“Great. I’ll text you.” She disappeared and the door shut softly with aclick.
Heexhaled.
Quinton clapped him on the back. Hard. “I don’t envy you shopping with thosetwo.”
Beckett arched against the sting. “I think I can handleit.”
Quinton narrowed his eyes. “We’llsee.”
Beckett did his best not to think about Daisy for the rest of the day. He made huge efforts to concentrate on the project at hand, throwing himself into the work of digging fencepost holes around the backyard of Quinton’s clinic so that, when he got home, he fell into bedexhausted.
Chapter Eight
Daisy shookhands with the district manager of RB’s Atrium and smiled to hide the bag of crazy nerves threatening to split open inside ofher.
Vivian wandered around the store, taking video that they may or may not splice in later. Beckett hovered close by, snorting every time he looked at a price tag. The high-end department store may seem expensive on the tag, but she’d done her research. The items here would last a lot longer than the cheap articles that came seven to abag.
“Beckett, I’d like to introduce you to Mr.Hayes.”
Beckett swaggered over in his homeless attire and looked way down his nose at Mr. Hayes in his black suit and bright blue button-up. “Hey.”
Daisy leaned close so that her arm could reach behind him without Mr. Hayes noticing. She pinched Beckett’s back as a reminder to play nice. He didn’t flinch, but his eyes flicked herdirection.
“Mr. Hayes has just informed me that RB’s is going to match subscriber’s donations all the way up to the $5000.” Daisy pinched himagain.
He looked at her for a moment, as if he were sizing her up, before saying, “That’s reallygreat.”
“We’ve got a nice spot all set up for you to film.” Mr. Hayes put his hand on Daisy’s back and propelled her across the floor and directly in front of the store logo. There were two chairs set up, interview style, and several dummies dressed to the nines in thewings.
“This is nice, but it’s not what we had in mind.” Daisy smiled politely. The decision to film on location, to change her format, was a calculated risk. Daisy wanted to stick to the formula they used every week so her viewers would feel comfortable with the segment. Of course, they’d have to zoom out to get some full-body shots of Beckett. That would be fun. In fact, seeing Beckett dressed in clothing that actually fit was the only part of this experience she looked forward to. Even now his cargo shorts hung low on his hips like a gunslinger’sholster.
After her comment, Mr. Hayes didn’t appear all that happy with her. She took a deep breath, summoning the calmness of her gray bedroom walls and white comforter. She pictured herself in the middle of the bed, legs crossed, and the essential oil diffuser pumping lavender into the air. The process didn’t take long. In one deep breath, she was ready to face the snarlingbeasts.
“Mr. Hayes, thank you so much for considering our needs. I can tell that you’ve put a lot of thought into this. I’m going to make a few adjustments to bring the setup in line with our regularformat.”
“Oh no,” he interrupted. “I was given specific instruction from the head office. If you don’t film here, you can’t film in thestore.”
Daisy’s lips tightened. She really hated filming on-site. Hated dealing with all this junk. She hooked her arm through Mr. Hayes’s. “I’m so sorry they put you in this position, Mr. Hayes. I have a contract that states I can film anywhere in the showroom as long as I list RB’s as a sponsor for the episode. You’re welcome to verify this with your boss, or I’d be happy to show you the contract.” She reached into her purse for the printout she’d thrown in at the last minute. “Really, I’m not trying to play hardball with you, and I think it’s quite unfair for you to have to deal with this when there was so clearly a miscommunication. I’m going to assume wires were crossed somewhere along the way and move forward.” She smiled brightly, knowing it would throw him off if she were perky. He was probably a pro at handling disgruntled customers, but a smiling, insistent woman who rolled right over his firm hand was aproblem.
He stared at her and she could see the initial contempt. After all, who was she to question his instructions, to question him? Just some sweet little woman-child in white. So innocent and yet so demanding. It didn’t help that she was a full foot shorter than him and had to look up just to meet his red-facedgaze.
He snatched the paperwork out of her hands. “Please don’t touch the layout until I return.” He tugged his phone out of his pocket and barreled towards a door marked “employeesonly.”
“Let’s get out of here. We don’t need him.” Beckett jerked his chin towards thedoor.
Daisy rubbed her hands up and down her arms to scatter the chill Mr. Hayes left behind. “Actually, Ido.”
Beckett snortedagain.
Daisy rolled her eyes. “Okay, I don’t actually need this place, but it would help me out a lot if we did a segmenthere.”
“I don’tunderstand.”
“RB’s is a partner company to KPaka. I’m in negotiations with them to start an all-natural line of beautyproducts.”
“So the idea is to make friends with the people who are friends with who you want to be friendswith?”
She beamed. “Exactly.”
