Suzie linked arms with her, slanting in as they went. “You!” she said under her breath. “You said you didn’t even want to come, and now look what happened.”
“I know. I know.” Adelie picked up the pace, scurrying to keep up with Mr. Hatter and his friend. The two men were caught in conversation, speaking in hushed tones a pace in front of them, darting the occasional glance back at Adelie. Every time his gaze connected with hers, it cinched something in her stomach.
What were they saying? Were they talking about her? If so, she wasn’t sure how she felt about all this attention.
“What’s the scoop?” Suzie asked under her breath. “When do you get the money?”
Adelie shushed her. Mr. Hatter said he would tell her. She wasn’t about to be greedy about it or demand the money. This was his offer, his challenge, and he would make good on it, considering the crowds and the news crew that still seemed to be flocking, filming rides and interviewing participants. Wendy and her cameraman lingered near the mechanical caterpillar on his mushroom with another group of people who claimed they’d seen the whole thing happen.
Mr. Hatter and his friend stopped before a house with the words W. Rabbit on the nameplate in the grass out front. It had a thatched roof like the March Hare’s house, kitschy but without the ears.
“In here,” Mr. Hatter said, leading the way around the back. He ambled along a series of steppingstones veering to a misshapen door with a fat knob and a tiny keyhole. Mr. Hatter rested his thumb on a portion of the windowsill. A beep sounded, a small green light flashed, and he turned the too-big knob to enter.
Adelie and Suzie exchanged a look. She would never have guessed the door would open at all, let alone lead into what appeared to be the back end of a prestigious office.
The interior was completely different from the park’s exaggerated details. This was plain and stuffy, devoid of pictures on the walls or anything to add contrast apart from speckled linoleum beneath their feet and the blinds covering the windows.
“My office is just through here,” Mr. Hatter said. He slowed his pace to match Adelie and Suzie’s and led the way down the short hall. Where did this lead out to? She wished she’d paid more attention to the house’s surroundings.
“Did you ladies enjoy your time at the park today?” he asked.
“Are you kidding?” Suzie responded. “It was amazing. The rides, the crowd, the rush. Seriously, we’ve had the best day.”
Mr. Hatter smiled at her as they rounded a corner, but his eyes moved toward Adelie. She was used to Suzie soaking up attention from men. It’d been that way for as long as she could remember. And though Suzie had a great boyfriend right now, Mr. Hatter wouldn’t know as much.
At this point, when they’d meet men the first time, most guys would keep their attention on Suzie for the remainder of the conversation. Not Mr. Hatter. His interest deepened as it landed on Adelie. She couldn’t help but sizzle under the impact.
“And you, my winner? What did you think?”
His winner. She’d never been a man’s anything. Adelie chided herself. She really needed to stop acting as though he had any interest in her aside from being a participant, and winner, today.
Multiple answers strung through Adelie’s mind. She settled on the least confusing one. “I think everything was unexpected.”
“Unexpected?” His brows lifted. “That’s a substantial word.”
Substantial? Adelie thought it over. That could be taken in a few different ways, she supposed. She decided to clear whatever confusion he had.
“I meant it in a good way,” she said. Too good. The words fifty-thousand dollars continued to trumpet in her mind.
They turned another corner and approached a receptionist sitting at the desk. She gave them an acknowledging nod. Mr. Hatter tapped the desk in greeting before leading the way to an office.
The space was bright, professional, and squared. Squared room, squared-off black, leather chairs, even the pots holding plants along the window were square. Still, it was comfortable, as much as an office could be.
“Please, have a seat,” he said, gesturing to a pair of armless, leather chairs.
Suzie took the farthest one with so much exuberance it slid from its place on the floor. “Whoops,” she said sheepishly, scooting it back into place.
Adelie sank into the seat next to her. Mr. Hatter sat in his seat and the other man, in jeans and a button-up shirt beneath a zipped-up jacket, rested his weight against the bar off to the side.
“This is my associate, Duncan Hawthorne,” Mr. Hatter said.
Mr. Hawthorne gave a small wave.
“I want to formally congratulate you, Miss Carroll,” Mr. Hatter said.
Away from the crowds and the pressure of the moment, the pieces began to click together. Her breathing came easier, and her thoughts seemed to be less scrambled. “That’s why you were there at the tea table,” Adelie said. “You were waiting for someone to figure it out.”
“I’d been wandering around March Hare’s house all day,” he said.
“So?” Suzie piped in, her eyes darting from one man to the other. “Fifty-thousand dollars?”
CHAPTER SIX
“Suz.” Adelie dipped her head in embarrassment. Her sister had many childlike qualities, but this lack of filter—or apparent lack of any tact whatsoever—left something to be desired.
Mr. Hatter chuckled and stood from his seat, coming around to slump against the front of his desk. “Yes. About that. How would you feel about a different offer, Miss—can I call you Adelie?”
“Sure,” Adelie said, fighting the sinking in her chest. “And what do you mean, a different offer?”
He slid a look to Mr. Hawthorne, who inclined his head with insistence.
“Wonderland’s brand is ready for a new look,” Mr. Hatter said. “And I think it’s you.”
“What’s me?”
“For the rebrand. New logo. New signs for every ride. New brochures, new maps. I need a girl to be the face for that. It’s you. I need you to be my Alice.”
“Your—Alice?”
Suzie’s feet drummed on the carpet.
Adelie’s brows crunched. “Why? I mean, why me?”
“I need investors to keep the park’s momentum going,” Mr. Hatter said. “After you found Pierre, my friend, Duncan, here saw you talking to the news crew. He pulled me aside and agreed with me. It has to be you.”
“It’s true,” Duncan said. “With your face, your innocent demeanor and your hesitation to accept any attention, you’re the perfect candidate.”
A tingling swept up the back of her neck. Heat bombarded her cheeks. How could he be that perceptive? “What do you mean the perfect candidate?”
Mr. Hatter reached for something on the desk behind him and held it toward her. Enlarged to at least fourteen by twenty in size, matted on black foam board, was what appeared to be an image from the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It was a penciled sketch of a young girl staring straight forward, wearing a dress and pinafore, with tall grass and hollyhocks around her and carrying a pig in her arms.
The girl’s face was innocent. Youthful and reticent, her forehead wide, her lips pouty giving her a sort of who, me? expression.
“I see it,” Suzie said, perking up, glancing from the sketch to Adelie and back again. Her mouth widened in amazement. “It’s so you. You could totally pull that off.”
Adelie was at a total loss for words. Mr. Hatter propped the image up alongside the lamp on his desk and continued.
“When I first launched Wonderland, I hired an artist to recreate my mother’s impressions of a book she loved for the signs for every ride, the entrance, even the directions throughout the parking lot. He did a great job for what it was, but the park has become campy. Everything is too exaggerated, too over-emphasized. Too cartoonish.
“I want it to become more real to those who arrive, and the way to do that is to redecorate. Rebrand. Ramp up the rides, the entire Wonderl
and experience.”
“We believe a live actor would be the best way to handle that,” Duncan said, stepping forward as if ready to enter the conversation. “Especially someone with your youthful, innocent demeanor. You capture the innocence of Alice, the curiosity mentioned multiple times throughout the book.”
“’Curiouser and curiouser,’” Suzie mumbled.
Adelie’s pulse clamored in her ears and a sudden coldness struck her to the center. Having an actual actor for the images was all well and good, but her? “I—I can’t do that,” she said in shock.
Mr. Hatter gave her a disarming smile. “I know it’s coming out of nowhere for you. But we’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. If you really aren’t interested at all, I’ll send you off with your winnings and wish you the best. But I’m willing to add to your fifty-thousand-dollar reward.”
Adelie’s throat was dry enough to crack. “Add to it?”
“Of course. Models are always paid for their image. It’s clear the chance for fame isn’t appealing enough to you,” Mr. Hatter said with a laugh. “To have your picture seen all over town, on brochures, our website, and even commercials—”
“You’re talking about taking pictures of me?” Adelie wasn’t sure why she hadn’t grasped that to begin with. Her mind was a step behind. He couldn’t be serious. She was no model. She’d loathed picture day growing up and begrudgingly had one senior picture taken because it’d been obligatory.
“Yes. It would involve a photo shoot. And I’m afraid money is all I have to offer. What might entice you to say yes? How does two-hundred and fifty-thousand sound?”
If Adelie had been holding something she would have dropped it. “Are you—?” She couldn’t manage to finish.
No way. No way had she ever thought she’d even sniff that much money, let alone touch it. Let alone hold it and have it to use. Along with a rush of breathlessness, other ideas flurried through her mind.
She could do so much with it. She could pay off their mortgage outright. She could pay the rest of Suzie’s medical bills.
But photographs? Billboards? Adelie had witnessed the sheer number of attendants in the park today. Having that many people stare at her face, not only here but across the valley? Not to mention wherever else he would decide to advertise.
“Yes,” Suzie blurted. “She’ll do it.”
Adelie’s mouth gaped. “What? No, she won’t do it.”
“Miss Carroll,” Mr. Hatter said, clearing his throat. “I’m not sure you understand—”
She stood, refusing to be simpered at. “No. Look, I’m really flattered, but this just isn’t me. You could find a thousand other girls who would be better suited for this. They’d have experience; they’d have a…a desire for this. I don’t want it.”
She’d never been one to take center stage. She’d been on the light crew, on the sidelines feeding actors their lines. She’d never played a front role, and she had no interest in doing so now. That unnerving interview with the news crew was all the attention she ever wanted.
Suzie’s face was a mashup of panic, disbelief, and desperation. She stood and shuffled forward; hands outstretched before her as though trying to hit the finish line first. She elbowed her way between Adelie and Mr. Hatter and linked her arm with Adelie’s.
Suzie flashed an apologetic smile at Mr. Hatter. “Can you give us just a second?”
“What are you doing?” Adelie said through her teeth.
Suzie shushed her and guided her to the far corner, beyond the bar with a microwave and sink, to where a tall plant stood guard. She shot a look behind her shoulder before pinning her fiercest sisterly scowl on Adelie.
“Are you crazy?” she mumbled under her breath. “Just say yes.”
Adelie worked to keep her voice low yet loud enough for only her sister to hear. “You can’t accept for me. It’s my face, not yours, that’s going all over the place.”
“Come on, why not? You are perfect. You found the rabbit. You’ve already been on the news. It would be even bigger for Wonderland, and that reward? Holy cow, Adelie, that would save Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We wouldn’t get foreclosed on.”
Adelie couldn’t deny the same thoughts had crossed her mind, but she’d stamped them out quick, like a dropped match in a forest. They could find some other way to save their home. She’d find a legitimate job, something that wouldn’t require her to be so…out there.
“It’s just a few pictures,” Suzie went on, her tone turning corrective. “You heard what he said, you’ll be all made up and Alice-y. No one will even recognize you otherwise.” She threw out her hands and added a cheesy, encouraging smile.
Adelie scorned the temptation spurring inside of her. She loved her quiet life. But that was just it, if they lost their grandparents’ house, it wouldn’t be the life she loved. Quiet, solitude, in a place she’d lived her whole life, a place she longed to return to any time she left it.
This was her way to save it. With the money Mr. Hatter was offering, she and Suzie could buy it outright. They’d never get evicted again, and all that history, the memories of childhood, canning beans and picking raspberries, would be a daily walk-through instead of a distant thought.
Just a few pictures. A few billboards—which were always up so high; who really looked at those anyway? It wasn’t like this was anything salacious. She wasn’t posing for Victoria’s Secret, selling her soul or her body. Just her face.
Ugh. She couldn’t do this. But how could she turn down a quarter of a million dollars?
Suzie’s eyes were as wide as saucers. Her lower lip pouted. She’d mastered the pleading look, that was for sure.
“It’s too bad they’re not asking you.” Adelie knuckled her sister’s shoulder. Why couldn’t they? Then again, Suzie was four years older. Not only that, Adelie couldn’t ignore the compliments Mr. Hatter had paid her. Her, not Suzie. The withdrawn innocence, the sweetness yet standoffishness from that image. Suzie was so bubbly she’d just grin the entire time.
They needed someone pensive, someone absorbed and withdrawn. An unwanted confirmation nudged her at the thought. Much as she wanted to ignore it, something deep inside told her she could do it.
“But they’re not asking me,” Suzie said. “They want you. You can do this, Addy.”
She closed her eyes. One slide at a time, she pictured their house being repainted, refurbished, fixed up and made their own. The decades-old plumbing that needed repairs, the cool air leaking through the antique windows. Both needed to be replaced, and neither of which could they even dream of affording, not while they were both in school. This way, they could be repaired, without Adelie or Suzie having to quit school or go into any more debt.
What if it turned out she was terrible at modeling? What if she ended up being exactly the opposite of what they thought they wanted?
The idea wedged in her chest like a fist. It pressed against her lungs, robbing their ability to draw in a full breath.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, she told herself. Just focus on that.
“Okay,” Adelie said, releasing the breath. “I’ll do it.”
Suzie fisted her hands and strangled a squeal halfway out of her throat, getting a grip on herself as Adelie gave her a pointed get-it-together glare. Adelie lifted her chin and strolled back to where Mr. Hatter and Mr. Hawthorne stood.
Adelie’s palms were sweating like she was in the middle of summer. “Thanks for the offer, Mr. Hatter. If it’s still on the table, I’d love to take you up on it.”
There it was again. That zap-her-kneecap smile. This time it added an admiring glint in his green eyes that did strange things to her lower belly.
“Awesome,” Mr. Hatter said. “I have some papers here for you to sign.” He pulled them from atop his desk as well.
Adelie stiffened. Her head lightened; her thoughts went fuzzy. She forced herself not to glance at Suzie. “Right now?”
“Contracts, right?” Suzie asked, unfazed.
Trembling overtook Adelie as her brain slowly began to unplug. Why had she agreed? She was entirely not okay with this. It was too fast. She didn’t have time to think things through, and she wasn’t sure she wanted it anyway, not really.
A signature on a contract was final. Adelie’s knees buckled. Suzie hurried to guide her to the nearest seat. She lowered her head and focused on breathing.
Mr. Hatter and Mr. Hawthorne exchanged a look before Mr. Hatter knelt before her. He rested a hand on her knee. The touch was a little forward, but nothing about him seemed to be conventional.
“I know this is a lot,” he said, his tone gentle. “Why don’t you take some time to think it through?”
Adelie didn’t realize how much she was quivering until she pushed his hand from her knee. “How much time?”
Mr. Hatter sank onto his heels. “Two days?”
She laughed until she realized he was serious. She wiped her clammy palms on her thighs.
“I’d like to keep the momentum triggered by today’s scavenger hunt going,” he said. “If you don’t want to be a part of that, I understand, but this could be the opportunity of a lifetime.”
For me or for you? she wondered. Still, she couldn’t deny the lure of the phrase he’d used. Be a part of that. Of this. Of Wonderland. She could be a part of something incredible, a living fairy tale, a live-action novel. She would be Alice.
The appearance of this entire offer turned on its head. Despite her anxieties, the glass was gradually becoming half full rather than half empty.
“Tell you what,” Mr. Hatter said, standing to his full height and straightening his shirt. “Why don’t you meet me here in Wonderland on Sunday? You can take this contract home and look it over. Will that give you enough time to think this over? The park will be closed. I’ll give you a personal tour. Show you the areas I’ll be updating and exactly where your images will go. Then, at that time, you can give me your decision. Does that sound reasonable?”
Alice And The Billionaire's Wonderland (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 3) Page 4
