Page 44 of Romantic Hero
‘You look incredible.’ River leans in to me as we approach the crowd around the campfire where Henry is sitting, idly strumming on an acoustic mandolin. Marisol is next to him wearing a chic violet-coloured dress, sipping from a glass ofred wine. Various other guests gather, passing a joint around the circle, chattering, laughing, happy to be out in the world, getting high in the woods on a perfectly balmy evening.
‘Are you sure I don’t look like a spoon?’ I ask, trying to look backwards at the curve of my larger than average backside, tightly encased in the silver dress.
‘Well, if you do, it’s a spoon I’d like to eat off of.’
I throw him a look.
‘Sorry. Habit. You do not look like a spoon. You look like a gorgeous confident human woman who Henry would be very lucky to have.’
The silver dress, while a little too tight, looks prettier than I imagined it would, the sparkle of the sequins seeming to light me up. My hair has been brushed, blown and serumed into a perfect shiny curtain, and I’m wearing a pair of high heels that make my usually quite short legs look long and lithe. All in all I look … totally unlike me. But in a good way, I think. Still, though, my heart has started to skitter about with the nerves the jacuzzi utterly failed to calm.
‘You’ll be great,’ River says confidently. ‘Let’s get the next phase of Operation Windbag under way.’
I lift my chin as River and I grab a couple of bottles of beer from an ice bucket and head over to the fire where Sir Otto has gathered a bunch of the guests, including Henry, who looks me up and down in surprise, sitting up a little straighter in his deckchair. Marisol follows his gaze.
‘Gertie, that dress!’ she cries. ‘You look amazing. Wow. I’d give anything to have boobs like that.’
‘Oh! Uh, thanks. I, uh, like your breasts too, Marisol.’
Why did I say that?
She giggles and holds up her glass in a toast, throwing me a tipsy wink.
‘Hello, Gert.’ Henry grins. His eyes slide across to River, and the smile immediately drops.
I go over the plan in my head: while last night I bathed in every drop of Henry’s attention, tonight I will try to do the opposite. And then, when I have confused the heck out of him with my distance, tomorrow afternoon I will lay it on thick with the flirting. River has given me a few tips already, but we’ve earmarked the whole morning tomorrow for an intense coaching session. Following River’s instruction to act nonchalantly, I give Henry a vague nod and, taking River’s hand, follow him to the opposite side of the circle where I sit down on the chair River pulls out for me. As instructed, I cross my legs so that the skirt of my dress rides up my thighs a little. River gives me a nod of approval.
Jim plops down beside me.
‘You look marvellous, Gertie darling,’ he whispers to me. ‘Bloody marvellous.’
‘Thank you,’ I say, self-consciously patting down my newly sleek hair. ‘Are you having a fun time?’
‘I’m having a delightful time.’ Jim hiccups and I wonder how much he’s already had to drink. ‘Are you?’
‘Yeah.’ I nod. ‘I’m so pleased to be celebrating this with you, Jim. You deserve all the happy things.’
Jim looks touched. Then his face falls a little. ‘Gertie,’ he says gently. ‘I’m not sure this is the best time to—well, I’m a little bit pissed but …’ He sighs and fiddles with his bow tie. ‘Perhaps you ought to know that—’ But before he can finish the sentence I’m distracted by the sudden raising of Henry’s voice – an unusual occurrence for someone so ordinarily cool and collected.
‘But Derberville & Falcon is the last bastion of serious bookshops!’
‘What’s the commotion?’ Jim calls over to where Henry and Sir Otto are holding court on the other side of the bonfire. ‘What’s that about your bookshop, Sir Otto? You’re not closing down, are you? Or is it a merger? I had read inThe Booksellerthat there’d been some interest. I never thought you’d go for it, of course.’
Otto shakes his head. ‘Nothing as serious as that. I just told Henry here that Derberville & Falcon are introducing a romance book section into our major stores. Starting up a series of events for romance readers.’
‘Oh bravo!’ Jim catches my eye excitedly. ‘How perfect! You know Gertie writes the most charming romance novels.’
‘Then we will certainly look into stocking your work!’ Sir Otto says, raising his wine glass to me.
‘That would be amazing!’ I grin. ‘I’m so glad you’re going to have a whole romance section. That’s brilliant.’
Sir Otto shrugs as if it’s no big deal. ‘Romance books are a juggernaut these days and I am a businessman, after all.’
‘It’s more than that!’ I grin, smiling as I cast my mind back to all the books that raised me, the books that made me want to write, that brought Cassidy and Bedlam Creek into my life. ‘Romance novels bring contentment and joy and … and …courageto so many people. They sell well, yes, but they never get the respect they actually deserve. A good romance novel takes an enormous amount of care and craft to create. To have visibility in a traditionally literary fiction book chain would be incredible.’
‘I agree,’ Marisol says. ‘This is a really great move, Sir Otto.’
Henry groans. ‘That may well be, but Derberville & Falcon has always been aliteraryfiction bookshop. For serious novels.’ He sips from his bottle of beer. ‘We hardly needmoregenre fiction readers in the world, especially romance of all things. Goodness gracious. Help a novelist out!’
