Just Her Type (16 page)

But then, a lot could happen in thirty days. Brody
could change his mind about leaving Impact. Unless he’d already made a verbal
agreement with someone else. Of course Brody had put out feelers. Contract
stipulations aside, a savvy writer would not cut ties with an agent of
Dominic’s caliber without a suitable backup plan already in place.

 
Again,
Dominic thought back to the day before when he’d found Brody and Kendra on that
tour bus with their heads together. Kendra was not about “lurking in the gray
areas” of the game or so she’d repeatedly said. If he were to take her at her
word, she would not promise or seriously discuss representation until Brody was
all free and clear.

Or would she?
 

Dominic considered his strong emotional and
physical attractions to Kendra. They felt real. Organic. But were they the only
reasons she’d stopped playing the sore loser and resisting his advances? It was
possible she’d already bagged Brody.

Was she playing nice with Dominic so she’d catch
him off guard when he discovered Brody had moved on to Porter Literary
Agency?
 
Nabbing Brody was the
perfect payback. And how did Dominic feel about Kendra landing one of his
prized clients? Turnabout was fair play after all. But how he should feel and how
he actually felt were not always neatly aligned.

“Business aside,” Brody said. “I consider you a
good friend, like a brother.”

“Yeah, brothers.”
Ungrateful motherfucker.

“We’ll still hang out when I’m in the city?”

“You have to ask?”
 
Dominic said with a light chuckle.
 
“Of course we will. You’re still the
man.”
 
Bite me.

 
“Whew.
Glad there are no hard feelings.”

 
“No hard feelings. Best of
luck.”
 
Dickhead.

Chapter 23

Dominic invited Kendra to
join him for an overnight stay at a car-accessible campground on the slopes of
Haleakala, just below the seven-thousand-foot level of the summit.

“I’m so glad you agreed to give up a night in our
cushy resort to rough it out here with me.” Dominic stood over a grill
preparing their dinner.

“I don’t consider the premium steaks and vegetable
kabobs you’re cooking ‘roughing it.’” Kendra relaxed in a lawn chair positioned
to avoid direct smoke from the barbecue.

“Wait until you need to use that pit toilet.”

“I’ve survived worse. A certain Porta-Jon at a
cabbage festival and tractor pull show comes to mind.” After noting Dominic’s
bewildered look she added, “Long story for another day, when we’re not about to
eat.” She came to her feet and walked over to hug him from behind. “You pulled
this together quickly. Where did you get all this gear?”
 
A few yards away stood their blue tent
that Dominic had quickly erected upon arrival.

“You’d be amazed what I can do when motivated.”
Dominic put down his grilling utensils and turned inside the circle of her
arms. He held her tight and kissed her on the forehead. “While you were still
sleeping, I was on my phone, texting, making things happen.”

Kendra’s stomach lurched. The idea of Dominic
moving about her room,
in her things,
while she slept did not sit right with her.
 
Was that the reason he was so eager to
spend the night? To snoop a rival’s camp?
 
She recalled the mattress dipping a bit. He’d left the bed before she’d
fallen into deep sleep, but then she’d drifted off again after hearing the
shower’s spray. Paranoia tightened its stranglehold on her. She didn’t remember
putting
Four
Simple
Wishes
or her
notes on it away before he’d arrived at her door. The pages had been stacked
near her laptop and knitting supplies on the desk at the time. Idiotic lapse,
but she wasn’t thinking of Dominic as the competition or even a colleague, but
as a man whose company she enjoyed.
 
Still, her thoughts spun into an unwieldy ball of regret for letting him
spend the night.

Dominic genuinely liked her. It was in his touch
and in his eyes. Everything felt so right when she was in his arms like this.
He wouldn’t… What were the chances he’d spied and read some of Corinne’s
manuscript while she’d slept? She had to quash these foolish thoughts or their
lovely evening would be ruined.

“Kendra?” Dominic asked. “Hello. You still with
me?”

Kendra blinked. “Yeah!”
 

“Anyway, found everything I needed at one website
so all I had to do was place an order. I went to pick it up during business
hours. I wanted to experience the famous Haleakala sunrise with you. I hear
camping out is the best way to do it.
 
From here, it’s easier to make it the rest of the way to the summit for
the five-fifteen sunrise. We’ll have plenty of time to find a good viewing spot
and avoid most of the traffic crush.”

“Good thinking,” Kendra said, taking in the other
campers moving about the open grassy area surrounded by forest and shrub land.
She counted at least twenty-five tents. “So, how was your day?”

***

“It went well.” Dominic
released Kendra and got back to his grilling before the steaks burned. He
wasn’t about to mention his conversation with Brody. He still couldn’t believe
Brody had actually given him the heave-ho, after all Dominic had done for him.
The more he thought about it the more his blood boiled so he’d focus on what
had gone right on the business front that day.

When he’d met with the Ostertags, he was surprised
to discover the daughter had been Kendra’s hiking partner on the Haleakala zip
tour.

 
Dominic had left the meeting with the
mother/daughter team with a signed agent/client agreement. He was now the
official representative for Corinne and
Four
Simple
Wishes
. It was obvious Mrs. Ostertag and Corinne had not planned to
sign with Impact on the spot, but all the agent research in the world hadn’t
prepared those ladies for Dominic when he had a book he wanted to rep in his
sights.

He was that good.
 
He smiled.
 
He’d displayed overwhelming passion for
the manuscript, and he’d expounded on how the book should be positioned. But
the clincher had been a projected advance range that had made Mrs. Ostertag’s
and Corinne’s eyes pop out of their sockets. Yeah, it was a gamble, but most of
his strong hunches had paid off. He was sure the money, including various deal
points, would fall in the range he’d mentioned or comfortably close. He’d
already requested a digital copy from the Ostertags and forwarded it to Tucker.

Dominic believed he would pay big because it was
exactly
what he’d been looking for.
 
And Tucker had the clout of his own
imprint and blockbuster track record to ensure the right people at his house hopped
onboard, too.
 

Tucker, who had an unerring nose for sniffing out
The Next Big Thing, could drum up in-house support for a book of parking
tickets.

Everything would fall into place speedily, the way
Dominic, at the top of his game, could orchestrate it.

“I like mine well-done,” Kendra said.

“Gotcha.” Dominic flipped their steaks before
transferring the vegetable skewers from the heat to a platter.

“So you had a good day.
 
Any workshops or podcasts you’d like to
recommend?” she asked.

“You mean, besides my own?” He smiled.

“I will get your podcast. That goes without
saying.” She smiled back.

Dominic watched Kendra as she took the platter and
placed it in the middle of their table before taking a seat and putting some on
her plate.

“Why do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“Turn your plate like…” He made a circle with one
index finger. “I noticed you did that on our first date, at the luau, and when
we ordered room service. Is that some sort of ritual for good luck or
something? Like tossing salt over the shoulder.”

“You could say that.”
 
Kendra looked so good nibbling on
grilled mushrooms, zucchini, and cherry tomatoes.
  
Bet she could make cracking walnuts with her teeth look sexy
.
 
A disturbing realization came to him,
dampening his mood again.
 
They’d
been pleasant enough to one another, but he sensed a divide between him and
Kendra. The wall that had lifted since they’d arrived in Maui slowly descended
again because he was holding back.

With Corinne signed, what harm could it do to
share how excited he was to represent her? Dominic only briefly considered
telling Kendra before scrapping the idea entirely. They’d engaged in trivial
conference workshop and seminar banter and discussed their opinions on indie
publishing and a few contract points, but had yet to hammer out exactly which
agency-related topics were open for discussion.

And there was that other nagging thought that had
occurred to him as soon as he’d entered the Ostertags’ hotel room and
recognized Corinne as the woman Kendra had spent a great deal of time with
during the Haleakala zip-line hike. Was Kendra the other interested agent, the
female agent, Mrs. Ostertag had used to taunt him?

Kendra
had
to know about
Four
Simple
Wishes
. Though Mrs. Ostertag had mentioned her daughter wasn’t aggressive
in her approach to agents, surely she’d seize the opportunity to pitch
Four
Simple
Wishes
to an agent of Kendra’s
caliber during their hike. Maybe. Maybe not. After all, she hadn’t pitched to
Dominic during the hike. And Mrs. Ostertag had revealed Corinne wasn’t the
go-getter that she herself was.

 
The
sticky issue regarding what to say, what not to say, who should know what and
when was a potential tinderbox. Still, he held out hope that with more time and
frank discussion everything would eventually work itself out. Again, he smiled
at Kendra, who smiled back and blew him a kiss. He pretended to catch it and
place on his lips.
 
At damn near
forty years old, he’d taken the hokey antics to new heights as of late, but
Kendra had brought that out of him.

And he liked it.

***

“So how was
your
day,” Dominic lobbed back at Kendra
as he removed their steaks from the grill. “You didn’t talk much on the ride
here.”

“Just a little tired,” she replied. “I’m having
the longest, but most productive days here. Did a lot of this and that.”
 
Too bad she couldn’t share just how
productive her day had been. Brody had phoned her and left a voicemail message:
The thirty-day countdown begins as soon
as I can send a registered letter, but my agent has been informed. I am moving
on.

Kendra never would’ve guessed Dominic had just
discovered one of his most successful authors was leaving his agency. He
appeared to be in great spirits, cracking his usual dorky jokes on the drive up
and even humming while he prepared their food. Perhaps he’d actually meant what
he’d said about not taking client departures personally. And besides, his
roster was loaded with celebrity and best-selling authors. Surely he could
spare one.

Even if Kendra wanted to, she still could not
reveal anything about her dealings with Brody or Corinne because neither had a
signed agent/client agreement with her yet. And she wasn’t about to gush about
Corinne’s wonderful manuscript until she had it all locked up with a
contractual agreement. It would be suicidal to get Dominic’s radar up on that
one.
 
He walked to the covered
picnic table area with steaks on a platter. She reached for their canned sodas
inside the cooler.

“Did you attend any panels, workshops?”
 
Dominic cut into his juicy New York
strip and stuffed a huge chunk inside his mouth.

Kendra replied around a mouthful, “Zoe’s workshop
was excellent. I assumed I’d see you there.”

“Yeah, I planned to attend, but something came up
so I missed most of the presentations today.”

Dominic couldn’t look her in the eye. He was
holding something back, but so was she.
No
prying
. “I know how that can happen. You’ll get the conference podcasts.”

“Correct.”

They laughed, and then ate the rest of their meal
in strained silence.

After dinner, there was still enough sun left to
take a self-guided tour on a nearby nature trail. Their hike eased some of the
tension between them. By the time they returned to their tent, night had fallen
and the temperature had dropped to forty-eight degrees. They spooned inside
their double-wide sleeping bag and listened to a “mixtape” of eighties love
songs Dominic had on an iPod. He used a Y-adapter for their earbuds so she felt
cozy and adored inside his embrace.

“I considered giving you an iPod of your own, but
I thought better of it. This gives me an excuse to stay closer than close,” he
said, placing soft kisses on her neck and stroking her hair.

“You don’t need an excuse.” She caressed his arm.
“I could listen to those songs all night.”

Dominic took her comments as his cue to sing along
off-key. It was such a sweet gesture she tried, but failed, to suppress her
laughter.

“Did I mention the karaoke king can’t carry a
tune?”

“But you do it with a lot of heart.”

“Because in my mind I have a trophy case full of
Grammys.”

“I can’t sing either, as you’ve already heard.
This was a great idea, Dominic,” she said with a deep sigh of contentment.
“I’ve loved Maui and our time together.”

“It will only get better after we return to New
York.”

The next morning as a beautiful red and orange sun
rose at the summit, Dominic held her close.

“I’m glad I could see this with you,” Kendra said.

 
“Yes,
nothing but rainbows, sunsets, and sunrises.” Dominic drew her in his arms and
sealed that promise with a kiss.