My Cover Model (A Love Like That #1) - R.L. Kenderson Page 0,4
me under the table, and I realized I’d been staring. With my mouth open. With food in it.
Travis shook his head and laughed.
I was going to kill Harper later.
The woman to my right had on a purple name tag like me and was probably about my age. She had shoulder-length auburn hair and pretty brown eyes. “Hi, I’m Angela Devlin.”
I swallowed my food, composed myself, and smiled. “I’m Sydney Hart.” I’d seen her name around on social media, but I hadn’t read any of her books yet.
“I’m Harper, I’m Sydney’s assistant.”
“This is Travis,” Angela said, pointing to him. “He’s my assistant-slash-model.”
“So, when did you two get in?” Harper asked. “We saw your name tag still on the table last night,” she said to Travis.
He smiled, but Angela was the one who said, “We got here about midnight.”
Harper winced. “Ouch. And you both got up so early?”
“I slept almost the whole way here from Minneapolis, so I had plenty of rest. But I did just throw on some clothes this morning,” Angela said.
“Us, too,” I said with a laugh. “That’s where we’re both from.”
Although Travis looked great for someone who had driven for hours and gotten no more than six hours of sleep.
“Are you both from Minneapolis?” I asked. I thought I had read Travis was from somewhere farther away, but maybe I was wrong. I hadn’t given his bio my full attention the night I looked him up.
“I’m from Michigan,” Angela said. “I flew into Minneapolis and drove here with Travis.”
“But you’re from Minnesota?” I asked Travis.
“Yep. Born and raised.” He grinned, and not one, but two dimples appeared. Figures. “I grew up in a small town, moved to the Cities in high school, and stayed.”
I couldn’t believe he was from the same place I lived. Despite just meeting him, he gave off this aura. I didn’t know how to explain it, and it was kind of like finding out a famous actor lived near me.
“That’s so cool that you decided to attend,” Harper said.
“Yeah, Ang convinced me,” he said, and I noticed the nickname he used for her. They must be close.
“How did you do that?” I asked Angela, half-joking, half-serious. “I think he’s the only model to attend this weekend.”
She laughed. “I did a lot of begging and pleading.”
Travis shook his head, but he was smiling.
“Truthfully, he’s just a really nice guy.”
Travis shook his head again, and mouthed, No, I’m not.
Harper and I both laughed.
Angela put her hand up to her mouth, so Travis couldn’t see what she was saying, but then she proceeded to speak loud enough for him to hear. “He’s also a big softy.”
“Shh…don’t tell anyone.” Travis shoved a forkful of food in his mouth and grinned.
I mentally sighed. God, he’s beautiful.
Harper leaned over to me and whispered, “Just a guy, huh?”
Four
Sydney
A couple of hours later, Harper and I were showered, dressed, and prettied up. Now, we needed to haul all my book stuff down to the banquet hall where the book signing was taking place.
My stuff was all packed into a couple of rolling carts to make everything easier to take everywhere. We pulled the two carts into the elevator and let the doors shut.
“So…are we going to talk about you drooling over the male model?”
“I did not drool.”
Harper snorted.
“I didn’t. But I totally admit, he’s hot.”
She grinned. “I know, right?”
“His pictures don’t do him justice.”
Harper’s brow wrinkled. “I think you’ve been looking at the wrong pictures.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.” But I made a mental note to check him out later.
The elevator doors opened, so the conversation was over.
“How long does it take you to set up?” Harper asked after we found my table in the large room.
“Always longer than I think it’s going to. Hopefully, after I do this a few more times, I’ll get the process down.”
While it did take a while, I always enjoyed this part. It was fun to see an empty table turn into my display with all my books and swag. Harper mostly unpacked everything while I put stuff in their places. There were a couple of things I told her to wait on until the event started.
I took a step back to get a larger view, and then I stepped forward again and moved a couple of things around.
“This is why I didn’t try to help.”
I looked up at Harper. “Huh?”
She gave me a look. “Because I put your bookmarks there, and you just moved them.”
I laughed embarrassingly. “I’m sorry. I’m kind of a perfectionist sometimes.”