Cover Girl

Time to tap dance.

Like Richard Gere in Chicago.

“Well, you’ll probably be working through me a lot. But don’t worry, I’m intimately familiar with the book.”

She raised her eyebrows as she leaned back and folded her hands. “Really? You read romance?”

“I know, I should turn in my male membership card, but I got hooked a while ago. There are some terrific writers in the genre. Anyway, I’ve read Ring Girl several times. Even did the proofreading.”

“Well, my compliments. I hardly saw any typos or grammatical errors. If you ever wanna be one of our freelancers, let me know. By the way, what do you do for a living?”

“Used to work as a TV reporter. Now I teach journalism at a small college.”

“Oh, that’s interesting—”

“Deal’s done!” said Bella, as she blew back into the office and extended her hand to Keira, who stood to shake it.

“Excellent!” Keira let out a loud exhale. “Whew. Now I can relax. I was so nervous I couldn’t eat this morning.”

Bella’s jaw dropped. “You couldn’t eat? Stop the presses.”

“Smart ass.”

Alex saw an opening. “I didn’t have anything either. I, uh, would be happy to take you guys to breakfast.”

“Thanks, but I already ate,” said Bella, obviously getting the message. “You two go.”

Keira turned to him and smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Uh, okay, great. So, I gotta ask… why were you nervous?”

“Long story. Feed me something sweet and I’ll be happy to tell it to you.”

Bella laughed and turned to Alex. “You will shortly discover that the way to Keira’s heart is through her stomach. With sugar.”

Keira sat up straight and smiled as she watched Alexander make his way through a Denver omelet. The Greek diner was a throwback: a hundred things on the menu, huge portions, a jukebox selector at every booth. He’d offered to take her to an expensive restaurant, but she loved this place. The dozens of different smells that wandered by every time a waitress passed their booth, the classic oldies that filled the air. It offered comfort food; something she’d needed a lot lately.

But it all took a back seat to what had fallen in her lap in the past twenty-four hours.

A sure-fire bestseller.

And the fact that she’d be working with a very cute single guy while putting it together. Who ever thought that buying a book written by a morbidly obese author who wouldn’t leave the house could bring a bonus?

She took a bite of her pancakes that she had turned into a maple-soaked sponge and let the sugar flow into her veins. Not that she needed a rush because the man sitting across from her was sending her pulse up a good bit.

Down, girl. Breathe.

Jill, I got your cardio workout right here.

Fifteen minutes into her conversation with the man, she knew something was there. Something she hadn’t felt for ages. Something she hadn’t seen across a dinner table in, like, forever.

Something right out of a romance novel.

He was about her height, dark and slender, with terrific eyes. A lean face with dimples running the length of his cheeks. A bit nervous, but that might be chalked up to intimidation, as she’d seen the same body language from most rookie authors who walk on eggshells around their first editor. But he was funny as hell. Not at all classically handsome but boy-next-door cute. Very much her type. It had become obvious that the author had used her cousin Alexander as a template for the hero in Ring Girl. The men in her romance novels actually existed. Who knew?

But was Alexander the richly drawn character in the book or simply the physical version of the heroine’s love interest?

And was he attached? Surely a guy like this with a great personality had a girlfriend.

Inquiring minds wanna know.

“So,” he said, washing down a bite with a sip of orange juice, “you were gonna tell me about why you were nervous this morning. I thought authors were the only ones who had that problem.”

“I guess Bella never told you about Jennie Dunway.”

“Who?”

“Exactly. But that’s the end of the story.”

“What’s the beginning?”

Keira dabbed her mouth with her napkin, folded her hands and leaned forward. “Okay, so one day Bella calls me up with this terrific novel. Sorta like she did yesterday, but Ring Girl is much, much better. Anyway, I read it that weekend and wanted to buy it so I headed over to Bella’s office on Monday with an offer. But by the time I got there the author had dropped her as an agent.”

“Someone dropped Bella Farentino? What writer does that?”

She put her palms up. “I know. Whoda thunk it? Anyway, apparently over the weekend the author goes to a barbecue and her Dutch uncle tells her there’s no way an agent should get fifteen percent and that he can represent her for nothing.”

“Was he an agent?”

“No, he was a retired longshoreman.”

“Huh?”

Keira put up her hand. “Patience! The story gets better. And you can’t make up stuff this good even if you write fiction for a living. So she agrees to let Uncle Longshoreman pitch her book.”

“But she already signed with Bella.”

“Ah, but as you know, Bella operates on a handshake so there’s nothing in writing. So the author dumps Bella, who had already told her I was the editor that wanted to buy the book.”

“Which means Bella could’ve filed a lawsuit if you’d bought the book, since she’d done the legwork.”

“True, but that was never gonna happen for reasons I will explain shortly. So the Dutch uncle contacts me and starts to play hardball. I have no intention of buying the book because I’d never screw Bella, but I let the guy ramble on just to mess with his head. He wants double what I was going to offer and a laundry list of perks. National book tour with first-class airline tickets, hotel suites, limos, you name it. The book was good, but it wasn’t that good. Anyway, after I turned him down the guy was like a bull in a china shop and no editor wanted to deal with him. So the book went unsold.”

“Why didn’t the author go back to Bella? Or find another agent?”

“She tried both, but by that time the story had gotten around and no one wanted anything to do with her. And, if you cross Bella once, you’re basically dead to her. Publishing is a very small, closed group, and gossip moves at the speed of light. Gossip between agents and editors went viral way before the internet existed. Bella knows everyone. Everyone knows Bella.”

Alexander nodded. “So that’s why you were nervous.”