whether he’d post a positive review of the Citadel that she’d end up assigning Quinn to him.For his entire stay.
Heath
Are we going to let him get away with it?
Lia
The only way to protect Quinn from him is to tell Mom the whole story.
Heath
We need to tell Quinn so she can decide.
Heath could imagine his sister rolling her eyes.
Lia
You know what she’s going to say.Quinn will sacrifice herself to help us.That’s just the way she is.Gotta run.
He stared at his screen even after it went dark.Whatever else happened, he wouldn’t let Quinn get stuck spending time alone with the duke-let.The term made Heath smile again.Well, his parents had assigned him to work with her during the Harvest Festival, and he was going to stick by her like glue.
Quinn staredat the text message from Lia.She’d sent it as a warning.Could the man be any more obvious about why he’d come?Knowing he was the son of the duke was a little less intimidating, but the obvious attempt to match them up unsettled her.She considered replying to the king’s email to chew him out, but that might play right into his hands.
Shehatedgames!The adage about the best defense came to mind, but how?
Even though Quinn had been tempted to get online and do some research on this viscount, she’d decided against it.Spending time on someone associated with the king didn’t feel right, like she was surrendering just a bit to what he wanted.Now that she knew the viscount had asked specifically for her, Quinn was second-guessing the decision.What were those two up to?
She almost wished the shoot with the uncooperative teenagers would go longer, but the kids were obviouslydone,so there really wasn’t much point in suggesting other locations.After giving the parents Quinn’s business card, she put away her equipment.She was about to check the time on her phone when it pinged with a text message from Heath.
