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He looked at her. “There are worse things than being lucky enough to have two residences, in two very different climates.”
She pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t mind living part-time in Vancouver. Nia’s there. My grandparents are there. Most of my old friends are there. The issue was always Tika. I hate boarding her for long.”
“You won’t need to. She just needs to start racking up frequent flier points. Or we can drive. Make a road trip of it—”
Daphne’s phone rang. She groaned, rolled to look at it, and then scrambled up and answered.
“Lawrence,” she said, a little breathlessly. “Thank you. I’m sorry about yesterday. I had my phone off.”
A response that sounded like Lawrence saying he didn’t blame her.
“Chris is here with me,” she said. “Presuming this is about Zane, may I put you on speaker?”
Chris caught enough to know Lawrence was saying it was her choice. She flipped the speaker on and set the phone between them.
“Chris is on the line now,” she said. “We haven’t heard from Mr. Milner, and I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. Sakura said the publishing company is handling the whistleblower, who agreed not to go public until tomorrow.”
“Good,” Lawrence said. “That gives you time to decide what you want to do. That’s what I’m mostly calling about. Finding out what you want to do.”
She glanced anxiously at Chris. “Okay.”
“You can step out as Zane, or we can admit Zane is a woman without you stepping forward. In the latter case, the publisher would accept your decision to do only written interviews, with no in-person appearances or photos, but they’d prefer Chris stays on to play Zane for events and such.”
Chris watched Daphne’s face fall.
“They want me to keep Chris on,” she said. “Admit the author is a woman, but let Chris keep playing Zane while I remain offstage. That’s the price for keeping my contract.”
“Price for…?” Lawrence laughed. “Daphne, your debut is a number one New York Times bestselling book. You got on there in your second week, and you’re holding. The question isn’t what price you’ll pay for them keeping your contract. It’s the price they’ll pay to keep you.”
“I… I don’t understand. I lied about who I was.”
“You openly used a pseudonym. Hiring someone to play you is irregular, but the publisher is mostly upset that they weren’t in on the plan. What matters, though, is that you are making them money. A lot of money. They’re already working on book two and making noises about offering on a third.”
“So they’d like to keep me on, staying in the background, with Chris openly playing Zane.”
“Not at all. I said that if you want to stay offstage, they’d rather you kept Chris. Having you come forward is the preferred option for all.”
Daphne frowned at Chris. “Even Mr. Milner?”
A soft chuckle from Lawrence. “As of this morning, Mr. Milner is officially moving to a different imprint. Your new publisher is Alicia Koval.”
“My editor?”
“Alicia will continue editing you, to her great delight. It’s a well-earned promotion. She’s been your biggest champion since she acquired Edge, and if anything, she’s even more keen to work with you now. She’s been instrumental in resolving this issue and, together with your publicist, they have plans for how to spin a reveal to your advantage. If you want to reveal yourself as Zane.”
“I…”
She looked at Chris. He resisted any urge to cheer her on and whispered only, “I’m here either way. For whatever you need.”
“Yes,” she said to Lawrence. “I want to reveal myself as Zane.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
DAPHNE
While Daphne talked to Lawrence, Chris had slipped away and brought back the breakfast menu. She’d smiled and pointed out what she wanted. He went into the adjoining room to order, which made her forget what she was saying… probably because he was still naked and the view of him walking away was very fine.
After she finished the call, he came in, looking equally fine from that angle. “Thirty minutes to a fresh hot breakfast. Meanwhile, I made this.”
