Page 48 of On the Power Play

Mary gasped and gripped her phone like a venomous snake. “Shit! Shit, shit—” She looked up, her eyes panicked. “I’m supposed to pick up my niece after school right now and take her out for tea today. It’s our birthday thing.”

“What time?” Delia didn’t bite on the panic.

“Her school is out in half an hour. I don’t have my car. I came with the driver.” Mary pressed her thumb and forefinger on either side of the bridge of her nose. “Let’s go. I’ll phone the school in the car, and?—”

“You could make it, couldn’t you? If you went straight to the school?” Delia shoved her arms into her fleecy coat sleeves.

“Probably, but I wouldn’t have time to take you home, Dels.” Mary glanced at Jack. “The hotel’s on the way, at least.”

Delia let her coat slip off her shoulders. “No problem, I could just hang out here. I’m sure Finn wouldn’t?—”

“Or you could come to the hotel.” Jack blurted as he pulled off an ice cream cone cup next to the water tank. Mary and Delia blinked at him. He held his cup under the dispenser and pressed the blue button.

Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t want Delia to come with him anywhere, especially not alone to his hotel room. But the idea of her taking off that coat and walking back into the room with Finn Gallagher tied his stomach in knots. He backpedalled. “Not that you have to. There are probably better places to kill an hour.”

Mary chewed on her lower lip. “It would be more than an hour. Unless I sent the driver back to get you after dropping me and Alice off at the Palace Hotel, but then he wouldn’t be able to get back for us until?—”

“It’s fine, Mary. I’ll hang out at the hotel with Jack until you’re done, then we can head home together.” Delia turned her eyes on him. Her tongue flicked over her lips. “You sure that’s okay?”

He nodded, ignoring how it suddenly felt like he was standing on the deck of a ski boat going full speed.

Mary exhaled. “You two are the best.” Her phone screen lit up. She tapped something and slid it into her jacket pocket. “Okay, ready to face the masses?”

Chapter Twelve

Delia’s mouth was dry by the time they pulled up to Jack’s hotel. She was coming down from a mountain of hypochondriac-ish thoughts after searching through articles about the benefits of corticosteroids. Even though she didn’t have an inhaler, dry mouth had been listed as a complication, and a part of her was positive her cotton mouth was a symptom of something related. Hashtag worth it since she’d stumbled upon an article stating that chronic inflammation could be as damaging as drugs. Which she’d promptly forwarded to her mother.

Delia grabbed a bottled water from the side door of the car and snuck a drink before the driver pulled to a stop in the circular drop-off zone. No waiting fans. That was a relief.

“Looks like they haven’t figured out you’re staying here. Bets on how long that will last?” Mary winked. “Thanks, you guys. I’m so sorry I didn’t bring a separate car.”

“It’s almost like you’ve never been a manager for anyone before.” Delia laughed at Mary’s expression and squeezed her friend’s knee. “I’m kidding, Mary! I’d way rather have you working with me than somebody who’s been in the business for twenty years. You still have light in your soul.”

Delia met Mary in Vancouver at a music festival back in 2019 before the shutdown, and since they were both living in Toronto at the time, they’d gotten together when they were back in town. Mary had been working for some band from small-town Alberta that broke up a week after the festival because one of their guitarists had to go into rehab.

Mary grinned. “I’m fooling everyone, then.” Mary had signed on with her during COVID when Delia dove headlong into social media music creation. It wasn’t anything official, Mary had simply started promoting her for fun. Delia kept going to Mary for answers to her music industry questions and sending her coffee money through PayPal as thanks. When her actual agent had been less than impressive during her contract negotiations with IndieLake, she’d asked Mary to be her official manager. So far, Mary had been outstanding.

Delia blew Mary a kiss and slid down the leather seat as Jack pushed out of the car. She trailed him through the glass doors, then through the lobby to the elevators. There weren’t many people checking in, but a few of the workers did double takes.

The whole thing felt like some cosmic experiment she’d been thrown into and was directly benefiting from. It made her watch herself from two different angles. Inside and out. Will they notice me here? Will they love my music if it sounds like this? Will they know me in this province? Do they recognize me outside of Canada?

It was like having a split persona. She had an insatiable drive to be a household name, to blast her music to the stratosphere, but also wished she could do it anonymously. Delia wanted a “fame” switch that she could turn on and off when it suited her, and that was likely the most spoiled, entitled thought she’d ever had. She kept it to herself as she and Jack stepped into an open elevator.

Jack hit the number twelve, and that’s when it hit her that she was going with him alone to his hotel room. The car ride from the café and then the walk from the car to the elevator was the only alone time they’d ever had, and they’d still had a driver present. Inside the room, it would be just the two of them.

Delia’s heartbeat pulsed in her armpits, and she unzipped the front of her coat. Just as the doors were about to close, someone stuck their hand through. “Ooh! Sorry, do you mind?” A plump woman who looked like a stay-at-home mom who’d gotten her first taste of freedom with hair appointments and shopping trips lumbered into the elevator dragging two monstrous designer suitcases.

“No problem. What floor?” Jack asked.

“Ten. Thank you . . .” The woman trailed off as she registered Jack’s face. She worked to catch her breath. “Oh you are more handsome in person. And tall. And . . . big.”

Jack chuckled. “Thank you, I think?”

The woman’s eyes lit up. “My daughter is a dancer for the Stampeders, did you know that?”

Delia pursed her lips, watching the scene play out with someone else for once. It was so much more fun being on the sidelines.

“Sounds like a dream job.” Jack leaned against the wall, and Delia grinned. Did he not see where she was going with that or was he trying to act daft?

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