The Great Scot by Donna Kauffman Page A

than you want him to be. He just wants a clear line of communication.”
    â€œHe certainly doesn’t need to be on site for that. Everything is outlined in the standard agreement and the rest can be handled via phone, fax, or e-mail. If they have such a thing in this godforsaken outback.”
    â€œHe won’t budge on this, but I’ve worked out a line of communication with him that will relieve you and the immediate crew from any contact—”
    â€œYou gave him an assistant, didn’t you?” Tommy slapped his thigh, then barked at another assistant to find Tanya. “Do you know what that’s going to cost me?” he shouted, turning his attention back to her. “Fine, then. We’ll just give him yours.”
    â€œActually—”
    â€œYou think you can just freely disperse my already over-extended manpower? You’ll have to make the sacrifice. Dana will have to handle it.”
    â€œIt’s me,” she said. “He’ll only work with me.”
    â€œ What? ” It was amazing how much emotion a small man like Tommy could pack into a single word.
    â€œI’m going to be on site for at least the next two weeks anyway,” she hurriedly said, before he completely imploded. “I’ll have time to get him used to the process, build his trust. Hopefully by then he’ll be so sick of dealing with everything we can get him moved off site completely.”
    â€œYou’re killing me here, MacGregor.”
    â€œIf worse comes to worse, I’ll leave Dana here to handle him, but I really don’t think it will come to that.” Privately, Erin knew her assistant would be thrilled with that little assignment if it came to pass. But Erin had far too much to do, and needed Dana’s assistance too much to let that happen. She pasted on a big, confident grin. “I’ll make it all work. I’ve never let you down so far, have I?”
    Tanya chose that moment to come rushing out of the hotel. “So sorry, I’ve been tied up—”
    â€œSee that you do make it work,” Tommy instructed Erin, then took Tanya by the arm and hustled her into the hotel.
    Erin waited until Tommy was out of sight before heaving a deep sigh of relief and heading inside. Well. That hadn’t been too bad . She stepped over piles of luggage and scooted over to an unoccupied corner before pulling out her binder and scanning her notes. She had a meeting at three with Daisy to go over date location ideas. Dana wouldn’t be coming in for another couple of days, as Erin had assigned her to scout the final weekend excursion site in Paris. Erin had been looking forward to scoping out that particular location, but thanks to Dylan’s demands, she couldn’t risk leaving before Tommy arrived and was brought up to speed. Dana was ready to take on more responsibility anyway, and this date event was a good, hands-on place for her to start. Still, Erin couldn’t help but think that she could be wandering the Champs Élysées at the moment, and not dealing with the insane accelerated schedule Tanya had just thrust on them in their first team meeting earlier this morning.
    â€œOh thank god, there you are!” Another of Tommy’s personal assistants pushed his way through the cluster trying to check in, waving a stack of little pink slips. “Will you please talk to him already?”
    â€œTalk to who? Tommy? I just spoke to—”
    He looked both bedraggled and bewildered. Not unusual when you worked for Tommy. He shoved the stack of slips into Erin’s hand. “Make this go away,” was all he said, then disappeared into the clamoring throng once again.
    Erin fanned through the crumpled stash, her attention immediately snagging on the one common thread in each note. The name in the “From” box at the top of each slip. Dylan Chisholm. She’d sent word to him yesterday, along with the bare outlines of