Page 99 of The Bossy One

I grinned, glad she was really doing this. “Absolutely. We should do it during daylight, so you can have natural lighting. Either that, or I could hire a camera crew from Dublin to come out here…”

“Natural light is fine,” she interrupted. “When’s the next slot you’d have time during daylight?”

I opened my calendar and winced. We might not be acquiring Orel, but my schedule was still plenty packed. I didn’t want to pick a fifteen-minute window when I’d have to rush Olivia. I wanted to be able to give her all the time and focus she deserved.

We could do it over the weekend, but unfortunately, the weather was supposed to be absolute shit.

“So you’re not buying Orel? I thought you liked them,” Olivia said.

“I do,” I said. “But they’re too messy right now.”

“Then why not work with them to improve?” Olivia asked. “Why walk away from everything just because it’s not perfect?”

There was something in her voice that made it sound like she was talking about more than a potential business deal for Snug.

I turned my chair around to face her. “There’s a world full of potential business partners out there. It’s better in the long run to wait until you find the right one, rather than wasting resources on a company that’s the wrong fit.”

“Oh.” She crossed her arms and looked down at her feet.

Understanding dawned. “Is this about the company that offered to publish your book? Because if there’s something you don’t like about them, I can help you and Molly break the contract and look for another publisher. You don’t have to settle.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not about that. I was just curious about how you think. How you decide what’s worth investing your time in.”

“Ah. Well. I’m an open book. Any time you want business advice…”

“I know who to come to.” She smiled, but there was something uncertain at the edges that I didn’t like to see. “So what day should we film the sponsorship video?”

I scratched the back of my neck. “Is nine days from now too late? If it is, I can cancel—”

“Nine days from now is fine,” she said. “Thanks. I should go. I think I hear Catie calling me.”

I frowned. I didn’t hear anything.

Then again, I’d probably ruined my ears long ago listening to headphones at full volume.

Olivia left.

I returned to my work, trying to shake off the feeling that I’d missed something important.

32

OLIVIA

“Thanks for watching Catie,” I said when Marie showed up to whisk Catie away for an afternoon of treats at Grandma’s.

“Of course. Declan said you needed his help with a work thing,” Marie said.

I felt myself blushing. “It’s not really a work thing. I mean, it could be. It’s a trial video for a blog sponsorship.”

“Ah,” Marie said, understanding dawning. “Like those makeup tutorials on the internet.”

“Sort of,” I said. “Except, um, mine’s a book review blog.”

It was the first time I’d said that out loud. But if I went through with the sponsorship, and I put my face all over my blog, the carefully built wall between my online life and my real one would go up in smoke. I might as well start getting used to that now.

I waited for the earth to open and swallow me whole, but it was…fine. If anything, it felt good to take credit for something I’d worked so hard on.

Then Marie’s eyes widened. “Wait—don’t tell me you’re the one Declan’s always on about. The one who put him on to all of Catie’s favorite books?”

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