Page 13 of Long Story Short

‘Is it even a hotel stay if you don’t?’ Liv quipped, gesturing to their similarly full plates.

‘I think we’ll need the energy,’ Tessa said. ‘It’s a full-on itinerary, isn’t it? I always get nervous at things like this.’

Liv nodded. ‘Me too but everyone here is on our side, right? We all love romance books.’

‘They are definitely on your side,’ I agreed as I took a long gulp of my coffee and then a big bite of toast. ‘Unfortunately, I won’t have the same luck. What with having to chaperone Jake Richards,’ I said, unable to help myself from starting to go off on a rant again. ‘I mean, I have no idea how anyone is going to react to him today; I’ve been running nightmarish scenarios through my head about it and Hayley just seems to think I’ll be able to help him win everyone over but what if we’re trying to do something that’s impossible? And then yesterday, I found out he’s on a panel with his author arch-enemy, which Hayley failed to mention in advance to either of us, and honestly, I have no idea if Jake can turn on enough charm to turn things around but both of our careers depend on it and…’

Liv cleared her throat loudly as Tessa waved her cutlery in the air and plastered on a bright smile. I looked confused at them, my words trailing off.

‘Morning,’ came a tight voice from behind my shoulder.

My cheeks immediately flushed as I looked up into Jake’s eyes. There he was again, overhearing things that I really wished he wouldn’t. When was I going to learn?

‘I better go and get some coffee to help me turn on enough charm for today. Excuse me,’ Jake said, looking away from me to Liv and Tessa, before striding off as quickly as he had appeared.

‘Well, the day’s got off to a great start,’ I muttered when he’d left. ‘Me and my big mouth.’

‘You weren’t saying anything that wasn’t true,’ Liv said consolingly. ‘Your work is cut out for you.’

‘I know but I was trying to make us into a team to get through this conference, and I think I’ve blown it,’ I said, the hurt look on Jake’s face haunting me.

‘You can fix it,’ Tessa said.

Liv nodded in agreement.

I picked up my coffee cup and drained it, hoping they were right.

9

I found Jake in the lounge area of the hotel, reading something on his phone. I paused before approaching, feeling nervous all over again to talk to him after what had happened at breakfast. I didn’t think I’d ever had so many awkward interactions with a man before. To say I felt flustered was an understatement. If this was a man I was interested in, I would have run away by now as fast as my legs could carry me but Jake was stuck with me and I was stuck with him.

Pushing my shoulders back, I started off again and walked over, sitting down in the armchair opposite him, a small table dividing us. ‘I’m sorry you overheard what I said,’ I greeted without preamble. ‘But you know this conference is make or break.’

Jake’s eyes lifted from his phone to meet mine. ‘You don’t need to keep reminding me,’ he said coolly.

I raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, so it’s my fault that we are on damage control?’ I snapped, my patience evaporating. What was it about this man that got my back up so much?

He slouched in his chair like he didn’t have a care in the world, which only annoyed me further. ‘You’ve made it very clear, Freya: this is all my fault. So, instead of telling me again how useless I am, how about we go over what to say in this podcast so we can do “damage control” as you so eloquently put it?’ He went heavy on the sarcasm, even going as far as to do air quotes around the words ‘damage control’.

I exhaled long and hard then looked away from those piercing eyes of his. ‘Yes, let’s do that,’ I replied finally, with false brightness. I pulled out my phone. ‘They sent over the questions in advance so I’ll ask, you answer and we can tweak as needed…’

We focused on the interview and avoided eye contact as we went through it and I made suggestions if I thought Jake could answer a question better. We were sticking to Hayley’s lines about the unfortunate article and when Jake repeated the same answer about lawyers looking into it, I couldn’t stop a small sigh from escaping my lips as I listened to him parroting what she had told him to say.

‘What was that?’

‘Huh?’ I looked up from my phone in surprise at Jake’s sudden, demanding tone. He was staring across at me again, and the eye contact was startling. ‘What was what?’

‘That sigh. You have something to say, Freya, so why not go ahead and say it?’

There he went again, making me want to say things I shouldn’t. The challenge in his eyes was impossible to back down from, however. ‘Fine. You know I think the statement you gave after the article first surfaced was a mistake, so yes, sticking to it now feels wrong. I think you could be more honest about it all and then maybe your readers would understand and your publisher would see that signing you again is a safe bet. Right now, I don’t think they know what to do.’

‘Hayley feels differently,’ Jake replied.

I nodded. ‘Yes. But Hayley is looking at it as your agent, not as a romance reader like me. I love romance; I was a huge fan of your books and it hurt to hear that you don’t care about them, that you only write them to make money. Also, that you don’t believe in the happy ever afters that you create,’ I said, everything coming out in a rush.

Jake raised an eyebrow. ‘Do youreallybelieve in happy ever afters?’

‘I hope they exist. I haven’t had the kind of romance in my life like you write about, no,’ I admitted. ‘But I hope it is out there, and that I will find it one day. I know all your readers feel that way too. So, hearing that you don’t believe in what you’ve written made us all not believe in it either,’ I told him honestly.

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