“So, what are you telling me?” Josh smacked blank sheets of paper on top of the conference table and stared at his senior editor. It was early Monday morning, and he was already exhausted by the week to come.
“I’m telling you that I’m not sure your small-town ingénue is actually capable of writing this book.” Suzanne rolled back in the conference chair and kept her gaze focused on Josh. She crossed her right leg over her left, exposing her bright red stilettos while she bounced her foot anxiously.
“I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate your using your English lit degree to insult her.” Josh’s brow rose in surprise. “And I highly doubt she’s either innocent or naïve.”
Suzanne’s raven-colored hair and short bob accentuated her high cheekbones and strong jawline. If Josh didn’t know Suzanne had a degree in English Literature and grew up with a librarian for a father and a bestselling author for a mother, he’d guess her to be a dominatrix of the fun variety. She preferred to wear leather and latex most days of the week, and that was her daytime attire. The thought of what she was up to after-hours almost scared Josh to death. Truth be told, Josh doubted there was any fun variety of S&M.
But she was excellent at what she did. Suzanne could pull a story out of a turnip, and that was sometimes what she had to do to get their writers to budge. Just because a good story was in someone didn’t mean it would actually make it out of them intact.
“So, what do we have so far?” he asked, raising a brow in Suzanne’s direction.
“What’s in front of you.”
“Those pages are blank.”
“Pretty astute of you there, Boss.” Suzanne grinned, knowing she was one of the few people who could get away with talking to Josh Turner like that.
“I was supposed to have the first chapter this morning. She’s had four weeks.” Not only was Josh concerned about this lack of words from a business standpoint, but the waiting had also been excruciating on a personal level. Hailee’s instructions were simple. Start the story in high school or earlier, if that’s where her first taste of love developed. “What have you been doing with her?”
“Listen, Josh. I’ve worked with some tough writers, but Emilia literally clams up. It’s like she’s physically incapable of writing the story you want her to tell.”
“Nothing’s impossible.” Josh pressed his lips together. “Maybe she’s trained her mind to only work on small snippets, and the thought of something more paralyzes her.”
“It could be.” Suzanne nodded in agreement. “But that doesn’t help us much.”
Josh shrugged and stared at his phone, which happened to have Hailee’s blog on the screen.
“She’s managed to do her daily posts. If we were to add all of those up, it would equal far more than a chapter.”
“So I need to tell her to quit posting there and start focusing on her chapter?”
“I honestly don’t care what you tell her, but I do care that I have nothing but blank pages sitting in front of me. Why didn’t you tell me this on Friday?”
“She assured me she’d have something to me by this morning.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I kind of like the girl, and I truly believed she would.”
“You know as well as I do that if the writer misses all the soft deadlines leading up to the hard deadline, they’re not going to magically produce the weekend before. It never works that way.”
“Well, I guess I still live in a world full of hope.” Suzanne threw a fake smile in Josh’s direction and let out a frustrated sigh.
“We’re going to treat this like one big writing exercise.” Josh stood and walked over to the wall of opaque glass they used as a writing board. He grabbed an erasable marker and began writing down questions. “Send her these as jumping-off points and make the deadline by the end of the week. No later than noon on Friday, or we yank her advance and call off the deal.”
Josh knew he was all talk, but if he didn’t have Suzanne believing what he said, nothing would ever get done and Hailee wouldn’t play his game. He was determined to have this book done by fall. It was a quick turnaround, but he’d already waited eighteen years for these answers.
As he continued to scribble down the questions to start Hailee’s juices flowing, he couldn’t help but wonder why she was refusing to write. Hailee was the one with all the answers.
When Josh finally finished the last question, he let out a huge sigh and turned around to see Suzanne staring at him in disbelief.
“That’s a long list of questions. How do you expect Emilia to answer all of those if she can’t even send a chapter?”
Josh smiled. “Either she wants to keep the money, or she doesn’t.” He tossed the marker onto the table and walked out of the conference room. He needed to clear his head.
“Hi, Mr. Turner.” The receptionist waved and smiled at him, and he responded with a quick nod.
Josh recognized that the receptionist was inviting him to more than just a simple hello. He knew her endless flirting had an endgame, but it was one he would never participate in. Josh had a strict policy on fraternizing with coworkers, and he knew he could only lead by example.
Not that the receptionist expected a date, which was even more disconcerting. He always felt bad when some women put themselves out there to get their hearts trampled, because that would inevitably happen. It made Josh wonder if the ease of one-night stands was because of all the dating apps now, or if he was just more astute because when he tried to find someone of substance, he failed miserably while all of his friends and cousins had managed to find The One.
His chest tightened as Hailee popped into his head, and he let out a groan as he slammed the elevator button. Maybe he’d already found the one and was out of luck. Josh let out an aggravated sigh and walked onto the carriage sending him down to the lobby.
Eight weeks ago, Josh was sitting on top of the world, enjoying nights out and walking eagerly into his office each morning. Now, his evenings were taken up by thoughts of Hailee Howard and all the stewing that accompanied that joyride. He was emotionally exhausted from dredging up the woman from his past, but now he was in too deep, and Josh had to see his plan through.
By the time he reached his favorite diner to grab an omelet, he was all worked up.
Was Hailee just messing with Josh? Had she figured out he owned the publishing house? There was no mention of him on the website, he stayed out of the press, and the new deal announcements never mentioned him by name, so it would be unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely.
“Your usual, Mr. Turner?” The server stood in front of the table he somehow found himself at. He didn’t even remember walking into the diner, which was precisely the problem. The moment Hailee Howard entered his mind, everything else left it, which made no sense.
She obviously wasn’t the person he knew nearly two decades ago, but she’d become some kind of enigma he wanted to solve. What drove her to leave town and change her name, only to come back eighteen years later, was nearly driving him mad. Josh just hoped his plan wouldn’t backfire.
Right when he’d finished his omelet, a text from Suzanne slid over his phone.
Surprisingly, she answered all of your questions and already sent them over. They landed in my inbox about ten minutes ago. Not surprisingly, they only took up about a page. I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere.
Josh smiled and texted back.
A page each?
Suzanne immediately responded.
No.
Josh gritted his teeth and pushed his plate away. Somehow, he was managing to get roped into Hailee’s games whether he wanted to be or not. He threw a twenty on the table and started toward the office without even a reply to Suzanne.
No matter how short Hailee’s answers were, he was itching to see her responses. He didn’t pull any punches when he had Suzanne send that list over, and for most writers, it would have more than provided a jumping off point for them.
So why not Hailee?
By the time the elevator let him off on the floor to his office, he was breathless with needy anticipation.
When his eyes connected with Suzanne’s, he knew he was going to be let down. There wasn’t going to be enough on the page Hailee sent over to satisfy his curiosity.
Josh grabbed the printout from Suzanne’s grip and stared at the answers.
Have you been in love?
Yes.
How many times?
Once.
When?
When I was a teenager.
What did your first love mean to you?
Everything.
Have you ever loved someone like you loved your first love?
No.
Do you think it will ever be possible to love like you did when you were younger?
No, but I’m not sure I’d want to.
What do you wish you could apply from that relationship to future relationships?
Fearlessness and certainty.
What did it feel like being in love with your first love, and have you ever felt anything like it since?
It felt like home, and no.
Josh drew a deep breath and hung onto her last answer. This wasn’t a woman who needed to be punished. Hailee was a woman who needed to be found.