I focused my attention on Piper’s puzzle, pointing out the last corner piece and helping her place it. Business. This conversation was about business.
He was right about not being able to give me advice without knowing my future plans. And if I couldn’t even talk about it with him, how was I supposed to approach a publisher with confidence and ask for more opportunities to illustrate?
“So, you remember how Jessica writes middle grade books?” I twisted my hands in my lap.
“Yeah. I sent her a picture of them on display at the bookstore last week.”
“Jessica writes books?” Piper asked, suddenly interested in our conversation. “Your friend Jessica who’s getting married on a storybook island?”
“Yes, dolly. Jessica writes books.” I so did not want to have this conversation simultaneously with Piper and Dean.
“Can I read one?”
I nodded at her. “Mmm hmm. I’ll buy them from the store, and I’ll read them to you.”
“You don’t have her books yet?” Dean asked, looking at me like I was a bad friend. “Sorry, that came out more judgmental than I meant. I just figured they’d be right up Piper’s alley.” He turned to Piper. “Jessica writes about these kids who work in a sweets shop for their grandparents. And they keep running into monsters and villains because even the bad guys occasionally need a cookie break.”
“I want to read them.” Piper abandoned her puzzle and looked at me expectantly. “We should go to the store right now, Mom.”
“Whoa.” This conversation had gone way off the rails, and besides that, I didn’t jump the moment Piper asked for things. If I did that, she’d start to think I could magically come up with anything for her, like a baby zebra petting zoo in our backyard, or a baby sister. Both of which she’d asked for this week. “Piper, I have grown-up, business stuff I need to talk to Dean about. We can’t go to the store right now. How about I turn on a Captain Princess episode for you, and then we’ll head in and close up the flower shop? We’ll check and see if Natalie sold a lot of flowers today. On the way home, we can stop at the bookstore. Even if you look like the raggedy-est raggamuffin I ever saw.”
“Okay. But can I have twoCaptain Princessepisodes while you talk to Dean?” Piper asked.
“No.” I raised an eyebrow at her, and she gave me a sneaky grin in return. She was probably getting two episodes. Maybe three. She knew how long grown-up conversations could take. But I definitely wasn’t promising it. I turned the TV on in theliving room, found her favorite show, kissed her dirty little head, and returned to the kitchen where Dean still looked confused.
“Have you been talking to Jessica about writing? Is that your plan?”
“I’m her illustrator.” I sat back down next to him and let that sink in.
Dean stared at me for a good ten seconds with his eyebrows furrowed, and then he got out his phone and started furiously typing into a Google search. I saw the second he found what he was looking for.
“You’re Cagney Shamaroo?”
“Stop.” I put my hand over his screen, because I knew what he planned to do next. He’d stare at the illustrations, trying to see me in them. And he’d find pieces of me if he looked hard enough. Piper’s mischievous smile. The checkered floor at Henry’s house I’d always been obsessed with. One of the characters had streaks of red in her hair. She frowned a lot, but she was the glue holding the siblings together.
“Where did you come up with Cagney Shamaroo?” he asked. When I didn’t answer and my hand didn’t move from off his screen, he clicked his phone off with his thumb and turned it face-down on the table. “I’d rather hear the details from you. I can search you to death later when it’s not making you feel self-conscious.”
I crossed my arms. “How comforting. Cagney Shamaroo is an anagram of my name. Grace Shay Romano. I only used one R, but every other letter is in there.”
“You disguised yourself in an anagram?” He broke out into a huge grin. “Like Lord Voldemort? LikeKnead?”
I deserved the teasing, but I was still ticked off that we had such a ridiculous thing in common, and that I’d been forced to reveal it. “I’m not using the name on a dating app, Dean. It’s very common to have a pen name.”
“I’m not seeing a difference.”
“Liar.”
“Just let me bask in this for a minute, will ya?” He closed his eyes and smiled. His basking looked a lot like smirking. I reached out and playfully shoved his hard chest, which only gave my secret fantasy reel more to work with. And made him smile bigger.
He opened his eyes. “Okay, I’m done. I promise.”
“You sure?”
He put his business face back on. “I want to know everything about this. Do you have other illustration projects you’ve done, or ones that are in the works?”
“It’s just this series. Jessica lent me her agent. He was more than happy to negotiate for me and take a cut.”
He looked thoughtful. “But you’re considering doing illustrating full-time if you sell.”
