Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66330 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 332(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
I quickly learned that I had the opposite problem. Halley’s mom was a thorn in my side I’d never fully be able to extract, but I could sense star power from a mile away. It was like a tingling underneath my collar. A tightening in my groin. Lust, but not for the star—for the money he or she would bring me. And Halley.
I’d taken my place in the agency because, let’s face it, no one else was offering a nineteen-year-old kid with a high school degree and a newborn a job. But I’d taken to it so well that by the time I was twenty-five and Halley was starting kindergarten, I bought my dad out. By the time I was thirty-one and Halley was going into middle school, I had an A-list agency. When she was in high school, I started taking her to the Oscars with me, which didn’t go over well with whatever starlet I was dating. After she went to college, I tried to get her to fly back for awards season, but she was always too busy.
It was wild. My friends hadn’t even started their families yet, and here I was with an empty nest. I’d accomplished everything I’d set out to do twenty-one years ago. My daughter was a healthy, happy, thriving adult. I was one of the top five agents in the business. The city was mine.
I toasted it now, something that made my friends laugh. I knew they understood though. She was the white whale we’d all pursued, practically to the point of madness. We’d all sunk our spears deep into her side–almost deep enough to convince ourselves we’d mastered her. Aware she could still thrash the shit out of us if she so chose.
“Here’s to money,” Garrett said, joining me in the toast.
“And backend compensation,” added our friend Dominic, a business manager to the stars. I noticed a Richard Mille Flyback wrapped around his wrist and shook my head. It didn’t matter how rich I got, I’d never pay half a mill to know the time.
“And death threats,” said Landon, the CEO of the most elite private security firm in LA.
The women at the table behind us turned to stare at him. Smirking, he raised his drink to them.
“And to finding the right actress to play Stasia,” Julian said, but he was looking at me rather than the view.
“Shut up,” Garrett warned. “I had to drag him out of his office. He was going to look at headshots all night.”
“I’ll find her,” I said to Julian, ignoring Garrett. “I just need some more time.”
Julian checked out my face, and then nodded, his mouth tightening as he no doubt reviewed the production schedule in his head. His company had bought the movie rights to a book that the publishing industry referred to as a genre buster. It outsold every other book in its genre a thousand times over. The fan base was massive and rabid. In some ways, that was every producer’s dream. A built-in audience. It could be a nightmare too, though. Every single one of those rabid fans had an idea of who they wanted to play Stasia, and the wrong actress could sink the ship.
I’d end up going back to the office tonight. I was close to finding her. I could feel it with the sixth sense I’d discovered when I joined this business. I started to text Maureen that I’d need more headshots on my desk, but then I saw the time was 7:30. She’d gone home for the night. Even though she was seven months pregnant, she’d come back and make sure it got done, but it was a dick move. I didn’t mind being a dick in contract negotiations or when it came to telling a client the hard truth, but I made sure I treated my employees well.
Before I could put my phone away, it lit up in my hand. Halley’s smiling face appeared. An old picture, from the first time I took her to Disney World when she was seven. The first time since she was born that I felt like I could take a few days off. She was wearing princess mouse ears with her name scrawled across the black dome in hot pink, grinning her old, gap-toothed smile. I smiled back at her for a second before walking a few paces down the balcony and answering it.
“Hey Hals, what’s going on?”
“Hi Halley,” Garrett yelled from our table.
“Hi, hi,” Halley said, her voice bubbly and rushed. “Are you with the Uncles?”
“It’s Tuesday night,” I said by way of answer.
“Wednesday morning here,” she said. She was at our house in Europe with some of her sorority sisters. Croatia, to be exact. I’d looked for a place in Italy, but everywhere I thought I wanted was considered a “hot spot.” I wanted to have a place in Europe to escape the heat. Then Landon had convinced me to check out Croatia. His family was from there; his grandparents still lived in Zadar. I’d fallen in love with it. Same beautiful blue water, about half the people.