She laughed softly. “I am a reader. I couldn’t do my job well if I didn’t love books.”
“No, I suppose not.”
“With a little more push in the public relations area, you’d really take off. I think you’re well on your way to becoming the next Dean Koontz or Michael Crichton.”
“I’m not trying to become the next anybody. I just write what I want.”
“I know. But there’s more to an author’s life than just writing, you know. There are interviews and book sig
nings, your picture on book jackets—”
“What’s wrong with just writing a damned good book?”
“Nothing. In fact, that’s the most important thing you can do to advance your career. But—”
“But nothing. I’m not good with people, you know that. Put me on TV or at one of those boring book signings, and I’d probably torpedo my own career by alienating the readers I already have.”
“You would be fine,” she assured him. “You just need some prepping. I’d like to sign you up with a good public relations firm.”
“I’d rather have my toenails rotated.”
Shaking her head, she said, “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. That will give you time to think about my suggestions.”
“Won’t make me like them any more,” he muttered.
She shook her head. “I think you’re the only client I have who doesn’t want to get rich and famous.”
“I don’t mind the rich part,” he admitted with a wry smile. “It’s the fame I have trouble with.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way to come to terms with it—especially if it means you can keep doing what you enjoy.”
“Mmm.” He propped an elbow on the back of the couch and studied her. “So what would you be doing with your vacation time if you weren’t here baby-sitting Isabelle and me?”
Had he inched a bit closer or was it her imagination? There was nothing apparent in his expression except a mild interest in her answer. Since she couldn’t think of a way to scoot away without calling attention to her action, she gripped her fingers more tightly in her lap and concentrated on the question. “I didn’t have any specific plans. It’s the first time I’ve taken off in quite a while, so I thought I would just relax, do some reading and shopping, maybe watch a few of the movies I’ve missed lately. And I had tentatively planned to spend a couple of days in Boston next week visiting an old friend.”
His expression didn’t change. “Old boyfriend?”
“Girlfriend,” she corrected. “College roommate.”
“Ah. So is there a boyfriend in New York?”
She thought of the man she had dated infrequently during the past year, a stockbroker who had recently begun to hint about marriage, mostly because it was time for that step in his longtime life plan. He had considered her a suitable mate, one who came very close to matching his “profile” of the type of woman he wanted as his wife and the mother of his children.
Though she liked Robert, his approach to marriage had seemed too calculated. While he had spoken of affection and loyalty and commitment, he had never used the words “love” or “passion.” A couple of her friends had questioned her sanity when she’d begun to extricate herself from the relationship—after all, decent, successful men who were interested in marriage were hard to find. But she simply couldn’t get excited about being married because she fit some preexisting, arbitrary profile.
“No,” she said. “There’s no boyfriend.”
His elbow still resting on the back of the couch, he turned sideways so he could see her better, propping his cheek on his fist. “Do you enjoy your work?”
“It pays the bills.”
“Not exactly a glowing endorsement.”
She smiled and shrugged. “I’m good at my job, and I find it interesting most of the time. It’s quite demanding, of course—long hours on the phone and in meetings, confrontations with editors on behalf of my authors, stacks of reading, attending the occasional writers’ conference. But most jobs are challenging—that’s why they call it work, right?”
“Did your father pressure you to join his firm?”
She stared down at her hands. “It was what he always wanted. Not because he wanted to spend that much time with me, but because he liked the idea of having someone he could control as his second in command.”