As he watched, she joined Lyle and his agent, Evelyn Dodge. He couldn’t see Kelsey’s face, but if he knew Evelyn, she was fully interrogating Griffin’s big sister.
Evelyn was one of the coolest women he’d ever met. Bold and brassy. She reminded him of a younger version of his grandmother, actually, and it hadn’t surprised him at all when he learned that both Anika and Lorelei had worked with her on several projects.
“All right, I’ll bite.” The voice came from behind him, and he turned to face Cassidy Cunningham. “What are you grinning about?”
She stood next to Siobhan, a turquoise streak running through her long dark hair. She wore a sleeveless silk tank, and the color in her hair perfectly matched some of the plumes on the intricately detailed tattoo of a bird that covered her shoulder and trailed down her arm.
Beside her, Siobhan could have seemed plain by comparison, but the pretty Irish redhead had such a strong presence that it was easy to see that the two were well-matched.
“That,” Wyatt confessed, pointing across the room. “If Kelsey didn’t know much about Hollywood before, after ten minutes with Evelyn she’ll be better versed than a staffer with TMZ.”
“Who’s Kelsey?” Siobhan asked.
“The sister to the voice of Arnold,” Wyatt said. “Griffin Blaize.”
“Oh, I met him earlier,” Cass said. “Really nice guy. He heard I do ink and wanted to ask me what I thought about covering up some of his scars with tats. Said he was thinking of doing it next year as a birthday present to himself.”
“Can you do that?” Wyatt asked.
“Probably. It depends on the scar. And if I can’t, we can always work the scar into a larger design. One guy wanted this really intense scar on his leg left alone—it looked like exposed muscle—but wanted me to ink a zipper around it. I have to admit, it looked pretty cool when it was done.”
Siobhan made a face. “If you like horror movies. Unzipping your skin? Not for me.”
“Hey,” Cass said. “It was a stellar job.”
Wyatt only laughed, but silently he agreed with Siobhan.
“Well, hopefully he doesn’t want zippers,” Siobhan said. “But we’ve gotten totally off topic. Because what I want to know is why Wyatt’s been staring at Griffin’s sister.”
“Oh, is she the one you found?” Cass leaned sideways, as if to get a better look. “She’s definitely got an allure.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Siobhan raised a hand. “I thought you didn’t have the girl. Or you did, but you lost her.”
Wyatt raked his fingers through his hair. He really didn’t want to have this conversation, but it looked like he was having it anyway. He moved between the women, hooking his arms through theirs, and steered them to a far corner.
“She was all set,” he admitted. “But then she—I guess you could say she got cold feet.”
“Is she a model?” Cass asked.
“No.”
“Well, maybe that’s why. It’s hard to put yourself on display like that.”
Wyatt laughed. “Siobhan offered you up if I don’t get someone else. And unless I’ve been seriously misinformed, you’re not a model.”
Cass waved her hand with a dismissive, “Oh, please. I don’t need that shit. I put myself on display all the time.”
“True,” Wyatt said, then looked between the two of them. “Which is why it can’t be you.”
“But—” Siobhan began.
“It’s nothing personal,” he said to Cass. “You’re just too, I don’t know, strong.”
“Strong?” Siobhan repeated. “Wyatt, we’re down to the wire, here.”
“I know, but Cass just isn’t the model I need. Sorry,” he added to the woman in question.
Cass shrugged. “No, I get it. Kelsey has a look. Sex mixed with sweetness. I’m not sweet.”
“No, you’re really not,” Siobhan agreed.
Cass glared at her. “Love you, too, babe.”
“But it’s true,” Wyatt said, his voice turning wistful as he imagined Kelsey in his bedroom. “Kelsey would be as likely to wear a fluffy flowered robe as a slinky red dress. And you can imagine her in a virginal white nightgown with the covers up to her neck as easily as an Agent Provocateur thong with her wrists and ankles tied to the bedposts.”
Cass stepped around the two of them and stared blatantly in Kelsey’s direction. “I see what you mean,” she said, earning a smack from Siobhan.
Cass laughed and held her hands up in defense. “Just looking.”
“That’s what I want,” Wyatt continued as he turned to look at Kelsey. “Her everywoman quality.”
“So find another everywoman,” Siobhan said. “Just do it fast.”
“There isn’t one,” he mused, his gaze glued on Kelsey.
“Then it’s not really every girl, is it?” Siobhan said.
Wyatt had been silently cursing the fact that his show had hit a wall. But when Siobhan’s words got through the noise in his head, he slowly turned. “Wait. Say that again?”
“Uh, I don’t know exactly what I said. I just mean that you don’t really want every girl. You want that girl. You just want every woman to think they could be her.”
“Siobhan, sweetheart, you’re a genius.” He pulled her close and kissed her hard on the mouth while Cass broke into delighted laughter, followed soon by Siobhan once she got over the shock.
“I hope that means you have a plan,” she quipped.
“I do indeed,” he said, then started across the room.
“Wait,” Siobhan called. “There’s one thing I need to tell you. Jensen reached out again.”
“No advance images,” Wyatt said. “We’ve covered that.”
“Yeah, well, this time he went through my intern. Told her he’d really like to focus on the show. I guess he’s intrigued.”
“Good for him. The feeling isn’t mutual.” At the same time, Wyatt wasn’t stupid. And he knew that both the Examiner and Jensen had a reputation for both making—and destroying—careers.
He sighed. “Go on.”
“He’s looking for an exclusive advance peek. In exchange, he’s offering a guaranteed series of articles on you and the exhibit.”
No way No fucking way. “In other words, he’s poked into my family life and wants to get closer than he can just by trolling public records.”
“The upside is publicity,” Siobhan said. “And my boss thinks he’s making a solid offer. I think—”
But she didn’t get the words out, because Wyatt threw up his hand with a very firm, “No. It’s not solid, it’s bullshit. He’s interested in my family, not my art. Give him a sneak peek and we get all those perks? More like we give him an early look and that gives him time to aim the knives. Start to criticize. Leak bogus statements that the work is flawed. Unoriginal. That it’s all just hype, and the grandson of a Hollywood legend is a no-talent hack who changed his damn name because he doesn’t deserve it.”
“Or they could rave,” Siobhan said flatly.
“The answer is no.”
“Good,” she said, then shrugged when Wyatt looked at her with genuine surprise. “I told Keisha and Jensen I’d present the offer. I didn’t say I agreed with it.”
Wyatt actually laughed. “There’s a reason we’re friends,” he said. “And now I need to go see about another woman.” He gave them each a quick hug, then started across the room for a second time.