Page 50 of The Voice We Find

Sophie chuckles at this, and a thrill zings through me at the musicality of it. “And what about you? What brings you comfort right now?”

Ina space this tight, there is no place to look other than at her, which makes my omission of the first thing that comes to mind ten times harder than it needs to be. “Surfing.”

She makes a contemplative sound. “I’ve always wanted to learn to surf. Maybe you can give me some pointers one day?”

I swallow. Just the thought of Sophie in a wet suit on a board next to me in the ocean blurs another line. But before I can summon a reply, my phone flashes and vibrates in my pocket. Gabby changed my ring settings to a visual alert notification like hers over the weekend, and I’m far from used to it.

It’s Chip.

I show Sophie the screen before I answer, and she blinks up at me with curious eyes.

I have to look away before I accept the call. “Hey, Chip.”

“Hey there, does Sophie happen to be at the studio with you right now?”

I spare a glance in her direction. “Affirmative.”

“If I’m not interrupting a session, would you mind putting this call on speaker where she can hear?”

I pull it from my ear and tap the Speaker icon, moving a step closer.

“We’re both here, Chip. Go ahead.”

“Great. First off, Sophie?”

“Yes?”

“Not only did Allie love the sample clip August sent over of your first few chapters, but after I shared them with our executive team, your name came up during our last meeting. In short, I have a business proposal for you and August both. Something I think will cater to each of your talents nicely.”

Her eyes look from me to the phone. I shrug as if to say this is all new to me, too.

“Full-scale, multimedia productions have become popular in the last couple years, especially around the holidays. Think 1960s radio shows with foley artists doing sound effects and multiple narrators. We just contracted one of our top authors for an original Christmas romance script that will be marketed in a limited-time promotion asa free download with any one of the audiobook subscription services we’ll be offering our readers starting November first. We’ve also just secured a multi-award–winning voice actor as the male counterpart, but our female lead fell through due to a timing conflict. The long and short of it is that we’d love for you to consider playing the female roles for this production.”

“Really?” Sophie asks, as if she truly doesn’t know how lucky they are to have her talent in their arsenal. “I listened to a couple of those productions last Christmas with my roommate. I’d be honored to be involved with one.”

Pride like I haven’t felt in some time swells in my chest for the woman standing less than a foot away from me. Iknewshe was something special, and even though I have nothing to do with her talent or this offer, I want it for her. I want everything for her.

“. . . you in, too, August?”

“What’s that? I think I missed something,” I say, even though I feel Sophie eyeing me.

“Are you good with being our resident foley artist for sound effects? We’ll need an original music score for our intro and outro, as well.”

Dread pools in my core at this request. I haven’t created anything original since the accident, and Chip knows it. Sound effects are one thing, but a score is something else entirely.

“You know how I am, Chip,” I say without meeting Sophie’s eyes, mostly because I don’t want my answer to sway hers in any way. “I’d like to read over the details before committing.”

“Yup, I’ll be sending them over to you both soon, but I think you’ll be pleased with the compensation plan. There’s a generous signing advance, plus a percentage on each subscription sold for the duration of the promotion period. Based on the data we’ve run so far, we have every reason to believe this type of project will do quite well for everyone involved.”

“Do you have a production timeline in mind?”

“Once we finish editing the script, you should have two to three weeks to finish it. We’ll need it back by the beginning of October.”

Two to three weeks is not a lot of time considering the other contracts I’m producing or in light of my responsibilities to Gabby once the school year begins. But I simply say, “Great. We’ll both circle back with you soon.”

“Awesome,” Chip says. “Keep up the good work, you two. With your dedication to quality, your future possibilities are endless. You’re an audio dream team in the making.”

“Thanks, Chip,” Sophie chirps. “Talk to you soon!”

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