Chapter 13
Greta
At the end of the meeting, Greta casually opened the app on her phone to message Kaelee.
Emily side-eyed her for looking at her phone during a meeting, and there was no way to say, Oh, hi, I’m not ignoring her.
I’m messaging her to say I need to talk, in person, tonight, because we have been having incredible sex that must now end.
There really was no polite answer she could say in public, so Greta simply ignored Emily’s disapproving look and opened the app quickly.
She made eye contact with Kaelee and then sent the message.
Marie: Please talk after work?
After everything that had happened, how much Greta had hoped that they could be friends at the least, she felt like a weight was filling her stomach and something acidic was trying to escape her throat.
In the next few minutes, everyone else was milling around the conference room, talking socially to Kaelee and trying to make her smile.
They all knew she’d been reticent to come to the meeting, aloof in her email, and their charm was on high effort now.
It had been the whole meeting, and Charlie, especially, had been adept at managing Kaelee while Ian had been reserved.
A few times, Greta glimpsed the strong-willed woman she knew, but in sum, Kaelee seemed to continue to be standoffish.
How was that shy-seeming author the same woman as the one in my apartment last night?
Greta clutched her phone briefly as Kaelee glanced over at her.
Then she placed her phone face down on the conference table and turned to smile at Emily.
The willowy agent had pulled her hair back in a slightly too-tight chignon.
Her eyes had the telltale shadow of frequent long nights with not enough of a recovery between them.
“Are you okay?” Greta asked Emily quietly. They weren’t close friends, but they’d shared enough celebratory and commiserating conversations in the roller coaster of the last year of the Darbyshire book that they weren’t just colleagues anymore. “Work? Life?”
“Work’s good.” Emily’s smile was as tense as her expression. In this industry, long hours were the norm, and they all knew it.
“And outside of work?” Greta pressed.
“There’s an outside of work?” Emily countered, looking slightly more genuine in the moment.
“Fair, but … you’re okay? Toni’s okay?” Greta pressed.
She hadn’t known initially that her star author and the typically shrewd agent in front of her had grown up together, but after buying Toni’s book, Greta understood that Emily was protective of her in the way a fierce older sister was.
Greta had been grateful for—and occasionally envious of—their friendship.
Most of her relationships with close friends had been worn and battered by Tasha’s dramatics.
I need more friends, Greta admitted. Real friends, not fair-weather ones.
Emily glanced over to make sure no one was listening, and then said, “Toni’s fine, and I will be. Had a lump. Then a breast biopsy. It has had me worried, and typically I’d talk to my bestie but…” Emily shrugged. “Toni has a lot on her plate, and she doesn’t need me adding—”
“Bullshit. That woman would chew glass for you. She has no deadline, and her fiancée is doting and happy.” Greta shook her head before piercing Emily with a look. “Last I heard, her mother was doing as well as she ever is, too. Talk to her. That’s what friends do.”
Emily sighed. “I know I ought to. Toni is so much when she worries. It might not be obvious by her prickly exterior, but Toni is the sweetest woman I’ve ever known.
If she knows I’m worrying, she’ll end up camped out on my sofa and making chicken noodle soup.
” Emily’s lips quirked in a small smile. “She’s sure soup cures everything.”
“We should all be so lucky to have loyal friends like her.” Greta glanced over at Kaelee, who was now cornered by her increasingly enthusiastic publicist. Charlie would shepherd the release like a mother pit bull guarding a newborn pup; she was a glory to behold when she was allowing her charisma to run free.
“Charlie took a liking to her,” Greta remarked. “Maybe Kaelee will warm up to her.”
Emily followed Greta’s gaze, which couldn’t stay off of Kaelee despite efforts. “What do you think about Kaelee?”
I think she’s stunning, and funny, and needs someone to love her …
and in more than a few brief moments I wanted to be that person, Greta thought.
Aloud, she said, “She’s talented. More commercial than Darbyshire, too.
The sex in the second draft is sizzling, but not gratuitous.
Well, maybe a little gratuitous in the second act, but readers will love it. ”
“She has the sequel ready to submit.”
Greta nodded, pretending not to know as much. “Do you think she’d be amenable to having Ian as her primary editor?”
“I thought you loved the first book?” Emily prompted.
“I do.”
“Yet you want to pass it over?” Emily frowned. “Ian’s great, of course, but … why?”
Because last night, she was spread open like a gift while I touched her, Greta thought, cheeks burning at the mental image.
“With Toni’s new book coming in, you know I’ll be busy there and—”
“Toni’s not going to be done for a couple months. Kaelee’s new book can be in your inbox by Friday.” Emily nodded like she had solved a potential problem. “She’s driven.”
“I can see that. Two books already?” Greta aimed to keep her voice completely level.
“I just don’t know that we are the best fit.
She seems not to like me, which is fine, so if she wants to shift, I will understand.
That’s all. Sometimes people just don’t connect.
Maybe she’d be happier with Ian. Just ask her.
I want to publish her, but Ian has an easy way about him that I lack. ”
“Did she say something?” Emily pressed.
“Nothing like that. She’s fabulous. She’s done nothing amiss.
I just want her to be happy. Ask her for me.
That’s all.” Greta resisted a dozen other things she could have and likely should have said to Emily about Kaelee.
The words were there on the tip of her tongue, but she wasn’t sure she could violate Kaelee’s privacy that way.
Instead, Greta asked, “Do you feel like she’ll do okay with the marketing plan?
She seemed pretty resistant to any touring or events.
I don’t want to start waving around contract clauses. …”
“I’ll talk to her. She knows there’s a tour clause.” Emily shot a smile at Kaelee, who was now watching them intently. “Like Toni, but … more so.”
Greta sighed. “I figured that out. For Toni, I can bend on that point, you know, for book two. Whatever terms we set for Toni’s next contract are not precedent for all your clients, though, and that includes a tour clause.
Toni has the power to negotiate there, but Kaelee will likely need to tolerate a four- to six-city tour at minimum. ”
“I can manage both of them.” Emily looked around the room. “It’s easier when we all want the same thing: the books to sell.”
I suspect I want a few other things, too, Greta thought, but that certainly wasn’t a conversation she intended to have—at least not until she talked to Kaelee.
What if Toni knows, too? Greta wasn’t a prude.
She wouldn’t have acquired Kaelee’s extra spicy book if so, but she wasn’t the sort of person who made her intimate life public.
Discretion was a habit she’d adopted because Tasha was an attorney, but Greta liked her privacy now.
“You’ll tell me when you get biopsy results?” Greta asked quietly. “I don’t want to pry, but if you need a friend … you can reach out.”
“It’s probably nothing. I had been thinking about doing the gene testing already, but…” Emily shrugged. “I’ll tell you, though, when I know, and you’re right. I’ll talk to Toni. I’m sure it’s fine, but it’s hard not to worry—and I didn’t want her to bundle me off to her guest room either.”
“I get it. Every woman deals with the worry at some point,” Greta murmured. “If it’s not a pap, it’s a biopsy. I think we’ll all have some reproductive drama … even those of us who aren’t at risk for things like pregnancy.”
I said it. If I have to tell Emily, I’ve prepped the field.
Or Kaelee could just accept Ian as her editor. That was a nice, tidy solution. No admissions, but the book and its lovely author were protected. And Ian is ready.
“Ah. I wasn’t sure how out you were.” Emily eyed her. “You acquire lesbian-focused books, have a gay assistant, and have built an incredibly strong female team.…”
“I’m not actively dating, but I don’t hide my identity either.
” Greta shrugged, wincing internally over the fact that she really wasn’t actively dating.
She’d thought about it, wanted to try it again, and now that the end was here, she could admit to herself that the thought was entirely because of Kaelee.
“Same,” Emily said. “Although I’m more bi or pan, not strictly lesbian.” Emily glanced around the room, looking at the assembled group and undoubtedly realizing that they had a very queer team for a very queer book.
Emily glanced at Greta. “After Toni’s and Kaelee’s deals, though, you and I are going to have a reputation for queer-only authors.”
“Good!” Greta laughed. “I’m glad we can have that reputation and a job these days.
It wasn’t too long ago that books like theirs weren’t picked up by bigger houses.
As a young reader, I didn’t see myself in books very often.
” Greta heaved a deep breath and added, “Anyhow … I’d like to know when you get the biopsy results. Toni ought to know, too.”
“Fine.” Emily pointed at her and smiled. “You and I are going to have a luncheon socially at some point, too. We spend far too much time on work things to not socialize.”
Greta tensed, feeling guilty, and said only, “The wedding is only a few months away. I assume you’re in the party. Best woman?”