The Publicist Book One and Two (40 page)

Chapter Forty-Eight

Kate sipped her coffee, lost in thought. When her phone rang, she jumped slightly. She was still a bit foggy from the night before. They had been up most of the night, making love and talking. At one in the morning, he decided to make them pancakes. They ate in the kitchen and talked and kissed and made love on the kitchen floor. It had been an amazing night.

She answered the phone. “Kate Mitchell.”

“Kate, hi. It’s Trevor from
People Magazine
. How are you?”

“Good, Trevor, it’s great to hear from you.”

“I’m so glad you’re still in the biz. I was worried. Listen, I got Allan’s book. I love it. We want to run a review and a feature on Allan. Can you give us some backstory?”

Kate was breathless.
People
was huge. “Yes, yes, of course. Trevor, this is fantastic. Thank you so much.”

“No, Kate, thank you. I hear you had to go through some hoops to wrestle this manuscript away from MD.”

Kate frowned. “MD canceled the agreement with Allan.”

“Yes, but word is there was a subsequent agreement that Edward signed, you know, to make sure that you and the book were protected.”

“I can’t comment on any agreements, Trevor, you know that. Besides, where are you getting this?”

“Some guy at your old publishing house—Pete, or something. I called trying to get a hold of some background on Allan from his original publisher. That place is a ghost town, Kate. Everyone is jumping ship. Anyway, Pete said that some additional agreement is in place.”

Kate rolled her eyes. Pete was still there. That figured. “I would check your sources before you print that, Trevor. Pete’s not very reliable.”

“Good to know. All right then, Kate, I’ll send you the backstory stuff we need in email—whatever our research can’t fill in, probably some personal stuff about your friendship if you’re okay with that?”

“Sure, of course. I look forward to it.”

Kate hung up.
Freaking Pete
, she thought. She stood up and looked around. Nick had set her up in his office. The windows looked out onto his yard. It was a lovely place to work, but she wondered if she should consider getting some office space. She picked up her phone and dialed Lulu.

“Morning Lu, it’s Kate.”

“I’m so excited to hear from you, Kate! I got your emails this morning and I followed up with them all.
USA Today
wrote back saying they would review Allan’s book, too.”

Kate’s heart skipped.
USA Today
was fantastic. She made a mental note to email her contact at Barnes & Noble and see if they would increase the order again.

“That’s such great news, Lu. I talked to
People
. They’re doing a review and a feature on Allan.”

“Kate,” Lulu said, her voice serious, “you should increase your print run.”

Shit. Kate hadn’t even considered that. Of course, new publisher mistake. “You’re right, Lu. Thanks for the reminder. So look, I think I should start looking at office space. Would you mind doing some nosing around in San Marino and see what you can find?”

“On it. I’ll get something over to you before the end of the day.”

As soon as Kate hung up she called her printer. More books. Yes, she would need more books. Lots of them.

Chapter Forty-Nine

By late August, Kate had secured reviews in
Entertainment Weekly
,
People
, and all the major trades.
Publishers Weekly
had given
After the Fall
a starred review. Barnes & Noble increased their order to ten thousand, and Kate, in turn, added another fifteen thousand copies to her print run. She worked from morning until night, making sure every detail was handled. Perseus had agreed to distribute the book, which was a huge win for her. They were one of the biggest and best in the industry.

Lulu’s research turned up several great locations, and Kate decided to secure space on Huntington Drive in downtown San Marino. She was scheduled to move in the following week. The pace of Kate’s life was so frenzied she didn’t think much about her life in New York, but she missed Grace. Though they talked every week and emailed often, it wasn’t the same. She missed their conversations over drinks and Sunday morning tea at their favorite teashop. She had promised Grace she would return, but now she wasn’t sure if she would or could. She and Nick had settled into a good life. She was happy. They were happy together. Though there had been more times than she cared to admit that she wanted to reach out to Mac—to tell him the good news, how well Allan’s book was being received, or to just talk publishing—Kate pushed Mac to the far corner of her mind.
Move on, Kate
, she thought.
Move the hell on
.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Nick.
You at home?

Yes,
she responded.
Coming by for a quickie?

She knew he would laugh at that. There was nothing quick about Nick’s lovemaking.

Don’t go anywhere. I have a surprise for you.

Kate wondered what it could be. Twenty minutes later, she heard Nick pull up. She walked outside to greet him and saw someone sitting in the passenger seat.

It was Grace.

No way!
Kate ran to her friend, who jumped from the car.

“Gracie! Oh my God, what are you doing here?” Kate hugged her friend hard.

Behind them, Nick was smiling.

“Well, I thought you could use a hand. Seems like you’ve been keeping busy.”

Kate almost cried. “God, it’s good to see you.”

“Good to see you, too. I’ve missed you. The city isn’t the same without you, and I want you to know the big sacrifice I made getting here. Breathing recycled air, sitting next to people who eat processed food. I feel like I need to drink bleach or something.”

Kate laughed; a tear trickled down her cheek. “Grace, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

“Nick thought it would be fun to surprise you.” Grace winked.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Nick, who smiled and shrugged. “Guilty,” he said.

“You flew her here? Really?”

“This is the biggest time of your life; I figured you’d want to share it with the people who love you.”

Love you
. He hadn’t said he loved her—well not since they started sleeping together again, but Kate knew.

“Grace, come inside.”

Grace suddenly realized her surroundings; she’d been too excited to notice on the way in. “Wait, you live here? Seriously? No wonder you haven’t come home.”

“It’s a great place and a great city. Come inside.”

“Oh, God yes,” Grace smiled. “I hate the sun. Doesn’t it ever rain here?”

…

The patio deck in the back yard extended out from the house. It had a table and a brightly colored umbrella, a built-in stone barbecue, and several deck chairs. Nick fired up the barbecue as Kate and Grace watched. Grace, of course, careful to keep herself under the umbrella.

“Gracie,” Kate smiled, “the sun will do you good.” She sipped her wine and watched her friend frown.

“The sun is evil. All you sun worshipers will end up shriveled like raisins someday, and don’t even get me started on melanoma.”

“Grace, you are cheer personified,” Nick laughed.

“Seriously Gracie, if you’re going to be here for a while, you’ll have to get used to it. It’s always sunny here.”

Her friend smiled and shrugged. “I’ll give it my best shot. I think it would be easier to tolerate if everyone wasn’t so damned happy here. What’s up with that, Nick? Are they putting something in the water?”

“Injections,” he said, putting the hamburger patties on the grill.

“Do you know when I landed, someone at the gate said, ‘Welcome to California!’ You know how people welcome you to New York? They steal your purse.”

Kate busted out laughing. Her friend was partially right; New Yorkers had a harder life.

“Grace, you should consider moving here. Tons of galleries and everyone loves art here.”

Grace shook her head. “No way. I’m staying in New York where everyone hates my work and the galleries turn their noses up at me.” She threw her friend a smile. “I like the challenge. Say, Nick are those burgers hormone-free, free range, and all that?”

Kate nudged her friend. “Grace, Nick runs natural stores. I think if I ever brought something processed into this house, alarms would go off. However, I do have a box of Twinkies under our bed, you know, just in case I get a hankering for processed food.”

Our bed?
Grace mouthed, and Kate slapped her gently on the knee. Grace beamed. Kate knew she’d have a lot to discuss with her friend once they were alone.

Nick seemed to take his cue. “You ladies stay out here and talk. I’m going to put together the salad.”

“Oh, let me help you.” She tried standing up, but Grace stopped her.

“You heard the man. He clearly wants us to talk. Now spill it. What’s happened since you became a California girl?”

Kate took a tentative sip of her wine. “We’re taking it slow.”

Grace cocked her head. “Eh,
our bed
doesn’t seem slow to me.”

“It’s complicated.” Kate took another drink of her wine. She had a feeling she was going to need it.

“No, Kate. Mac is complicated. Nick is not complicated. He’s sweet, smart, funny, and so handsome it hurts my eyes just to look at him.”

“I need to take it slow, and keep your voice down.”

Grace leaned into her. “Look, Kate. I love you. You are like a sister to me, but I’m going to tell you right now: If you have any hesitation about Nick, you should stop this now. He deserves all of you, not whatever is left after you spend the rest of your time obsessing about Mac.”

“I don’t obsess.”

“But you do think about him.”

“He was a big part of my life.”

“And a big part of your demise.”

Kate shot her a glare. “I don’t want to talk about this now.”

“That’s fine but we will talk about this, because Nick loves you and if you aren’t totally in love with him, then you should let him go. He’s not a life raft, Kate. Look, I don’t know him that well, but what I do know of him is that he’s a gem—a keeper, as you like to say.”

“Message received.” Kate was getting annoyed. She wanted to go inside and bury her head in her pillow. She wished she really did have a box of Twinkies in the house. She’d dig them out, rock in the corner, and devour them.

“Kate, are you still in love with Mac?”

Kate got up and left. “I need to go help Nick.”

It was all the answer Grace needed. She shook her head as she watched her friend walk inside. If Kate didn’t get her head together about Nick, she was quite certain that Kate would end up breaking his heart as bad or worse than Mac had broken hers.

Chapter Fifty

Kate surveyed her office space; it was small and efficient with two offices and a front reception. There was one meeting room. She envisioned having author meetings there, or maybe visiting with agents.

Authors. Plural.

Kate had been considering publishing more authors, depending on how Allan’s book did.

“Nice place, Katie,” Grace said, following her in.

“Nick said he’s going to help me paint this weekend. Care to join us?”

“Of course!” Grace smiled, “I am a painter, you know. How about a mural of crazy authors?”

Kate laughed. “Tempting, but no, we’re painting the walls a soft olive. The guy in the paint store said it was soothing. We want soothing.”

“This won’t be MD, you know, Kate. If you decide to take on more authors, you can pick and choose who you want.”

Kate nodded. “I know. Look!” she pulled out a sign that she had had made, a beautiful wooden sign that read: Lavigne House.

Grace smiled. “Allan would have loved this.”

Kate shrugged. “Sometimes I think he would feel the whole publishing house thing is going a bit overboard. He probably would have just made copies and handed them out.”

Just then, Kate’s cellphone rang, which it did almost all day. The buzz around Allan’s book was almost deafening.

“Kate Mitchell.”

“Kate, Patty Neger,
Good Morning America
. How are you?”

“Patty, hi, good to hear from you. Did you like the book?”

“Loved it. Really magnificent work. Look, we want to book you on the show.”

“Me?”

“Yes, we’re thinking of doing a piece on how you got this book. The reclusive author wills you this book. You leave publishing to become a publisher.”

“Patty, I don’t really want to get into the whole MD thing.”

“It’ll come up, It has to. It’s part of the story.”

She was right, and the segment would help the book. “Okay, sure. What do you need from me?”

“Nothing. Just your commitment is fine. We’ll want you on the week of release of course. You haven’t booked with any other morning shows, right?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“Perfect. I’ll email you details. You’re in California now, right? We can use a studio there.”

“Great. Thanks, Patty.”

She turned to Grace. “We got
Good Morning America
.”

“You’re going on TV?”

“Apparently.”

Kate licked her lips nervously. The thought of being on TV made her anxious. She was fine booking authors on TV, but she’d never considered it for herself. Publicists are heard but not seen.

“But that’s good, right?”

Kate nodded. “Good, but unexpected, I guess.”

Grace put a hand on Kate’s arm. “Listen, Katie. I’m sorry about the other night, about saying what I did. I just, I just want you to be happy.”

Kate grabbed her friend and hugged her. “I know you do. I want that too.”