I twisted in my seat to look at him, but the motion made my stomach flip. Turning slowly back around to face the window, I picked up my Sprite, swallowing a tentative drink.
"You okay?" Greg asked.
I took a few more sips of my drink to keep my mouth from going dry. "Just trying to get a handle on this. It's a learning curve. I need to keep my eyes straight ahead. I'm not trying to be rude, just so you know. As for your comment, I'm sure they don't think of you as a lackey."
"Definitely keep your eyes straight ahead. If you do need to hurl, better it goes that way rather than in my lap," he said, pointing to the dashboard.
"I'll do my best." I smiled but kept my focus on the windshield.
"Believe me. They make no secret of the fact that I'm a lackey or a grunt or an intern, depending on who's giving me orders. It's all good though. Everyone has to start at the bottom. It's the way things are run in the legit world. The important thing is not staying at the bottom too long. Now is my time to prove my worth. Isn't that how you started?"
I mulled over his words. I guess you could say he was right. When I started as an indie author, I was less than a grunt. I was a nobody who knew nothing. That was the option I chose. During the past year I'd been able to skip some steps and advance my career quicker than I anticipated, but that didn't diminish all the hard work it took me to get here. "You're right," I said, agreeing with him. "We're all grunts at one point or another. It makes us who we are. I can tell you I made some colossal mistakes in the beginning though."
He smirked. "I bet my mistakes top yours. One time I was supposed to mail out advanced reader copies for Jamie Lynn and I forgot to put the book in half the envelopes."
"Um, wait. How do you miss empty envelopes? Were you high or something?" He didn't answer right away but sat with a smirk on his face as he stared straight ahead. "Well?"
"Not high exactly, just slightly hung over, and I didn't say the envelopes were empty. Some of them just happened to contain the wrong book."
"Oh lord. What book did you replace it with?"
"A book called Fit at Fifty: A Guide to Middle-Aged Health. I'll never forget that title as long as I live. About a week after I sent them out we started getting tweets from all these bloggers who had been expecting Jamie's book. It was the final book in the Broken series, so everybody was hyped for it. The publisher was so pissed. I almost lost my job if not for Chelsea, who talked them out of it."
I laughed at the expression on his face. I kind of felt bad for doing so, but the way he told the story tickled me. Even he couldn't deny it was one of those colossal mistakes that in hindsight you couldn't help but crack up over. We spent mile after mile trading stories about our screwups. Greg was easy to talk to, much like I found with Alec, which helped temporarily fill the ache in my heart.
The sun was beginning to set as Greg merged off the highway just outside of Lexington, Virginia. We were a little more than halfway to our first destination, but everyone seemed ready to get off the Love Bus for the evening. I had managed to keep my nausea in check, so I didn't anticipate a night of hugging the toilet in my hotel room.
"Looks like you could use a drink," Monica laughed, hitching her bag onto her shoulder.
"Would you think less of me if I said hell yeah?"
"Fuck no. That makes you my kind of girl."
After Greg and Chelsea checked us in, the entire group met at the small lounge adjacent to the hotel for dinner and a few drinks, but none of us made a late night of it. As a matter of fact, Michelle and I were in our room and asleep by ten.
The next morning I woke up feeling pretty good, which I was thankful for considering my inauspicious start the day before. I made sure to stock up with a plethora of snacks and took a Dramamine during breakfast. I still felt nervous, taking my spot in the front passenger seat, but all I could do was hope for the best.
"Ready for day two?" Greg asked, dropping his chauffeur hat on my head.
"Hey, jerk," I said, tossing the hat on the dashboard. "I think I'm ready." I had a giant cup filled with ice and Sprite in one cupholder and a spare bottle for refills in another. I wasn't taking any chances.
Greg grinned as he latched his seatbelt and placed the RV in drive. "It's nice having you up here. It gets lonely hearing all the chatter from the back, but being out of the loop."
I nodded. That's how I felt the day before after getting sick. Having Greg to talk to at least made the trip bearable.
"Just think of all the perks you get for riding up here," he said, merging onto the highway.
"Oh really? Do tell," I teased sarcastically.
"You mean they're not obvious?"
I snorted. "Fine. Please tell me why I should feel fortunate to be up here."
"Well, for one, look at this amazing view."
"It is pretty spectacular," I agreed, opening a package of Sour Patch Kids.
"And you have twice as many cupholders, which obviously you've already discovered. Plenty of legroom too. It's like you won the lottery sitting up here, and that's without me even mentioning the best part."
I rolled my eyes. It was like he was channeling all three of my brothers at the same time. "You sound like a car salesman. I'll bite. What is the best part?"
"My winning personality, of course." He flashed a wide smile like he was posing for some magazine spread.
"Oh lord. Well, thank you so-o-o-o much for giving me the honor of riding up front," I said, my voice dripping with honey-covered sarcasm.
"Are you always a smart-ass?"
"It's in my DNA. If you met my family you'd understand. How about you?"
"Hey, I'm from Jersey, baby. I have to stay up on my game."
"And all people from Jersey speak bullshit?"
"Oh, hey, bite your tongue. What you call bullshit, I call charming and witty."
I laughed and threw a Sour Patch Kid at him. It landed on his thigh, but he snatched it up, popping the candy into his mouth without hesitation.
Chapter 12
"Without further ado, I'd like to introduce the rock stars of historical romance," Maddie, the manager of a Barnes and Noble in Gainesville, Florida, boomed from atop a wooden chair where she was standing. She squealed and shook with so much passion, I thought for a second she was going to fall and bust her ass. A crowd of mostly women matched her enthusiasm by breaking into loud roars of approval and applause. Greg stood behind a shelf of books where he wouldn't be noticed by anyone but me, attempting to get me to laugh by obnoxiously winking. Somewhere between Tennessee and Florida I made the mistake of confiding my weakness for winking and how Alec doing it in particular was my kryptonite. Since then he had made it his mission to torture me. My revenge would come as soon as the opportunity arose.
We had already been on the road for ten days and Gainesville was our seventh stop. Today's crowd was by far the most animated we had experienced. There had to be two hundred people crammed into the store waiting to hear what we had to say and to get their books signed.
Seven of the people in the crowd I was able to claim as my own. Mom, Dad, and the boys, along with Olivia and Ashley, had made the drive to Gainesville since it was the most convenient stop on the tour to meet up. We would be in the area for almost a full twenty-four hours, so they booked rooms at the same hotel we were staying at to spend as much time with me as possible. Alec hadn't been able to tag along. He was making up the favors he owed for the trip to New York. Even though I wasn't expecting to see him there, I couldn't help feeling disappointed as I spotted my family's beaming faces.
Monica leaned in to whisper into my ear. "I spy with my little eye a pretty enthusiastic family."
"You mean the ones holding the sign and chanting my name? How did you guess?" I rolled my eyes. Judging by how warm my face felt, I'm sure my cheeks were a bright shade of red. Mom held a sign over her head that read I gave birth to N.S. Blake. I would have gladly welcomed demons to break through the floor and grab me by the ankles to drag me away, especially after
my brothers encouraged the crowd to join in at chanting my name. Nothing like stealing the show. I looked apologetically at my friends, but they seemed to be finding as much humor in my embarrassment as my family.
"All right, all right. We don't want to scare our authors away," Maddie said, attempting to quiet the ruckus of the crowd. "Let's get this Q&A started." Thankfully, Maddie directed a question at Michelle and the noise level in the room finally mellowed.
Despite its rocky start, the Q&A went amazingly well. The readers who had come out to see us were avid fans of all our books. It made for an easy panel session filled with lots of laughter and joking.
"Honey, you were fabulous," Mom said, finally making her way to the front of my table once the signing ended.
I stood up to embrace her. Forgiving Mom for causing a scene earlier was easy. After almost a month, I missed her. She was quick witted, protective, and believed family came first. Growing up in a household of boys, we'd shared a common kinship—the girls against all the sweaty gym socks. Riley wanted in on the action, so he not so subtly nudged Mom aside to give me one of his typical hugs. It was light but warm and smelled like Riley—Calvin Klein with a twinge of spice.
I made it through the hug line of my other family members, leaving Tony for last. He felt the need to lift me off my feet and spin me around, not caring who we would kick or what we might knock over. "You're crushing my lungs," I gasped, pinching his arm before he took the hint and let me go. "God, you oaf. People are watching," I said, looking around in embarrassment.
Olivia stood as rigid as a statue behind my dad, using him as a shield. In all the time we'd been friends she had never taken to the fact that my family members were big huggers. Olivia approved of public displays of affection about as much as having teeth pulled without Novocain. You wouldn't blame her if you knew her parents the way I did. It's not that they were strict when we were kids. They just weren't the most affectionate people. My family tried converting Olivia during the years, but she seemed to have an anti-hugging gene coded into her DNA, and it's hard to fight nature. Maybe that was one of the reasons she had never given Tony a chance. He had a knack for taking hugs to an obnoxious level.
Dad stepped in before I could grab the heaviest hardback book within reach and use it on Tony's head. "You did amazing, sweetheart. You sounded so poised and professional up there. I'm very proud of you." His voice was gruff, and I could tell he was on the verge of choking up. I pulled back slightly and tilted my head up to look at him. His eyes shimmered with moisture and pride. It wasn't often that Dad showed his softer side, but when he did it was genuine.
"Aw, Daddy, I love you," I said, giving him a tight squeeze.
"Daddy? What are you trying to butter him up for?" Zach asked, ruffling my hair.
"Ugh, stop. You guys are incorrigible."
My tour mates and I wrapped things up by signing copies of our books for the store to keep on hand and taking some pictures with the staff. After introducing Greg and the girls to my family circus, we all headed out together to grab dinner. Mom had already taken the initiative to make reservations at the Outback that sat in the same shopping plaza. She and the rest of my family headed to the restaurant to get things situated while the girls and I walked to the RV to quickly freshen up.
"So, that's your family," Greg said, walking with Olivia and me through the parking lot.
"Yeah, that's the crew. Hey, how do you think sales went in there?" I didn't change the subject on purpose. It just occurred to me out of the blue that I meant to check our end cap display before we left.
"Awesome for both Wicked Lovely and Wicked Lonely. You sold most of what they ordered for the appearance. What you signed afterward was all that was left. Everyone else did great too, especially Monica's newest release. Maddie said it was the busiest signing she'd ever hosted, so I'd call it the best stop on the tour yet."
"I overheard Maddie telling a sales clerk they were going to display the signed copies you left by the registers and she expected them to sell quickly," Olivia added, looking pleased.
"Oh yeah, and it happened on my watch." Greg pounded his chest like Tarzan. "Well, obviously all the credit goes to you ladies," he said when Olivia and I stopped with our arms crossed. "How 'bout I just go unlock the Beast, so everyone can grab what they need before dinner." He jogged ahead, stopping when he reached Monica, Tina, and Michelle, who were strolling ahead of us.
"How you holding up?" Olivia asked now that we had some privacy.
"It's been good. Better than I thought. I miss home and Alec, of course. And there are times when I crave some alone time like a crack addict, but I'm surviving."
She nudged me with her hip. "I knew you'd settle in. Is the Dramamine still working?"
I nodded. "As long as I sit up front. I'm not getting any work done, but at least I'm not puking my guts out every day." The fact that I had come nowhere near my daily word count goal during the last ten days sucked ass. There was no way I would reach the tentative deadline I had set to finish my current manuscript. Every night I had the intention of catching up before going to bed, but the long hours riding in the RV combined with the signings sapped away all my energy.
Everyone must have been starving because we all made quick work of grabbing our things from the RV before walking as a group to the restaurant. When we arrived we found Zachary and Ashley standing under a small tree practically eating each other's faces. "Get a room," I muttered, giving them a bump with my shoulder.
"Jealous?" Zach drawled, dropping another kiss on Ashley's upturned lips.
"Ashamed is more like it," I answered, shaking my head at Olivia.
"I think it's sweet," Tina added. "Besides, Greg and I did the same thing last night while everyone else was sleeping. Right, sugar lips?" She wagged her eyebrows suggestively. She was kidding, but the look on Greg's face was priceless.
"Hey, that was supposed to be a secret," Greg laughed. "I don't want Nicole to think I'm easy."
Unsure of why he had singled me out, I glanced at Olivia, who raised her eyebrows questioningly at me."Don't let me break up anything between you two," I said, choosing not to return her stare.
Dad stood at the entrance, waiting to hold the door open for our group. "Come on in. Your mother gave them our new count and they're still getting tables ready for us."
"Thanks, Dad," I said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek as I passed.
Thankfully the restaurant wasn't busy, so they had no trouble putting together seating for our large group. I could still feel Olivia's eyes on me and knew she wasn't likely to let the matter drop, but defending myself over an innocent remark wasn't something I wanted to do in front of everyone. Instead, I clung to my mother, sliding an arm around her narrow waist as my head rested on her shoulder. "How you doing, love?" she asked, sliding her arm around me.
I relaxed against her. I'm sure most people love their parents, but I felt so lucky having a mother who was so in tune to our needs. "I'm good, Mom. Really glad all of you drove up to see me. Even though you probably could have left Tony behind," I joked, watching my older brother. He looked to be making yet another of his infinite attempts at Olivia, who stood near the restroom checking her phone.
We had witnessed the same scene so many times we didn't even need to eavesdrop on the conversation to know what was happening. Olivia's scathing look said it all. Poor Tony. As much as he could get on my nerves, I still felt bad for him. I knew he had real feelings for Olivia, but somehow he couldn't help but put his foot in his mouth whenever she was around.
"Sweetie, we would have had to lock your brother in a cage for him not to come. I know Tony can be—" Her voice trailed off. "Well, let me say it like this. Each of you has your own personality, but I love all my kids equally. Tony has a unique way of expressing himself, but believe me, he's extremely proud of you. As a matter of fact, I think everyone in his office has now bought your book because he's talked you up so much at work. None of us would have missed this for the world
."
Her words were heartfelt and even though I wanted to wring their necks at one time or another, I loved my brothers. "I hear you, but you have to admit, locking them in a cage doesn't sound like a bad idea," I said as Tony stuck his wet finger in Riley's ear. All Mom could do was shake her head.
"We have your tables ready," a young hostess holding an arm full of menus said as she eyed our group apprehensively. I couldn't blame her. The Love Bus crew had proven to be an animated bunch during the past ten days. Add my boisterous family to the mix and we were an intimidating group.
Luckily, to keep us away from most of the other patrons, we were seated on the far side of the restaurant where several smaller tables had been pushed together. I claimed a chair next to Mom while Greg snatched the chair on my opposite side before Olivia could take it. "You're in my seat, gofer boy. Tony needs a pal anyway," Olivia said, pointing to the empty seat across the table from me. Not wanting to get involved, I pretended not to notice, but obviously Greg took the hint because moments later he was situating himself next to Tony. Mom had discreetly tapped my shoulder to look down the table at Riley, who was sitting next to Michelle, engrossed in conversation. Riley had always been picky when it came to the opposite sex. So much so that I had expected him to surprise the family one day by coming out as a homosexual. Seeing the vibrant look on his face, I realized maybe I had been wrong. Oh well, c'est la vie.
I turned in my seat to find Olivia tapping her fingers on the table, which meant she needed a cigarette. She didn't smoke often. Usually only in between guys or when she was trying to calm herself from some kind of stressful situation. When she looked up to see me staring at her hands, her eyes darted down, obviously unaware she'd been tapping. I bit back a smile as she slapped her hands on top of one another. "I need to head outside for a minute. Come with me?"
"Sure," I replied, standing up with her. "Mom, will you order me a glass of red wine and a Diet Coke?"
"Yeah, honey. Olivia, sweetie, you want me to order you something?"