Page 58 of Can We Skip to the Good Part?
She didn’t have an exit strategy for this situation and needed one fast. She could walk away from Max forever and bury this secret, which would likely find its way to the surface anyway. No, thank you. Or, she could be an adult and come clean to Rachel for real this time. Maybe even today. Definitely today.
After breakfast and a quick shower, Ella stood barefoot with wet hair in the middle of the bedroom, scanning her email. Mostly junk. An ad or two she might be interested in. And then there it was. A familiar name in the subject line: Inquiry Re: Alexandra Raymond. She opened the email and read in mystification. It was someone from the publishing company checking on her availability for an upcoming cover design. Alexandra was impressed with her work and had requested her personally. Holy hell. She whirled around to the empty room and said it out loud. “Holy hell, empty room.”
She spun back and typed a quick response, which she, of course, reworded in a panicked frenzy, because the Raymond books were in all the major big-box stores and these people were trusting her quite a bit, not that they shouldn’t, butoh my God.
It was only an hour later when she heard back from the woman, Stacey, with a firm booking and a deposit to secure the spot on her calendar. What was happening? A big-time publisher in her inbox already? All because she’d been standing in Doug’s Books at the exact right moment. Life was such a shocking place to live.
Stacey set up a consultation and would share the publisher’s drive to go over inspiration and direction. Ella was so over the moon that she wanted to yip or scream. No, definitely yip because it seemed unique, and so did today. “Yip!”
She called Max because she couldn’t imagine not in this moment, an urge she would examine more fully later. Max picked up on the third ring.
“You call me at work now? I think I like it.” God, how was her voice this sexy? It was just last night that she was naked and on top of Ella, too.
“You don’t even say hello?”
“I don’t have to. The readout told me in advance it was you. Hot Blond Woman From Last Night, it said. I’ll have to change it tomorrow.”
“You go to a lot of trouble.”
“It’s like you haven’t even met me.”
“I’ve more than met you now. And we’ll circle back to that because I have news. Do you have time?”
“I’ll make it.”
She heard the sound of shuffling papers and grinned. Max was working, which was mundane on anyone else. Incredibly sexy onher. “So … I just got hired to design the cover of Alexandra Raymond’s next release.” She covered her mouth, marveling at hearing the words said out loud. Telling someone just made the whole thing that much more real.
“What? How in hell did you manage that?!” Max shouted into the phone. As someone who played most everything cool, her show of emotion made the moment extra fun.
“That’s what I’m sitting over here screaming!”
“Well, now we’re screaming together!” A pause. “Sorry. No. Everything is fine, Sonya. We’re just celebrating a minute. Tell the Simons I’ll be right in.” Another pause. “Maybe you should chaperone in the meantime.”
“Oh, wow. You’d better get in there. They might kill each other.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time. Marriage, am I right?” Max laughed, and Ella started to laugh along with her, but she honestly wasn’t sure if they were being serious or not. They’d never discussed things like hopes, dreams, beliefs, and values. She was startled to realize that someone who read romance novels regularly might not actually believe in romance. But then, she spent most of her hours helping them unravel in a conference room.
She blinked and shook herself out of it. They’d slept together once. Twice if you counted Stevie’s living room. No one was proposing. The rest of the details would come in time, or they wouldn’t—no reason to burn the house down because there was a spider in the kitchen.
“I’ll let you return to work, but thank you for taking a moment to scream with me.”
“My favorite part of the day so far. I promise. I’m super excited for you. You need to put this news on the Weepers group thread.”
“You think it’s worthy?”
“More than worthy. Stevie updated us an hour ago on her bacon crisping technique.”
“Yeah, but it’s bacon.”
“Tell them.”
Ella grinned, giddy again. “Fine. I will! Bye! Go be a hot lawyer!”
“Well, now I’m motivated. I’ll message you later.”
Ella slid off the call, leaned against the counter, and sighed in that dreamy way people did in the movies. Her phone began to vibrate in her hand. Max, again. “You couldn’t stay away. I knew this was bound to happen.”
“Let me buy you lunch.”
