Free Undressing Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos Page B

#UndressingMrDarcy
    She waited for a natural break in the impromptu signing before talking to him. “I see you’ve met Lexi.”
    Julian nodded. “Oh, Lexi, yes. Listen, I do hope you’ll join us all in Bath. It seems to be all settled.”
    She smiled. “Thank you for the invitation. But I’m sure you understand I can’t possibly go to Bath—but, more importantly, how did the photo session go?”
    “Brilliant! Just brilliant.” He turned from his posse and looked her in the eye. “You’ve done some fabulous work for me.”
    “When we have a chance I’ll take you through those new ideas I had.”
    “Looking forward to some time alone with you, Vanessa.”
    She took a step backward. “Now, don’t let Lexi distract you from interacting with your fans. I’m just going to step aside to post some of the footage of your show. Don’t go anywhere without me, please.”
    “Absolutely not.”
    Lexi nudged in next to him. “Don’t worry. I won’t let him out of my sight.”
    That was exactly what worried her. She had her doubts about leaving Julian with either Lexi or Xena, Warrior Princess, much less a combination of the two. She pulled Sherry aside. “Sherry? Would you be willing to chaperone Mr. Darcy while I’m editing the footage?”
    Sherry cracked her bubble gum with a smile. “I am Mrs. D, after all, aren’t I?”
    Aunt Ella had been right; Sherry was a gem. “I’ll have to think of some way to compensate you for your work.”
    Sherry laughed. “Oh, I’m compensated! It’s hardly
work
.”
    A text came in from Chase saying he was having lunch with her aunt and Paul, and all seemed fine with them. Vanessa considered herself lucky to be so suddenly surrounded by reliable, helpful people like Chase and Sherry. Certainly, when it came to men, reliability ranked right up there along with good communication skills, and Chase, so far, seemed to have both. With the whole bonnet maker’s daughter–Batman debacle he had proven himself resourceful, flexible, on time, and on task. He’d make a great business partner, but clearly Paul had already recognized that.
    She found Kai at a tall table behind his laptop with headphones on, but she knew him well. Instead of working he was staring at Catwoman sipping a Bloody Mary. Vanessa slid his headphones off. “I didn’t think you liked cats.”
    “Now I do.” He laughed.
    “Did we get some decent footage?”
    “Yeah. I also got the audience reaction, too. Pretty flippin’ awesome.”
    “What do you mean the audience reaction?” Vanessa asked.
    “Those women were hot for him.”
    “That’s exactly what we want!”
    “Lots of fans fluttering in that room. Your photo session idea really worked, too.”
    “I guess it gave his donations an uptick. Did he announce his book signing and the social media handles?”
    “He had Paul do that for him.”
    “Okay. Good solution. At least he took my advice in some capacity.”
    “Um, I just have to tell you that you and Julian really did a cool thing for your aunt today.”
    “What are you talking about, Kai?”
    “You weren’t there, but after his show was over, the audience was really into it, I mean, as jazzed as people get at one of these things, but he got them all to calm down, and he said you and he wanted to take a moment to recognize the founder of the Chicago Jane Austen Society, and he had your aunt stand up and said all kinds of amazing stuff about your aunt, and then he asked everyone to give her a hand, and they did, and she started tearing up, and I got that on video—you have to see it—and then the audience stood up and gave her a standing ovation, and, well, since this is going to be the last meeting in Chicago for another ten years or so, I just thought you should know. The guy’s a dude, really. A cool dude.”
    “Wow. I didn’t know a thing about it. Is it cued up? I have to see it—I can’t believe I missed it—I had to take a call from the doctor’s office—” She steadied