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The screen flared to life on the wall and a breathtaking sunset image filled the screen. A double layer of icons neatly lined up on the side of the screen.
The woman seated at the table tipped her head to the side and glanced at the IT dude, grinning. “You fixed it. Well done.” Her voice was musical and sweet…and familiar. I’d heard it recently. A voice I knew I should recognize.
Hold the phone here.Was that… “Red?”
The woman swiveled her head toward me. “Oh my God! You?You’rethe country music artist?”
Damn, I hadn’t dared to dream I’d run into her again.I beamed my best smile at the woman who’d been top of my thoughts since Wednesday, when I’d met her on the trail. Truth be told, I’d wallowed in the gutter with some of my thoughts about this woman. I cleared my throat. “Guilty. I had no idea.”
She blinked hard. “Well, we didn’t actually exchange names. Although my friend admitted that she’d recognized you. I never imagined…”
“I know your friend’s name is Naomi and her dog’s name is Sweet Cream. You, I just dubbed Red.”
Carrie’s gaze flipped from Red to me. “You’ve met?”
“Purely by accident. My friend’s dog thought Mr. …er, Wilder needed some sloppy kisses.” A smile slipped over her face and my pulse quickened. She rose from her seat and stuck out her arm. “Catie Marlowe.”
I wrapped my fingers around her slender hand, and honest to God, a tiny firecracker sizzled along the path of my nerves, flashing up my arm and lodging behind my rib cage. “Uh…” Damn, sensation made me forget my name for a second. “Callan Wilder.”
Her smile faltered, but then brightened again. “Pleased to meet you.” One eyebrow quirked up and her gaze dropped to our joined hands.
I hadn’t released her hand yet. Reluctantly, I loosened my grip and slowly withdrew my fingers from hers. “Pleasure is all mine.”
Carrie rubbed her hands together rather loudly. “Um, how about if we see what Catie came up with for a cover. I can’t tell you how excited Bad Dog is about this new release, Callan.”
I might have let go of her hand, but my gaze still lingered on her pretty face. A shadow flickered in her eyes and a frown pinched her brows together. Relaxed, she was really pretty. This new professional expression shot her straight up theOhmygod, she’s beautifulcharts. I prayed that no one noticed how difficult breathing had become for me in the last few seconds.
She sighed. “Okay, this is rough. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.”
Catie turned toward her laptop. Her fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard. I was torn between looking at the large monitor on the wall or studying the sexy lines of her back and hips as she bent over the computer. She dropped into a chair and tapped another key. With one hand lifted to her mouth, she tossed a look over her shoulder at me before refocusing on the screen.
Carrie gasped. Asher started laughing.
I shifted my gaze to the monitor. “What the fuck is that?” I demanded. My hat landed on the conference table with a dull thud when I threw it. “And who the hell is Lorem Ipsum? What the fuck kind of name is that? Why isn’t my name on that?” Probably best that it wasn’t. My eyes burned from the art on display. It was a big nope from me.
It was so fucking wrong I couldn’t even begin to figure out where to focus first. There was a damn Viking on the screen. The background was pretty cool, but the dude was dressed in jeans and cowboy-ish boots with crisscrossing laces to hold them in place. Dude was wearing a buckskin vest. At least the guy had chiseled abs and well-defined pecs straining the rawhide string holding it closed. In its favor, the model’s hair color matched Catie’s, but the Willy Nelson-esque plaited locks were nowhere near cowboy-like. I’d never seen anything like it, not even from a bad spaghetti western movie. And the image of a Viking ship had been hinted at in the clouds. It was a great cover. But not for a country music album.
“The name is just place-holder text. There wasn’t a name on the art sheet. This is the cover based on the art sheet I received.” Catie’s hand curled into a fist on the laptop’s keyboard.
“The hell it is. Not even close to what I had in mind.”
Asher struggled to stop laughing. “Is that a Viking? I guess I was thinking more cowboy, you know, complete with cowboy boots, not whatever the hell those things are. Jesus, the animal rights people will go ballistic.”
“Catie? Is this a joke?” Carrie’s voice cracked.
After heaving an exasperated breath, Catie pulled a messenger bag from beneath her chair. “This is what you asked for.” The hasps on the cover cracked against the table as she flipped it open. “Carrie, if you recall, I asked you about the art sheet.” She dug inside the satchel. “You said you hadn’t reviewed it, but thought it would be correct. The art form requested a Viking.” She pulled out a piece of paper, stood, and offered it to Carrie.
I lunged forward and snatched the scrap of paper. The handwriting looked like a spider had dipped all eight legs in an inkwell and crawled over the paper. Asher hurried to my side and looked over my shoulder.
“What does that say… Wait, it’s damn hard to read.” Asher ran a hand down his face. “Why is this handwritten, Sheila?” He took the paper from my hand and shook it toward his assistant.
She stood, her face ashen. “It… I think I did that in my first week as your temp. I hadn’t been given the credentials to log in to transcribe my notes from the art meeting.”
“Wait, you had an art meeting without me?” I clenched my fists, holding back my frustration.
Carrie held her hand up, palm out. “It was a rush job, and you were in the studio recording. We worked with notes from the fact sheet you submitted when the initial tape came in.”
“There isn’t one damn mention of a Viking on my fact sheet. How could this get so fucked up?” I gusted out a harsh laugh and started pacing. Marketing needed the cover to start working on teasers, and to upload the recordings for pre-orders. “This is going to set us back by at least a month.
