Craig was now ghostly white. He leaned forward and cleared his throat. ‘Now, Hayley, Jake, you know that we definitely do not want to lose you. As you say, your backlist is doing so well, and a new book will only help that further; we could re-brand all your titles and tie them into your new release. And we can set up TV appearances and arrange a book tour, capitalise in every way we can on the publicity you got at the romance conference. And I can assure you both, we are fully committed to Jake’s career and the new deal we offer will most definitely reflect that commitment. I only ask one thing: will you wait for our offer before you talk to any other publisher?’

I saw Hayley put her hand up under the table to make sure Jake didn’t answer. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

Hayley took her time to respond. I found myself holding my breath. Finally, she sighed. ‘You’re asking a lot, Craig, but we are very loyal to you as you know so as long as you get us the deal by end of play tomorrow, we can do that.’

‘Tomorrow? I need to…’ Craig began, eyeing his team in what seemed like something close to panic.

‘Get it sorted. Excellent.’ Hayley clapped her hands together, making everyone jump a little bit. Then she stood up. ‘I have calls to make so thank you for the meeting, Craig. Looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow. Jake, Freya, shall we?’

I scrambled to get up and grab my things as Hayley swept towards the door. Jake followed at a brisk pace and I hurried after them, hearing the team calling out goodbyes and thank yous behind me. We walked to the lifts and jumped in one heading back down to the ground floor.

In the lift, I took in a couple of breaths, unsure how to even feel after that meeting.

‘Hayley…’ Jake began.

She held up a hand. ‘You know by now to trust that whatever I do is the best thing for your career, Jake. So, trust me.’

Jake looked at me but I kept my eyes on the lift doors.

After we had reached the ground floor and walked out of the building, Hayley turned to us. ‘I’m off for a lunch meeting. See you back at the office, Freya. Jake, I’ll call you as soon as Craig gets in touch.’ She air-kissed us both then strode off, disappearing into the city and leaving me and Jake together on the pavement.

‘We need to talk,’ Jake said after a moment of us watching her go.

40

I hesitated as Jake looked at me. ‘What do we have to say to each other?’

‘For starters, what’s going on with you?’ he asked.

My eyebrows shot up. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Freya, in that meeting, you were completely unlike yourself!’