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I thrummed my fingers on the top of my desk. “It will if you want his name attached to the movie.”

“Ten is an outrageous ask.”

“His star power is the primary reason the project is about to be greenlit,” I pointed out. “If you want to risk the financing, fine. It’s not like I can’t replace this movie with another tomorrow.”

“Dammit, you’ve got me over a barrel here.” I heard the rifling of paper in the background. “The only way I can swing that many first-dollar gross points is if we drop the upfront salary to ten million.”

“Done.”

We worked out the rest of the details, and then all that was left was to finalize the contract. Not too bad for a morning’s work since my 5 percent would probably net me almost two million if the project went the way my A-list client expected.

As soon as I ended the call, Stewart buzzed me. “You have a visitor.”

He sounded weird, and I was filled with sudden dread that Courtney had decided to drop by, since I refused to engage over the phone when she called yesterday to complain about me going to dinner with Ellie tomorrow night. And she didn’t even know I was bringing Celia, because then she would’ve been tempted to crash my reservation. We hadn’t been married for a decade, but that wouldn’t have stopped her from making a scene when I introduced another woman to our daughter. Who was grown and married herself.

Before I could ask who it was, my door was pushed open, and Celia walked into my office. “Surprise!”

“My favorite kind.” I stood and circled my desk to kiss her. “I thought you had plans with Megan for lunch?”

“Yes, but she’s not available for another hour, so I thought I’d bring you this first.”

She brought her hands out from behind her back to show me the heavy-duty windowed Kraft box she’d been hiding. It was lined with gingham paper and contained a wrapped sandwich tied with twine, a bag of her homemade potato chips, and two brown-butter chocolate-chunk cookies.

Taking the box from her, I set it on my desk and pulled her into a hug. “Seriously, what did I ever do to deserve you?”

“I don’t know, but you better figure it out because I’m gonna need you to keep doing it if lunches like this are on the line.”

I glanced up at the doorway, where Stewart stood with a wide grin, holding a box lunch of his own. “You brought him one too?”

“I’m not sure why you sound so surprised,” Celia smirked at me. “It’s not like I was going to walk right past him with lunch for you and not want to feed him too.”

“She’s a keeper, boss.” He pulled out one of his cookies and took a bite. “Whoa.”

I patted my abs. “And this is why I’ve been hitting the gym more often.”

“Totally worth it,” Stewart mumbled around a cookie before going back to his desk.

Celia winked. “I make sure you get extra workouts in bed too.”

“Tonight,” I murmured, capturing her mouth in a kiss that was starting to burn out of control when I heard a throat clear behind Celia.

Lifting my head, I met Reid’s gaze. “Sorry, I didn't realize I was interrupting. Stewart had his mouth full when I asked if you were busy, so I didn’t understand his answer.”

“Hey, Reid.” Celia gave him a cute little wave as her cheeks went pink.

Reid’s smile didn’t hide how tired he was. “Hi, Celia. It’s good to see you.”

“Don’t worry, I just popped in for a minute before meeting my best friend for lunch.”

“Speaking of lunch,” Reid drawled, spotting the box sitting on my desk. “Where did Stewart order from today? Those look amazing.”

“Oh, I brought them,” Celia answered. “Julian mentioned his calendar was booked solid today, and I was worried he’d forget to eat, so I put those together. I’ll bring you one next time.”

“Thanks, that’s kind of you to offer.” Reid crossed over to my desk to look inside the box. “I’d be more than happy to pay for a couple of them if you have time to make some next week. Lila is breastfeeding and would love these.”

“No way am I going to charge you,” Celia insisted. “Consider them a small gift to help with the baby.”

Reid shot me a look. “You better be checking her contracts with her clients. She’s too nice to negotiate on her own behalf.”