“Yeah. I’m curious…how did this come up?” Now that she thought about it, she wondered if Nana had a hand in it. Her grandmother had been a museum benefactor for decades. “My grandmother didn’t hint or anything, right?”
Jim laughed. “Not at all. A gal from marketing was in my office a few days ago, saw the painting, and mentioned it’d make a great banner. And I agree. What do you think?”
“Aren’t the banners usually something from the museum collection?”
“Sometimes. But some are done by local artists. And you still count. We usually run a contest for the summer one. The rest of the year, it’s easier to just pick something.”
“Right. Okay, well, I think that would be fine. It’s big enough to hold up at that size?”
“Oh, sure. We’ll have a high-res copy made. How’s she doing by the way, your grandmother? Haven’t seen her in a while.”
“She’s doing well, thanks.”
“Glad to hear it. All right, if you’re good with this, I’ll send you an email so we have it in writing.”
“Sure.”
“And I’ll send you a sample this summer once they’re printed.”
“Sounds good. Um, one quick question. Does this fall under the prize of exposure or is there any money involved?”
“I could shake a couple hundred bucks out of the money tree, but yeah, the rest is exposure. Everybody could use more of that, right?”
But exposure didn’t pay the rent. Still, a small check was better than none, and she didn’t mind giving back a little something to the place that had inspired her so much. “Of course,” she told Jim.
“You can put your address and all the deets in the email.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
“We’ll be in touch.”
“Okay, bye.”
Hmm. Kat couldn’t help feeling that a strange twist of fate was at play. So many Colorado connections these days.
She toyed with the phone, considering a call to Nick, but would he ask about Pete’srejectsagain? Now she knew which ones those were. And if she gave Nick the date for the opening party, would he feel pressured to be there?
By then, he’d be done with her mother’s project, so it wouldn’t matter if her mother was embarrassed to be seen with one of her workers. Nana would love to meet Nick. But there was no point introducing them unless… Kat let her head drop to her hands. What would her relationship status with Nick Summers be in April?
* * *
On Tuesday, Kat managed to squeeze in a call to Matt Jones, Pete’s assistant at the gallery.
“If you can be here by six, go ahead and come by,” he told her.
Six would be pushing it, but Cassie would just have to understand. This task had to get done, and the sooner the better. Kat wasn’t taking any chances. “I’ll be there,” she said. “Thank you so much, Matt.”
At five forty-five, she breezed through the Loft doors with her empty portfolio in hand.
Matt looked up from a counter to the side and waved. “Got all your stuff right here.” He turned to a large cabinet of flat file drawers and began pulling out her artwork. He lumped two piles on the counter then handed her a piece of paper. “The contract for your autograph, too.”
“Oh, sure.” She reached into her purse and retrieved a pen and a flash drive. “And here’s my bio and the photo I’d like to use.”
“Awesome.”
She wished Pete had given her the contract last night, so she’d have had more time to read through it. With Matt waiting on her, she quickly scanned the document. Nothing stood out as a red flag, though it mostly seemed to protect the gallery. No surprise in that.
Hands trembling, she signed her name and gave the document back to Matt. “You have time to talk about framing?” she asked.
