Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 287(@200wpm)___ 230(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“About an hour.” She didn’t look happy about it, but at least she wasn’t arguing with him.
“I’ll meet you and your stepdad in an hour then. Tess will meet us at your hotel and make sure it’s secure. I need an hour to pack and make sure everything at my place is handled, but then I’ll be with you for the night.”
She turned and walked away.
And West knew the real battle had just begun.
Chapter Two
West Rycroft was an asshole.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to dealing with assholes, but she’d kind of hoped for some older lady who might view her as a daughter type. She could hang with older people. When she’d been young, her mom had been preoccupied running her sister, Brynn’s career, and she’d been left hanging around movie and TV sets. There had been a couple of older women who had taken her under their wing. The woman who’d run the costume shop on Brynn’s long-running TV show had taught her how to knit.
Which was what she did now as she sat in the small break room waiting for her stepdad to finish up with the Taggarts.
She pulled out her knitting needles and cast on, starting with a garter stitch. It was the easiest stitch, but she wasn’t really trying to make something. This was self-soothing.
Do I make myself clear, Allyson?
He’d loomed over her, every inch of him masculine and commanding. Those stark green eyes of his had stared down at her, and she’d had the most ridiculous impulse to turn her face up. To see if she could tempt him into kissing her.
She was such a stupid girl.
“Aren’t you that person on TV?”
She glanced up, and the goth kid was standing there. Maybe not goth, exactly. The girl wore ripped jeans and combat boots, a concert T-shirt with her hair in a high ponytail. She looked an awful lot like Charlotte Taggart now that Ally really studied her. “I am. Shouldn’t you be in school?” There was probably a reason, and sympathy welled hard and fast. “Yikes. Suspended?”
The girl shrugged. “I’m always in some kind of trouble, but not this time. In this case, it’s a teacher in-service day and I’m grounded, so I have to be up here. I might have snuck out to see a friend a couple of months ago. At night. In the middle of the city. It also might have gone really wrong. Anyway, I’m stuck here for all vacation days. Fun. I’m Kala Taggart. The big scary guy is my dad, and my mom’s one of the owners of the company. What are you in for?”
Ally’s hands moved out of long habit, the rhythm of knitting soothing her. “Asshole guy killed a bunch of birds and presented them to me as a message that he wants to kill me.”
The girl’s face wrinkled up in distaste. “He killed birds?”
It was good to know that was worse than the death threats to this girl. Ally approved. She tended to like animals more than humans as well. “Yeah. I thought that was awful, too. At least my sister’s dogs weren’t around. I would have hunted that fucker down if he’d laid a hand on them.”
“Duke and Dolly are the best.” The girl sat back, seeming to relax a little.
Ally would bet this young woman didn’t reach out to many strangers. Her sister had gotten married and left show business behind, but she still visited, and for years, that had meant being on Match Made in Hollywood. Her husband, Major, hated it, but Duke and Dolly had become canine stars. “They are. I love them. When my life gets a little more settled, I’m going to get a couple of my own. It doesn’t seem fair to leave them in crates while I’m working. Are you in high school?”
“I’m a freshman. You are not what I expected. You’re really cool on the show. My sisters love it. Actually, everyone loves your show. The girls at my school freaked out over the Christmas special.”
Her mom had gotten them all together for a series of specials in the last couple of years. Her mom claimed she wanted to keep the brand going. Ally wanted to level with this girl, though. “You know it’s not all real, right?”
“You didn’t break up with Kellan?”
She shrugged. “Oh, I did. He was a total dickhead who only dated me because of the show.” That had hurt more than she’d thought it would. “I’m talking about the big argument with my mom. They exaggerated that. We’re cool, me and my mom.”
“So you’re not as much of a bitch as you seem?” Kala asked, and immediately her cheeks went red. “Sorry. My mom says I have no filter.”
Ally didn’t mind. “I rarely bother with one. Why should I? I mean, I try not to go around insulting people, but isn’t honesty better? As to your question, well, it’s all in the editing, isn’t it? I mean, did I do and say all those things on the show? Sure. Did they always show my motivations? They showed whatever made the best TV. It’s okay. It’s a good question to ask.”