Flirting With Forever by Gwyn Cready (new books to read TXT) 📕

“Not tonight, huh? I gotta lot of work, okay?”

Jeanne made a considering noise. “Al right. For now.”

When Jeanne began to snore, Cam turned to her manuscript, inspiration renewed, and began to type.

Her phone buzzed. A text. She picked it up. It was from Jacket.

“CAN’T SLEEP. LOOKING AT THE NIGHT SKY HERE. ARE YOU

WORKING? SHOULD I BE WORRIED? MAKE SOME NOISE WHEN YOU

COME IN, SO I CAN REST EASY. J”

She smiled. Maybe Porsches come in al shapes and sizes. Maybe one can be parked outside your house al the time, and you just didn’t notice.

She thumbed her reply. “WILL DO.”

24

FIVE WEEKS LATER

Despite three cups of coffee and an inarguable interest in a number of topics on the agenda, Cam found her eyelids slowly closing during the weekly staff meeting until a kick under the table from Jeanne brought her to ful attention.

“The status of the Van Dyck donation?” Lamont Packard repeated.

“Er, the paperwork is done,” Cam said. “Bal ’s attorneys have reviewed it. Except for a minor change in the image rights section, they’re on board.” Cam had been at her desk at home every night since she’d returned, hammering out the pages of The Girl with a Coral Earring, then at the museum first thing in the morning to prepare for the exhibit and gala. Everything was going wel , but she’d probably need to sleep for a week once the book was turned in.

“Good.” Packard tapped his pen. “And the provenance and authenticity?”

Cam swept a deferential hand toward her sister. Even though Cam had been a big fan of seventeenth-century masters since her early teens, when Anastasia final y settled on a col ege major during Cam’s senior year in high school, she’d natural y picked—what else?—art history with a specialty in seventeenth-century masters. The decision hadn’t particularly bothered Cam, but a year later, when her parents forbade her to choose the same specialty

—“Anastasia’s had a hard time of it. Let’s give her her own space in which to blossom, okay?”—Cam had breathed a hard sigh, decided to outshine her sister in whatever area she chose and switched to modern art, her second love.

Nonetheless, her col ege thesis was on the influence of Van Dyck on Alfred Sisley and David Hockney, which is why, when it came time to write a biography, she’d returned to the subject with which it had al begun for her.

Anastasia shuffled through files on the table, slipped on a bright red pair of half-moon glasses, gave her sister a look suggesting that despite the amateurishness of Cam’s prework, she had been able to create a silk purse out of a sow’s canvas and deliver an actual seventeenth-century masterpiece to the col ection. “I did manage to get both buttoned down, which was a relief, for there were a number of egregious holes in the history.”

Cam rol ed her eyes. Anastasia made it sound as if Cam had found it at a garage sale and was trying to sel it herself for beer money. “Yes, I’m certain the Hermitage has a number of performance areas on which they need to be working. I hope the entry in Catherine the Great’s diary sufficed.”

The side of Packard’s mouth rose. “Perfect. Bal wants to sign the papers the night of the gala.”

Anastasia refolded her glasses and snapped them into a Chanel case. “If you have anything you’d like for me to tel him, let me know. I’l be seeing him tonight.”

Cam made a private growl and was grateful she did not have easy access to a rol ed-up broadsheet. One of the downfal s of having every evening ful was losing the ability to cultivate your favorite donors.

Packard rose. “Cam, can you hang back for a minute?”

Jeanne gave her a look, pushed the coffee cup in her direction and exited with the rest of the team.

“What’s up?” Cam said.

Packard was filing papers into his briefcase. “I just wanted to tel you the board is very pleased. The painting, of course, is a feather in your hat, though to be fair, that is the sort of thing they’d expect any curator to do. But your book is actual y of more interest than I would have expected.”

“Real y?”

“Of course, the academic books wil always look good on a C.V. There’s no denying that, but there are a few board members who have been talking about the value of the PR, and that’s something one doesn’t see with an academic book. Wil