and secondly, that wasn’t what I meant and you know it.”
“Of course, I know it.” He dipped his head back and laughed. “It’s just a part of my job to gross you out sometimes. So, how was your day? I’m assuming they’ve offered you the job if Dane wants an answer from you by tomorrow?”
“Yeah, they did,” I said, sighing as I tried to get my head wrapped around the magnitude of the offer. “I don’t think I can take it, though.”
“Why not?” he asked, his voice shooting up an octave or two. “This is the chance of a lifetime, Leah. Don’t fuck it up before you’ve even started it.”
“They’re looking for America’s Sweetheart, remember? I’m not that. I just don’t think I’m cut out for this gig, as amazing as it sounds.”
“You were willing to put on a sweet face and pretend for a hundred and fifty dollars yesterday. Surely you can do the same thing for half a million dollars?”
“Pretend?” I looked from one of his eyes to the other, searching for any sign that he was joking. When I didn’t find it, I dropped my chin and stared at him. “For a year? You want me to pretend for an entire year? Are you kidding me?”
“Nope,” he said, flashing me a smug grin. “You can do it, Leah. I know you can. You won’t have to pretend all the time. Dane knows who you really are and I’m sure he’ll be around a lot of the time. You can be yourself with him. You’d only have to pretend for the cameras and for Jefferson.”
“Jefferson will be around all the time too, though,” I reminded him. “This is his campaign.”
“Yeah, but he’s the big boss. I’m pretty sure he won’t always be hanging around only this one campaign. He runs a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar company.”
“Okay, but there’s another big problem.” I leaned closer to him, lowering my voice until it wasn’t much more than a whisper. “I’m allergic to a lot of different perfumes, remember?”
His eyes blew wide open. Then he laughed again before he shrugged. “It’s not a fatal allergy and I think it’s hilariously ironic that you’d be offered a potential big break in perfume under the circumstances. You can be a bit itchy from time to time for half a million dollars in one year, can’t you?”
He must’ve sensed I wasn’t convinced because he cocked his head and straightened his expression again. “Meeting the right people could get you a book deal and move your nonexistent career as a writer forward. You’re never going to meet those people at the restaurant.”
“I wish you weren’t so right,” I said finally, accepting that he had an exceptionally good point there. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“Okay, but sis?” he said, waiting until I looked back into his eyes. “Change isn’t easy, I know, but this is the kind of opportunity you’ll regret passing up if you don’t take it. Trust me.”
I did trust him. That was the problem. Because despite my own misgivings over whether I could pull this off or not, I knew he thought I could. Which meant I was going to take this job and then hope like hell that he was right.
Chapter 6
DANE
Jefferson had kept me in the conference room late last night. He’d been disappointed that we didn’t have an answer from Leah yet, but he’d also understood that she needed time to think about it. The other women who had auditioned had all done so knowing that landing the gig would mean moving to a different city for pretty much an entire year.
Leah hadn’t known that. It had been sprung on her that she’d have to leave her family behind and move across the country if she accepted our offer. As a guy who’d spent many of my days, nights, weekends, and summers with the James family, I knew better than anyone else what she’d be giving up.
My own parents had always been cold and disinterested—hence all the time spent with my friend’s family—but her parents were great. They were loving, kind, and supportive. As far as I knew, they still had dinner together as a family every Sunday and watched the game together most Fridays during the season.
They were a tight-knit family, and leaving them for so long wouldn’t be an easy decision to make. Added to that was the fact that she hadn’t seen an ad for the auditions and decided to take her chances herself. All this had taken her