Mr. Love: A Romantic Comedy by Sally Mason Read Free Book Online Page B

whispery voice.
    “Well, yes, I guess so.”
    “Follow me, please.”
    Bitsy leads her into a bedroom as spartan as a nun’s cell.
    The only color the spines of the books in the shelves beside the desk.
    A quick glance tells Jane that Bitsy’s library is a mixture of esoteric self-help and romance.
    A positive sign.
    An ancient desktop computer hums on the writing table and Bitsy jiggles the mouse.
    “That’s my working file for Ivy ,” she says, opening the folder, shooting a glance at her brother who hovers in the doorway.
    Jane takes command of the mouse and clicks through the Ivy works-in-progress.
    That they’re authentic she has no doubt but when she peers up at Bitsy and sees the look she’s exchanging with her brother, Jane can’t quell the suspicion that she’s being duped.
    She ’s certain that Gordon wrote the damned thing and he’s getting his sister to front for him.
    Jane ’s about to declare her suspicions when her phone rings and, yet again, she sends Jonas to voice mail.
    She can imagine his mood : a meltdown of Chernobyl proportions.
    “Bitsy,” Jane says, “I can’t leave here without you signing an agreement with the Jonas Blunt Agency. I can’t run the risk of another agent poaching you.”
    There’s a glance between the siblings before Bitsy speaks.
    “Of course. I would be happy to sign.”
    “I have a standard contract in my briefcase in the living room.”
    The y troop out and Jane removes the agency agreement from her case and hands it to Bitsy.
    “Gordon will take a look at it,” the woman says. “He’s going to act as my advisor.”
    I’ll bet he is , Jane thinks, but she smiles and shrugs and watches as Gordon Rushworth peruses the document.
    She has no doubt that he has downloaded similar documents before, all part of preparing for when his magnum opus reached the road to publication.
    “Seems boilerplate,” he says. “Go ahead, Bitsy.”
    He hands the document to his sister along with a pen.
    Then he holds up a hand and Bitsy pauses with the nib of the pen tantalizingly close to the dotted line on the contract.
    “There’s just one small matter,” Gordon says.
    “What’s that?” Jane asks.
    “Since I have been the, shall we say, matchmaker in this, I think a little reward is in order.”
    “A little quid pro quo ?” Jane asks.
    He smirks.
    “Exactly.”
    “Let me hear it,” Jane says.
    “I think we can agree that any one of the big five New York publishers would be desperate to publish Ivy and its sequels?”
    “Oh yes. No doubt about that.”
    “Then it wouldn’t be a deal breaker if in return for getting Ivy , they must agree to publish another book?”
    “And that book wouldn’t by any chance be Too Long the Night , would it?”
    “It would, yes.”
    “There’s no way I could guarantee something like that, Gordon.”
    “What a pity,” he says, reaching across to take the pen from his sister’s hand.
    Jane speaks as quickly as a horse race caller.
    “But my boss, Jonas Blunt, would have no problem swinging that. Take it as done.”
    “Excellent.”
    He hands the pen back and Bitsy Rushworth signs the document in her spidery scrawl.
    As Jane shakes Bitsy’s hand her phone rings and this time she doesn’t send Jonas to voice mail.
    She says, “Excuse me,” to the Rushworths and steps out of the front door into the bare little garden.
    “ Jonas,” she says.
    “Why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”
    “It’s done.”
    “What ’s done?”
    “I’ve just signed Viola Usher. She’s ours.”
    Jonas Blunt is not a man to be at a loss for words, but there is a delicious pause before he says, “You’re sure of this?”
    “One hundred percent.”
    Although she’s not.
    “Well, done Jane. Well done.”
    “Thank you.”
    “When you return to New York that corner office will be yours.”
    “What about Toby?” she asks, referring to the nasty little agent who, in Jonas’s frequent absences, likes to lord it over