Page 24 of Riding the Waves

“I know it was a joke,” Scarlett said. “I just don’t understand why I don’t sound jokey when I say stuff. People never know if I’m joking or not. Which is kind of handy occasionally, but other times it doesn’t work out so well.” She rested her elbow on the arm of the couch. “The boys were great. I organised a private tour of the lifeboat station for them and they loved it.”

Amy’s eyes widened. “That’s great.”

“I have friends in high places,” Scarlett said with a grin.

“My husband volunteers on the lifeboats,” Emily explained.

“The boys loved Jack,” Scarlett said.

“All kids love Jack,” Lizzie said. “Because he acts like a kid half of the time.”

“Anyway, I want to get some writing done later.” Scarlett retrieved her laptop from the coffee table. “Let’s get on with whatever we need to discuss … Christmas books, right?”

“Have you got the cover concepts?” Emily asked Scarlett.

“Sorry,” Lizzie said to Amy. “I assume you’re happy to go along with everything. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.”

“Thanks. I’m very happy to just observe and see what you do.”

“Here we go.” Scarlett turned her laptop screen to reveal the front cover of a book with an illustration of a woman walking her dog in snow and the title Winter Wishes written in a swirling handwritten font. “What genre would you think it is?”

Amy poked a finger to her chest when she registered Scarlett was looking at her. “Are you asking me?”

“Yeah. We all know already.”

“The cover should mostly convey the genre and tone of the book,” Emily said, eyes shifting from the screen to Amy. “What would you expect if you bought this?”

“Oh. Umm …” She leaned forwards to get a better look at the cover. “I guess I’d expect something warm and cosy … with some romance. I’d imagine with a female protagonist.”

“Good,” Lizzie said. “That’s spot on. Do we have more options for it?”

Scarlett turned the laptop back to her. “Yes. But that’s the best, so you don’t need to see the other possibility.”

“Why don’t you want us to see the other one?” Lizzie asked.

“Because you’ll like it. So we’ll have a big, time-consuming discussion before I convince you to go with this cover. It’ll save us time if I don’t show you the other design.”

“So the designer sends you multiple designs for a book?” Amy asked, checking she was keeping up.

“Yes.” Emily nodded. “These aren’t final. They’d still be tweaked, but first we decide on the general concept. For romance there’s always the choice of an illustrated design or a photographic image. We weren’t sure what to go with for this one, so we asked for both.”

“Show us the photo one,” Lizzie urged Scarlett.

“Fine.” She turned the screen around for the next reveal.

Amy’s jaw went slack and Lizzie and Emily gasped in unison.

“Well, I’d buy that,” Lizzie said.

“Duh!” Scarlett set the laptop on the coffee table. “You’d buy anything with a hot guy on the cover.”

“It’s a really strong cover,” Emily said, eyes glued to the screen.

“What would you expect from the book?” Scarlett asked Amy.

“Well …” She peeled her eyes away from the guy staring out from the cover with his piercing green eyes and flirty smile. His shirt was open, giving a pleasant view of his chest despite the fact that he was standing in snow. Presumably his rippling muscles were keeping him warm.

“I think we’re talking about a whole different kind of winter wishes now,” she said with a smile. “I’d expect a grittier story. Steamier. I don’t know whether he’s supposed to be a nice guy or not, and I don’t think I care.”

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