“Have I told you lately how brilliant this idea is?” Cole watched the editor save the four clips up to the production server, where two of their five camera operators would run them at the times Eve had indicated in her script. “It’s something new. I bet that you’ll get a boatload of letters asking that the town halls be moved permanently to Thursday. The chance that an audience member can star in their own segment will be a big draw. Reality TV comes to Atlanta.”
“We’ll see. If the lines get any longer, we’ll have to hire bouncers.”
Cole thanked the editor for his work, and when the kid had made his escape, he opened an e-mail screen. “What’s Dr. Birdsall’s addy?”
She gave it to him, and watched him type a message letting the psychologist know where she could view the clips. When he hit Send, she glanced at the clock. Eight-fifteen. A little late to call Mitch. She’d make it an early night. Lord knew she could use it, after getting next to no sleep the night before.
Had it only been the night before? It seemed a week ago.
“Everything okay with you, Evie?” Cole asked, leaning back in his chair as the e-mail went off into cyberspace. “You seem…preoccupied.”
What a sweetheart he was. He had his own problems with being a single dad, not least among them the fact that he’d had to arrange child care in order to stay here with her tonight. And still he could take the time to show her his concern, the way he had since the earliest days at the station when they’d both been green as beans.
“I am,” she admitted. “I didn’t mean for it to show, though.”
“About the buyout? Or about…other things?”
“Both.”
“I figured so.” He stretched his big frame, making the chair squeak. Not for the first time, Eve wondered what kept him in this industry when he was so much happier bushwhacking around the wilderness or loading his kids and the dog into a canoe in the north woods. “Word in the halls is that Dan’s got his panties in a twist about us choosing CWB.”
“Word in the halls is right. But what’s worse is that SBN and CBS have come back and said that they’ll let us stay in Atlanta, too.”
Cole lifted an eyebrow. “And this doesn’t make us jump for joy because…”
“Because I don’t think they mean it. I think it’s a bait and switch to cut CWB out before any signatures go on paper.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Could be. From what you said, they seemed pretty adamant about New York in the beginning.”
With a sigh, she said, “I have to admit this is getting to me. I thought we had a decision we could all be happy with. Now I have to call another meeting and present the new offer to everyone. And goodness knows how that will go. It’s pretty hard to turn down more money plus staying here if that’s all you see.”
“I think Nicole sees the big picture. And Jane and Zach would, too. But yeah, it’s still a risk.” He paused. “Word in the halls didn’t stop there.”
“Oh?”
He grinned at her. “You have that innocent look perfected. It’s me, remember?”
Someday, some lucky woman would convince this guy that she could be trusted. Eve looked forward to that day.
“I never forget,” she said, smiling back. “Come on, out with it.”
“It’s kind of personal.”
Obviously it was. It had probably gone around the station at the speed of light. “I can handle it.”
“Word is that you and the CWB guy have a thing going on. That being the reason you want to go with them instead of the big guys.”
“Is it, now?” Keeping something on the down low around here was like keeping M &M’s in your desk. It wasn’t a matter of if someone would find them, but when. “Are people saying he’s romancing me to get the deal? Do they know how insulting that is?”
“I don’t know, Eve. It seems too pat that he’d appear out of nowhere like this and sweep you off your feet, just when they need you on their roster.”
“And I’m ripe for the picking, being totally inexperienced where good-looking men are concerned.” Her tone dripped sarcasm, but Cole only reddened slightly. She had to give him credit. He wasn’t ducking and running.
“You know that’s not it. You have a good head on your shoulders-not to mention more knowledge about the subject than any ten women. Besides, God help any guy who hurts you. After you’re done with him, the rest of us will run over his remains with the camera dolly.”
“You think Mitch is going to hurt me? Are you giving me relationship advice, Cole?”
“No, I’m passing on the dirt is all. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Well, if it should come up again, you can let the hallway gossips know that if-and I stress the if- there were anything between me and Mitchell Hayes, it would have occurred after the team agreed to the deal, not before.”
“If?” Again that questioning eyebrow.
“So maybe there might be now. I don’t know.”
“No kidding.” A slow grin, different from the previous one, spread across his face. “Good for you, Evie.”
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” she asked quietly. “What they’re saying.”
“Who cares? If the guy honestly makes you happy and he’s on the up-and-up, it’s nobody’s business. I’d be careful, though. You don’t want to compromise the deal.”
“I’m not giving anyone any ammunition. We don’t see each other very much, and when we do, we keep it private.”
“Except for those lunches in the park.”
“Where we sit at opposite ends of a hard bench and talk. Good grief, are people saying we’re at it like rabbits under a bush?”
He laughed, the sound burying itself in the egg-carton walls of the editing booth, which was part of the recording suite. “I wouldn’t go that far, but there was much interested speculation. Not everyone is suspicious. Some of us are happy for you, Eve. We think you work too much.”
Maybe that was true. “Y’all will be happy to know I’m not working on the weekend, then.”
“Got something fun planned? The girls and I are taking the boat out.”
“I was thinking of Mirabel.” At his puzzled look, she elaborated. “It’s a plantation house south of Social Circle.” She hesitated and then decided to go on. This was, after all, the man she trusted day in and day out with her public self. Why shouldn’t she trust him with a glimpse into her private self? That’s what she planned to do with Mitch, right? “A hundred years ago, my family used to own it.”
Now both eyebrows rose. “You’re from a plantation family? How did I not know this? On what side?”
“My dad’s. Bests farmed Mirabel for something like a hundred years, until my grandpa lost it in the sixties. Couldn’t pay the mortgage or the taxes or something. I don’t really know. I’ve never been there.”
“Why don’t you have Dylan do some research on it? He’s good at that stuff.”
“No.” Eve dropped her gaze to the keyboards behind Cole. “I’d rather keep it just between us, if you don’t mind.” A second too late, she realized what she’d said when he grinned again. “And don’t even think about putting that up on the board as an idea for the show, because the answer is no.”
“Aw, come on. It’s perfect. The hidden history of our favorite celebrity.”
“It’s personal. Never you mind.”
“You’ll let me know if you decide otherwise?” He got up and picked his khaki jacket up off the back of his chair.
“You’ll be the first.” She let him usher her out and walk her back to her office, where he waved and headed down the hall toward the stairs. Cole Crawford never used an elevator if he could help it.
Ha. That would be the day that she made an episode all about her discovery of her family-or not. Mirabel, she’d discovered during a couple of Google searches, was open to the public on the weekends, but nobody lived there now. During the week, one of the charity trusts held events in the drawing room and had an office upstairs. Chances were low she’d discover anything about her ancestors there, but she wanted to check it out anyway.