I frown at that. She was never one to balk at talk of money before. In fact, she never seemed to care about it, even in the end when JMP offered her over a million dollars for more. It was about the writing for her, she said. The importance of the art. Getting paid to do it was a bonus.

Casey and Trina start to go at it again, which has Meri looking like she’s trying very hard not to roll her eyes into the back of her head, but something about the way Scarlett has withered from the healthy version of herself I saw when I came in to whatever silent shell she’s become now has me on high alert.

“Stop,” I say. When they don’t hear me, I say it louder. “Stop.”

They do, then, and turn to look at me.

I clear my throat. “We’re all sitting here talking about this deal and this book and the author herself as if she’s not sitting right in front of us with opinions of her own. Yes, this deal would be important for Anastasios. Yes, we were all deceived. And yes, even before knowing who wrote it, this book has meant something to me that I can’t quite put into words. But I, for one, want to know what Scarlett thinks about this whole thing before we go any further.”

That gets her attention. Her brilliant blue eyes fly to me, and some of the tension releases from her shoulders and face.

There she is, I think as my heart skips a beat. I give her a small smile, and she returns the ghost of one across the table.

I expect her to reject this whole thing out of pocket and prepare for how much it’s going to sting when she does. But she keeps regarding me with those blue eyes, and I find myself mesmerized by them like I always was.

“You loved it?” she finally asks.

It takes me a second to realize she hasn’t just shot me down. It takes another to register the hope in the lift of her chin and the angle of her brows. One more and it dawns on me that she’s asking what I think, not because of any deal but because my opinion of her work still matters.

“Scarlett,” I say, and her name sounds pained on my lips, even to me. “Loved isn’t a strong enough word.”

Her eyes glisten as that hits home, like I knew it would. Everything goes still as I hold my breath, waiting for her to collect herself enough to respond.

“I want you to do it,” she says.

And that’s about when everything erupts again. Meri brings out her tablet to start drafting a marketing plan. Casey, begrudgingly on board, opens up his laptop to start taking notes on negotiations for the contract department to draw up paperwork.