His mobile knocked him from his thoughts. He looked at his watch. It was almost one o’clock in the morning. The number buzzing insistently on his mobile wasn’t instantly recognisable, but he answered it anyway, his voice wary of bad news at such a late hour.
‘Hey, writer guy.’ It was Harry, his agent from London and it sounded as if he was in full-blown party mode. Dan imagined him, stationed in some trendy club, surrounded by the most beautiful people and making this final work call out of hours amidst the movers and shakers on their wind-down at the weekend. ‘Sorry about the time. I’m in New York at a trade fair so everything is a bit all over the place.’
‘Hey, yourself. Shouldn’t you be cutting deals and making us both some money?’ he asked.
‘I think I’ve done my bit for the week actually.’ He sounded happy. ‘I just wanted to tell you that your book is creating such a buzz that already it’s being fought over by some of the biggest editors around.’
‘And of course, you told them?’
‘I told them put something in a proposal for us. It’s out on submission and I’ll be letting everyone else know on Monday that we’re officially going into talks on it.’
‘That’s good. What are they like?’
‘Honestly, top and bottom of our wish list, but they don’t know that, so it’s good. We’re going to be looking at top dollar, but I have a feeling knowing you, you’ll go for one over the other because they’ll treat this with the kind of loving care it deserves.’
‘So, we’re on the way to having a book deal.’ A ripple of excitement was beginning to bubble up in Dan.
‘Yep, it looks like it and not just one if we can agree on the details.’
‘That’s great news. I think it deserves a bit of celebrating,’ he said and then he realised, that was exactly what Harry was going to set about doing.
‘I would say big, big celebrations. They want it badly and I think this could really be a whole new vista opening up for your work. And you know, now that the publishing industry has made such a big thing of it, there’s a good chance we’ll have the movie companies hammering down our doors by the middle of next week.’
‘Harry, you’re the best. Have I told you that lately?’ He was making fun of his friend, but they both knew, so far, they’d been a winning combination. It looked as if their luck was holding still. Dan hung up the phone and thought about going back to the cottage. He had a couple of cans of beer in the fridge and the remains of a bottle of red wine in the cupboard. He was glad he was here, that he’d gotten this news tonight; it wouldn’t be much of a celebration there on his own. He jumped from the wall and headed across to the hotel before closing time. There was no reason he couldn’t bring along a couple of bottles of decent champagne and see if he could talk Elizabeth, Jo and Lucy into sharing a drink with him to celebrate. In fact, this was such good news; he would buy a glass for everyone in the village.
‘Dan.’ Jo welcomed him with as much warmth as ever when he arrived at the reception the village had set up for the swimmers. ‘I’m so glad you came. I wanted to thank you for that fancy car you organised for me today.’ She was beaming, smaller and more fragile than before, but there was an unmistakable light shining from within her, so it was impossible to imagine it being extinguished.
‘Oh, it was nothing; really Lucy did all the hard work.’ He looked around the hall. It was packed. ‘You’ve managed to pull a crowd.’
‘Yes, haven’t we just.’ She laughed. ‘Ah, look here’s Lucy now.’
‘You made it.’ She handed him a glass of wine. ‘I thought you were going to hang around the village and then we’d bring the buggy back and…’
‘Never mind that.’ He put down the glass, and pointed back at the crate of champagne he’d carried over from the hotel. ‘This is a celebration.’
‘Ooh, lovely,’ Elizabeth said arriving at his elbow. ‘What are we celebrating?’
‘Apart from the fact that I made it into the water today and I’m still here enjoying the party?’ Jo joked.
‘True.’ Lucy smiled across at her mother, who even if she looked frail, seemed happier than Dan had seen her since he’d met her.
‘Also, it looks like my book is going to be signed in a major publishing deal…’
‘What?’ Lucy screamed. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t say that the moment you came through the door. Oh my God, Dan, that’s the best news ever…’