Free Turnabout's Fair Play by Kaye Dacus Page B

when I saw you coming down the aisle.” He turned to the woman by his side. In normal circumstances, she’d be an average-height woman; beside this meat mountain, she looked positively tiny. “Amy Joy, this is Flannery McNeill, my editor.” He beamed at Flannery on those last two words.
    His wife’s smile broadened, and she shook Flannery’s hand. “Flannery? Like the author, Flannery O’Connor?”
    Flannery kept her cool. Why had her mother named her after someone famous? Let the standard explanation begin . “Yes. My mother was a big fan of literature, so she named her daughters after three of her favorite authors.”
    “Ooh—what are your sister’s names?” Amy Joy asked.
    “Emily and Sylvia.”
    “Emily…for Emily Dickinson, the poet, right?”
    Flannery nodded.
    “And Sylvia …” Amy Joy’s porcelain-doll features crumpled into a frown. “I can’t think of who that would be for.”
    Whom , Flannery mentally corrected. “Sylvia Plath. I can’t say I share my mom’s taste in literature completely.”
    Not only did Amy Joy resemble a china doll, but she also had a music box–worthy tinkling laugh. “It’s so nice to meet you. Cole hasn’t stopped talking about his book finally getting published. You’re the first publisher who took him seriously and didn’t try to talk him out of writing fiction and into writing about his experience winning college and pro championships and being an MVP and all that.”
    Flannery’s smile returned, and she shrugged. “I’m a fiction editor. If Cole wrote nonfiction, I wouldn’t be the one working with him, so why would I try to talk him into that? I have to say I’m kind of surprised to see y’all here. I thought you lived in South Carolina during the off-season.”
    Cole nodded. “Oh, we do. But Tank Patterson is my mentor. He’s part of a group of former players who offer to kinda take rookies under their wings and help them out throughout their careers. When I found out Tank Patterson wanted to mentor me, I couldn’t have been happier. He’s always been one of my role models. I don’t know Bobby as well as I’d like, but I couldn’t miss the wedding of Tank’s son.”
    Of course. Zarah had told her about the connection when Flannery first mentioned she was considering acquiring Cole’s novels.
    Jack touched her elbow. “Cole, Jamie, and I were just chatting—brainstorming, really—about some marketing ideas for Cole’s books.”
    She cricked her neck, turning her head too fast, finally noticing someone else stood on the other side of her boss. Jamie gave her a tight smile and a dorky little wave.
    “Jamie is a sports marketing rep at a large agency, so he’s got a lot of ideas for how we can possibly use some of Cole’s other endorsements to help leverage the marketing and sales of the novels.” Jack beamed at her as if he’d planned this turn of events all along.
    “Is that so?” Flannery kept her smile plastered on—no need for Cole to know how much she loathed Jamie O’Connor. “Well, I’d be happy to listen to your ideas and take them to the marketing director when it comes time for that.”
    “Oh, we can do better than that.” Jack wrapped his arm around Flannery’s waist and pulled her close into his side. “I’ve asked Jamie to set up a time when you and he can sit down with Cole and discuss some marketing ideas together. It’ll have to be this week, as Cole and Amy Joy are headed back to South Carolina on Friday.”
    Amy Joy pulled a beeping phone out of her purse. “Oh, look at the time. I told the sitter service we’d be back to the room by eleven, and it’s ten after. It’s going to take us forever to get back through this hotel and find our room again.”
    Jamie stepped forward and extended his right hand to Cole. “Good to talk to you tonight. I’ll give you a call Tuesday morning to set up that meeting time.”
    “Great, we should know by then what our plans are for the rest of the week.” Cole