Page 92 of Driven Daddy

“I know. But the easiest way to split up our books was to each take some.”

“Oh, and she took the most famous one?” He let me go then. “She’s a real piece of work. Didn’t your lawyer advise against that?”

“She did. I was more worried about the books that meant something to me. Date with Disaster wasn’t my idea.”

“Her idea and you wrote it?”

The accusation hit hard. Mostly because he was right. For the most part, we wrote together, but I definitely did the brunt of the writing later on in our career. I wrote fast and Jenelle took care of a lot of our nitpickier things like print and special editions. I just wanted to write.

“We both wrote it,” I said between my teeth.

“Duchess, that book is worth millions. You shouldn’t be cut out of it.”

“I don’t want to be part of it. I don’t wantanyof it.”

Especially now. It was tainted by the idea that Jenelle had been hatching this for a good long time. Maybe even longer than I’d ever imagined. Had she just been waiting for us to hit a payday?

“Duchess, I get it. But she is getting millions of dollars for your hard work.”

“She can have it.”

“I would think you, of all people, would want to make sure you were secure.” He laced his fingers at the back of his head. His curls were burnished gold in the lights that had steadily gotten brighter.

“I made plenty on that book when it went viral.”

“But—”

“Penn, we made ten million dollars on that book.”

He held up his finger for a second. His mouth dropped open, then he shut it and turned around to pace away from me, then back. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, did you say ten?”

“Yes. We got a print deal, and now I’m quite certain she had been making deals behind my back. I don’t want the money attached to any of it. I wanted my series.”

“The one with the hot clinch cover?”

I laughed. “The one with the couple cover, yes. And now that I know Jenelle is getting a fucking movie deal too—which I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Penn snorted. “That one I agree. I’ve been approached for a video game and a movie from my series too. Neither of them was worth the contract they offered.”

“Would be kind of cool to see Moksha in all his hooded glory.”

“I can’t believe you read my shit.” He sighed as he walked back to me.

“I read a lot of different genres. I read everything. I lived in the libraries as much as possible.”

He took my hand, tangling our fingers. “Lived for real?”

I laughed. “I did hide in the library a time or two, but the security is pretty intense in New York City libraries. But I did make sort of friends with one of the librarians, Mrs. Perkins. Sheliked me and let me hang out there and write on the computer as much as I wanted. Thank goodness for the cloud. Where I kept all my work.”

“You are a wonder, Rita Savage.”

“I did what I had to. I bet you would too.”

“I never had to find out. Well, beyond the hood-style first apartment. Then me and Larsen made enough money to get a place together. He got a pretty swanky job for the merchandising engineer stuff he does so well. When he went back to work in Scotland for awhile, I finally got my own place in Chelsea.”

I sighed. “I looked in Chelsea when I was apartment hunting. But I loved Times Square—even after all the years hustling around the city, I just never fell out of love with it.”

He whistled. “Not cheap.”

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