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“Maybe you’re just talented at everything,” Craig purred. The man was a total flirt. He’d moved here from the city as part of the marketing team, as well. He was good-looking, and he knew it.
“Is that the best you can come up with?” Sydney rolled her eyes. She was my favorite new friend at the office. She was my age, had also moved here from the city, and was our social media expert. She worked on all the graphics and teasers for the company.
I glanced up to see grumpy Nadia coming down the stairs from her meeting with Maddox, and I glanced down at my phone to check the time.
“Got to go, guys. I’ll see you on my next break.” I waved and rushed away, and my booties clacked as I ran up the metal stairs before setting my phone on my desk.
“Tink, get in here!” my boss shouted from his office, and I hurried inside. The man was impatient and demanding, yet I kind of loved it. I could handle anything he threw at me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, and he motioned for me to close the door and come inside.
“Take a seat.” He pulled something up on his monitor and then looked at me from the other side of his desk. “I read through your notes about the Mara Skye book. You really liked it that much?”
“Like is an understatement. I think it’s going to be her best yet. Did you read it?”
“I did. I liked it, too. But Nadia didn’t care for it, nor is she a fan of Mara’s work.”
My eyes bulged out of my head. The woman specialized in historical romance, and she didn’t like Mara Skye? “I think Nadia Wright should change her name to Nadia Wrong.”
He barked out a laugh, and the sound was so startling I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. That was twice today that he’d laughed. I wanted to pat myself on the back for this enormous accomplishment.
“Nadia has an issue with self-published authors to begin with, so I have a hunch that might have more to do with it than the actual writing.”
“Yeah. She seems pretty tough to please.” I rolled my eyes. “Mara’s writing is all-consuming. No one pulls me in quite like her, and this new book did it in spades. The only other person that can hook me that quickly is my cousin.”
“I’d like to talk to her at some point, if you ever want to make that happen. We’d love to work with her on her next series, but her agent isn’t a fan of my grandfather because he turned down a few submissions that she’d felt strongly about. But I’m here now, so maybe she’d reconsider?”
“I can get you a meeting, for sure. I can’t promise you anything more than that, but she’d meet with you without question. She’s the best.”
“Aren’t you just full of surprises?”
“I try to be,” I said, pushing to my feet. “Trust me, you don’t want someone else to get this book with Mara. She’s the best of the best.”
“I’ll make the call now and inquire about taking the next step. But I’ve got an issue at the moment, and I need you to figure it out.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a Zoom meeting with the board of directors in an hour, and I left my sports coat at home this morning. Hilda’s sick, so she’s not there to run it over to me, and I have a call with Arthur Hobbs in five minutes, so I don’t have time to leave.”
“Give me your keys,” I said, moving toward his desk. “I’ll go pick it up. Just tell me where it is and what you want, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
He narrowed his gaze as he studied me. “How do you know where I live?”
“It’s Cottonwood Cove, Bossman. You bought the largest house in town. Everyone knows where you live.”
He squeezed the back of his neck and nodded. “All right. I’ll text you the code to the gate to get onto the property and then the code for my keypad on the garage. Primary bedroom is downstairs, and my closet is off the bathroom.”
“I think I’m capable of finding the closet.” I placed my hands on my hips. “What am I bringing back?”
“My sports coats are all together on the far-left side of the closet. Get me the navy tweed coat. And don’t be snooping around,” he said, raising a brow, but his lips twitched again, which meant he was teasing me.
“I’ll make a deal with you. Get me a few more chapters of Mara’s book, and I’ll be back with that jacket in no time.”
“Oh, you’re calling the shots now?”
“I think you know talent when you see it. That’s all I’m saying,” I said, walking backward toward the door.
The way his eyes roamed my body had me squeezing my thighs together. He unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up a few times, exposing his forearms, and the move was so sexy I nearly lost my balance, but I straightened quickly.
