Page 82 of The Billionaire Love Match

“Casey, hey! Elizabeth.”

“I know.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Sure, right. I’ve got good news. We’ve got a bidding war on your book. Here are the terms.”

Elizabeth laid out the big points of the contracts three houses were putting forth to buy the rights to her book. To buy the rights to her book. Though she loved the ability to publish her own books herself and have all the control, this was thrilling.

“Now, I’d recommend going with Fielder—they’re a smaller imprint but handle big books. They specialize in getting celebrity stories done right. Not sensational, but still the attention they deserve. Three-hundred thousand advance against royalties. They’d have the book out in two months.”

Casey swallowed. “Say those numbers again.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Three-hundred thousand. Two months.”

“I thought traditional publishing took forever. How so fast?”

“We are slow. Unless there’s a timely reason, which, obviously there is.”

“My fifteen minutes are almost up,” Casey said.

“I wouldn’t put it like that exactly, but yes. There is a window we need to close on.”

“Yes. I say yes.”

Amanda gave her a thumbs up and a silent scream. Casey grinned back.

“I’m so happy for you. I’ll set up a time for you to come in and sign the contracts.”

Casey hung up the phone and stared at Amanda. “Okay, now we can scream.” And feeling for the first time in weeks like she wasn’t sitting under a lead blanket, Casey jumped up and down on the couch with Amanda, screaming with joy.

As happy as she was, she knew that there was still one thing missing to complete her happiness. And she didn’t know how to get him back.

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**** Two months later****

AMANDA GAVE HER A HUGbefore she went out on the stage. “You’ll be great. This is going to be fine. And you look great.”

“Thanks to you,” Casey said. “Thanks for coming with me and doing my makeup and being my moral support. I didn’t think I’d ever want to be on TV again.”

“But you are and you’re talking about your book. Not just you. And you get to share your side of things. Plus, Colt made things much easier by going on every station and sharing how amazing you are. You’re back to being the darling of reality TV.”

“Great,” she said. “Just what I don’t want.”

“Just think of book sales,” Amanda called as a member of production led her to the edge of the stage, then tapped her arm as she heard the hosts calling her name.

Stepping out into the lights to the applause froze Casey in place for a moment. Suddenly she was back on that stage next to Chris Haversham, looking across at Colt’s face. Seeing herself on a big screen kissing Colt in the pool. Having the other women from the house gasp and send her dirty looks.

Keep walking, Casey.

She smiled and started to move again, making her way over to the chairs. Anna, the petite host with the bouncy brown curls jumped out of her chair and hugged Casey like they were best friends. The older blond man, Greg, stood, but shook her hand. Casey turned and waved to the audience, something her agent had encouraged her to do. It still felt really weird, but people did seem to love it. And it was getting easier and easier, though every time she did freeze before stepping out on stage.

“So, Casey. Tell us—how are you? I mean, this has been a life-changing three months for you.”

Casey laughed. “I’m doing okay. Still nervous coming out on stage. I think I have reality TV PTSD. Is that a thing?”

The audience laughed. “You’re so cute,” Anna said. “I think that’s why people fell in love with you. You weren’t afraid to just be yourself.”

“I’m not really good at being anyone else,” Casey said. The audience laughed again. “What I mean is, I can’t act. Everything is all over my face the moment I think or feel it. So clearly a career in professional poker is out.”

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