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Back Long Story Short Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. 35
  38. 36
  39. 37
  40. 38
  41. 39
  42. 40
  43. 41
  44. 42
  45. 43
  46. 44
  47. 45
  48. 46
  49. 47
  50. 48
  51. 49
  52. 50
  53. 51
  54. EPILOGUE
  55. THANK YOU!
  56. MORE FROM VICTORIA WALTERS
  57. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  58. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  59. ALSO BY VICTORIA WALTERS
  60. Boldwood Ever After
  61. About Boldwood Books

‘I should have been honest and admitted what I had said,’ Jake continued. ‘But I was too scared to. Not only because I was trying to frantically save my career in any way that I could, but because if I accepted what I had said, I either needed to pretend that I didn’t enjoy writing romance, and never do it again, or tell the truth. And I wasn’t ready to do that. But the truth is…’

16

Jake trailed off and cleared his throat. He suddenly seemed to hesitate. He looked over at me again so I gave him an encouraging nod. ‘The truth is…’ he began again but his confidence seemed to be definitely failing him. He cleared his throat again then finally continued speaking. ‘I wasn’t sure that I wanted to write more love stories because of something that happened in my personal life. So, when I was with an author who kept trying to find out why I was in such a bad mood, I just snapped. I didn’t want to tell him… You can guess from the panel that I’m talking about Davis Mulberry here,’ Jake said, shaking his head when he said his name. ‘I was desperate to get him to stop digging, he is the last person I would ever want to know what happened, so to throw him off, I started slagging off romance books and it worked, but as you all know, we were overheard. I didn’t want him to know what was going on in my private life. And I can’t share what was going on. I just can’t. But long story short, I didn’t mean what I said about romance books. I respect the hell out of romance books, and everyone who reads them,’ Jake added.

After he paused, there were murmurings again around the room, and some people who spoke loud enough for me and Jake to hear as well. I listened to the chatter with concern.

‘Is that it? I thought we were going to hear the truth!’

‘He’s only telling us half the story.’

‘Sounds like bullshit to me.’

‘How can we believe him?’

‘He thinks he’s so charming that we will just accept what he says.’

‘I thought there was one man in the world who believed in love like we do but now I’m not so sure.’

‘Why would slagging off romance books be better than sharing what’s going on in your personal life?’

‘He’s such a ladies’ man; I think he writes romance just to get women into bed.’

When I heard that comment, my cheeks turned pink remembering how Jake said he would treat me well if I was his.

‘How can anyone believe that you don’t hate romance books after what you said?’ someone called out to Jake.