Part 6 (1/2)
Colette and Chuck exchanged surprised glances. ”R-e-e-ally?”
”And you're not mad?” Chuck dabbed his nose with his handkerchief.
”Why should I be mad? I'm flattered.”
”But... but... you don't... ”
”Jack thinks I should've called first,” Marilyn interrupted Chuck. ”He says he'd have given me an interview over the phone.”
”But yesterday morning...and several times before that...we did call him!” Colette exclaimed. ”He refused to talk to us!”
”What? I've never even talked to you before today!” Jack leaned back onto the railing once more, letting his eyes linger on Marilyn's lips.
For a few seconds, everyone except Marilyn looked confused.
”Jack thinks I'm here to interview him for a magazine article,” Marilyn explained.
”O-o-oh!” Colette and Chuck spoke simultaneously, eliciting a look of puzzlement from Jack.
He casually put his hands on his hips and looked at Marilyn expectantly. ”If you're not here to interview me... Then... ?”
Marilyn gathered her courage. While on the plane, she'd wanted nothing more than to cut his egotistical frame down to size, but after meeting him all she wanted to do was jump into his arms or on the next plane back to New York.
”I'm your new editor, Jackson.” She watched his expression change from surprise to shock to disbelief with her next three words. ”Marilyn...Mason...O'Malley.”
Chapter Seven.
The Oh-s.h.i.+t Drink.
Ingredients:.
Bottle of whatever is handy and desirable.
Tip, chug and get stinking drunk.
To his credit, Jack reacted politely.
”You da one who called me a river rat?”
”You heard that?”
”I heard. When did you plan on telling me this?”
”Before the cooking contest.” Marilyn swallowed hard and wet her dry lips as Jack's hands slipped from her hips. ”What do you mean you heard that? You were eavesdropping?”
”Not my fault you didn't hang up before calling me names.” He stood and shook his head. ”Wait a minute. I told you I couldn't leave the camp here. We're almost completely booked for next week. Mimi told me earlier this evening that we've got...”
Then, as if thunderstruck, he stopped and looked from Marilyn's face to Colette's to Chuck's and back to Marilyn's as his grandmother's warning about the big truck and the upcoming contest sunk into his disbelieving mind. Which also explained Mrs. Sawyer's friendly yet cryptic acknowledgment of the upcoming festivities.
”You...you brought them here? Larabee's people are coming here?”
Marilyn's eyes held apology, because she knew what he must be feeling. She nodded slowly and pointed to the ground. ”Right here. Larabee's will arrive tomorrow morning to deliver the cookware for the partic.i.p.ants and winners.”
”And I'm afraid the newspapers have already been given the announcement of the contest,” Colette added, raising her hand like a guilty child to confess her part in the deception.
”And you knew about this?” Jack asked Chuck, who raised his hand as well and nodded glumly.
”Chuck just found out about it on the airplane,” Colette defended him. ”We swore him to secrecy until we had a chance to talk to you.”
”I don't understand.” Jack shook his head. ”I told you I was not entering that d.a.m.ned contest!”
Marilyn nodded and tried to reason with him. ”You have a contract with Larabee Industries. You have to mention them at least six times during the year in some form of advertising, whether it's in your books or in media productions.”
”I mentioned them in the books!” he thundered. Then, realizing he'd raised his voice, he threw his hands up and rubbed his forehead and temples. He popped his neck and rotated his shoulders as if shaking their news off him.
”Yes,” Marilyn agreed. ”You mentioned them two times in your last book that was published in January, and you were photographed with Larabee products in ads for The New York Times and Publisher's Weekly.”
”So that's four. I still have several months to go-”
”We don't have another book scheduled to go to print until after the first of next year,” Marilyn reminded him.
”Then move it up!”
”You haven't turned in your final draft!”
”Then book me for a commercial or something!”
”I'm sorry-and you said you wouldn't do television commercials!”
Jack frowned and blinked, as if the news still hadn't quite sunk in that he was obligated to cook before a crowd of hundreds.
”Lady, you have no idea what you've just done!”
Marilyn, Chuck and Colette s.h.i.+fted nervously, and all of them began talking at once.
”We know you only have three days to learn, but...”
”You can do this, Jack!”
”You have to do it! The television crews have already been notified!”
”Your biggest rivals, Robert Neal and Marie Sanders, are on their way here.”