Read Bell, Book, and Scandal for Free Online Page A

you have the first couple of chapters and an outline with you?“
    “Yes, I do,“ Jane said.
    “Good for you, girl!“ Felicity lifted a fist as the woman in the restaurant had done. “You’ve done your homework. Now scat. Oh, let me write my room number down. Call me when you know who you sign up with.“
    Jane returned to the suite forty-five minutes later. Shelley was sitting in one of the chairs with her bare feet up on a coffee table, reading a book. “Did you find who you wanted?“
    “Amazingly, I did. Sometime between now andtomorrow morning I have to run home and make copies. Just on the faint hope that all three will want to see the chapters and outlines.“
    “There’s a copy shop in the mall just across the parking lot,“ Shelley told her. “Spring for their prices and don’t waste your time going home.“
    “Where did you find that book? It’s Felicity’s latest. I already had a copy you could have read.“
    “Jane, where is your head?“ Shelley exclaimed. “Authors come to these things to sell books. There’s a room just to the west side of the registration desk where there are four booksellers. I wouldn’t dream of borrowing your book and cutting down on what she earns on this. And besides, I want it autographed to me.“
    Jane slapped her head. “Do you have any more RCs? Somebody stepped on my foot in line and I need to put it up for a few minutes.“
    “Not the foot you broke?“
    “No, the other one,“ she said, taking off her shoe and rubbing her little toe as Shelley brought her a drink.
    Shelley said, “I’ve been thinking about that Zac person. Felicity said he’d written a couple of books. I’ll bet that’s why he was forcing one on Sophie Smith. Wanting to get back in the game.“
    “You could be right. He’d probably make a better living writing his own books than reviewing others. And if he continued to do both...“
    Now that she had Jane’s agreement to her theory, Shelley said, “Let’s pick out what to wear at the dessert bar tonight, then we can go have your copies done, and you can have part of the afternoon to mingle.“
    “I’m not a very good mingler,“ Jane admitted.
    “Everybody has these tags with their names on them. Just approach anyone standing alone and introduce yourself. Easy as pie.“
    “First, I must call Felicity while I’m still shoeless and tell her I lucked into the appointments I wanted.“ But Felicity wasn’t in her room and Jane left a message.
    “See, Jane? She’s out mingling,“ Shelley said smugly.
    Jane pointedly ignored this and glanced again at the schedule. “I want to go hear what Sophie Smith says this afternoon at the opening ceremony.“
    Going to the copy shop wasn’t exciting but it was better than trying to make lifelong friends with strangers. Jane took her outline and the chapters and had three copies made. She bought three simple buff-colored folders to put them in, forgoing the copy shop’s more attractive folders—floral, neon transparent, and a pink she liked. She knew, however, that making something “cute“ was the sign of an amateur. She chose the fourth folder in bright orange for her own copy. She simply couldn’t resist.
    When she returned to the hotel, she parked closer to the copy center than to the hotel itself, then trudged clear across the increasingly hot pavement and went up to the suite to leave the copies. She was still hot, so she had another soft drink. She also called the front desk to ask if Mel VanDyne had checked in yet. The clerk said he was booked to arrive the next day. Knowing full well she was dawdling, she finally broke down and went to the lobby.
    Jane mingled to the best of her ability. A few of the seemingly lonely attendees were simply waiting for the rest of their friends to arrive. Jane introduced herself anyway, and said how much she was looking forward to this conference. “I’ve never been to one of these. Have you?“ she asked the first woman she