“We look forward to a long and fruitful relationship, Wynn,” Henry said, his smile deferential.
Wynn joined her and they returned to her office. She grabbed her purse and briefcase and Erica handed her the small stack of outlines, placed in glossy black folders embossed in gold with LM for Lymon McGraw. Shoving them into her briefcase, she led Wynn to the elevator.
Without warning, Lymon McGraw employees came out of the woodwork, suddenly needing to go to another floor. She hid a smile as she, Wynn, and over a dozen people stepped into the elevator. Camera clicks cut through the silence as they rode to the ground floor. She and Wynn departed. Amazingly enough, not a single person followed.
Shaking her head, they exited the building. She spotted his sky blue Spitfire and sighed as they walked toward it.
“I was hoping you’d bring this car today. I was surprised to hear that you restore classic cars.”
He shrugged. “It’s my version of house flipping. I scour the Internet and find the car that’s in the worst shape. Buy it for peanuts and then lovingly restore it.”
Wynn opened her door and Scarlett got in. He came around to the driver’s side.
“How long does it take you?”
“Depends upon the condition of the car. How far I have to go to bring it back from the dead. Plus, whether I’m filming or not. If I’m on hiatus, I’m a man possessed and can spend ten hours a day at it. When I’m shooting, I might tinker for an hour after I get home. It’s a good way to relieve stress.”
“Do you keep any of them? Or are they all flipped like houses?”
“I drive them a while and then get an itch to do it again. I try to move on so I don’t get attached to any particular one.”
Scarlett thought Wynn had the same policy about people. She ran her hand across the dashboard. “It’s beautiful.”
Stopping at a light, he asked, “Would you like to drive Philippa?”
She frowned. “Philippa?”
He laughed. “I name all of them. This Spitfire looked regal to me. Sleek. I’m a history buff. Philippa of Hainault was the very classy wife of England’s Edward III.”
Scarlett smiled. “I would love to get behind Philippa’s wheel.”
The light changed and Wynn drove a block before pulling over. They traded places. Scarlett smoothed her hands over the wheel.
“This is exciting,” she said as she adjusted the seat and mirrors.
Wynn picked up the purse and briefcase that she’d left on the floorboard and put them in his lap.
“You don’t have to hold those.”
“I don’t mind.”
Scarlett pulled out into traffic. “Mmm. Nice pickup.”
“Are you going to get a speeding ticket?” he teased.
“Not if I can help it. But I can imagine Philippa on the open road and me doing more than forty in her.”
“If today goes well, let’s take her out and celebrate.”
She met his gaze. “You’re on. I think we have an even better chance than I thought.”
“You had some pretty convincing arguments last night. Money is the bottom line to any studio. You’ll be appealing to their pocketbook.”
Laughing, she said, “I have even more ammunition in my arsenal now, thanks to Cassie and Breck.”
“What did they do?”
“More than I could’ve hoped for. I asked them to think about a few ways Carbon Man might get his new look. I wanted to work those into our conversation to let Rylon know what possibilities were out there. Those two actually pulled an all-nighter and wrote a treatment for the film.”
“What?”
“I know. Pretty incredible.”
“They already have a script. The read-through starts Monday. There’s no way Rylon would go for starting from scratch.”
“I haven’t had time to see what they did but Cassie feels Rylon will love it and make them an offer. Besides, if it’s as good as she believes, the execs could have them write it and it becomes Carbon Man 4. They could sit on the current script and pull it out, with a few tweaks, and make it Carbon Man 5.”
“Can I read it? At least one of us should know what it says going into the meeting.”
“Sure. Look in my briefcase. Erica put it into black folders. It’s five pages long and will read like a short story. You’ll know the entire concept once you finish it.”
Wynn opened her briefcase and withdrew one of the folders. She watched him open it. They rode in silence as he read. Scarlett pulled into Rylon Pictures a few minutes later and stopped at the gate to give her name as he finished and slipped the treatment back into her briefcase. The guard handed her a pass and gave her directions on where to park and where the executive offices were located.
“What do you think?” she asked.
He ran a hand through his hair. “It blows me away. Rylon would be insane not to jump on this. I can’t believe Cassie and Breck came up with something so fast. It’s creative. Offbeat. And I can totally see it working for Carbon Man.”
“You inspired them. Not only to write that but now they have direction on the other script they’ve been working on.”
Scarlett pulled into a parking place and turned off the ignition. She handed Wynn the keys. “Thanks for letting me drive. I’d love to own a car like this someday.”
Wynn passed the keys back to her. “It’s yours.”
CHAPTER 10
Wynn enjoyed seeing the dumbfounded look he’d put on Scarlett’s face. “Consider it a bonus.”
“Wynn, I haven’t done anything yet,” she said, her exasperation obvious. “I’m pulling out all the stops for you but it doesn’t mean Rylon is going to go for this. I put our chances at sixty-forty, at best.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he told her. “You’ve done a lot for me. Already, I believe in myself more than I have in a long time. You’ve introduced me to a wonderful group of friends. Even if you can’t scuttle my contract, I
