Read Online $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal by James Patterson - Free Book Online
Authors: James Patterson
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Caroline joked.
“Hey, did you have cute guys interviewing you last night? I was seriously hoping one of mine was him, ” Janey said. “But I know they weren’t.”
“You know? How?” asked Suze.
“I have my ways of getting information,” Janey said. “I had Rory and Tony. They were both superhot. Good candidates for my soon-to-be-launched reality-TV contest. I’m thinking I’ll call it The Ten-Million-Dollar Marriage Proposal. ”
“So original,” Caroline said.
“I had Brendan and Miguel,” Suze said. “It’s strange. The minute Miguel walked in, I was sure he was the bachelor.”
“Why?” Janey asked.
“Frankly, it was because he wasn’t as model-perfect as everyone else involved in this project seems to be. But he was so easy to talk to. We somehow ended up discovering that we have a lot in common.”
“Like what?” Janey asked.
“Well, we both fantasize about going on long-distance bike rides with our children one day.”
“That’s really random,” Caroline said. “And I’m kind of impressed. I didn’t peg you as outdoorsy.”
“Oh, I’m not. That was the best part. We both want to bike all day and stay in five-star hotels at night. We’re thinking France.”
“It sounds like you had an actual date! Forget the ten million. Run away with Miguel!” Caroline said.
Suze laughed. “We may or may not have discussed that.”
“Whoa. Miguel is so fired,” Janey said.
“Unless he’s the millionaire, which is entirely possible,” said Caroline. She had met with only one person, a pleasant-looking guy named Nicholas who had been particularly interested in her work trying to change the school-to-prison pipeline. So often people glazed over when she talked about what she did. Almost everyone in LA was in “the industry” and preferred to talk about TV shows, movies, and celebrity scandals. Caroline had cancelled her cable three years ago when she found herself spending far too much time watching junk, and she hadn’t looked back.
For once Caroline hadn’t tried too hard to be a perfect date, to be whatever he might want her to be. There was something about this process that made her feel like she might as well risk being herself, for better or worse. There was nothing to lose.
Now she was glad to keep the conversation focused on the men who had interviewed Janey and Suze. Ridiculous as it was, she wanted to keep her encounter private. She found that as soon as she talked about an experience, she became more removed from it. Overanalysis took the spontaneous and imperfect moments in life and categorized them.
In the past, as soon as she put them in the hands of her girlfriends, her dates had been reduced to a critique of his clothes, his manners, the awkwardness with which he’d said good-bye. After that kind of judgment, how could you possibly be excited at the prospect of a second date? Caroline felt the same way about this process. Judging it too much might ruin it. So she asked the girls questions about themselves and their experiences, all the while wondering, but not deciding, what her own night meant and what might come of it.
Chapter 21
Janey had a pile of scripts to read that night, and each of them proved to be some variation on the fish-out-of-water theme: a misfit with supernatural powers; a big-city lawyer moves to the country to follow her dream of becoming a farmer; a former beauty queen takes a job as a bounty hunter; and so on. It was well past midnight when she finally threw the last script to the floor and turned out the light.
Exhausted though she was, Janey couldn’t sleep. She swept her arm across the empty bed next to her, wishing she had company. But this man of mystery, if he ever revealed himself—would he deign to sleep in her bed? Could a man who lived in a house like that ever be comfortable in her Craftsman bungalow, with its low-slung ceilings, rough floors, and single bathroom? With bad water pressure?
All she could do was have faith
“Hey, did you have cute guys interviewing you last night? I was seriously hoping one of mine was him, ” Janey said. “But I know they weren’t.”
“You know? How?” asked Suze.
“I have my ways of getting information,” Janey said. “I had Rory and Tony. They were both superhot. Good candidates for my soon-to-be-launched reality-TV contest. I’m thinking I’ll call it The Ten-Million-Dollar Marriage Proposal. ”
“So original,” Caroline said.
“I had Brendan and Miguel,” Suze said. “It’s strange. The minute Miguel walked in, I was sure he was the bachelor.”
“Why?” Janey asked.
“Frankly, it was because he wasn’t as model-perfect as everyone else involved in this project seems to be. But he was so easy to talk to. We somehow ended up discovering that we have a lot in common.”
“Like what?” Janey asked.
“Well, we both fantasize about going on long-distance bike rides with our children one day.”
“That’s really random,” Caroline said. “And I’m kind of impressed. I didn’t peg you as outdoorsy.”
“Oh, I’m not. That was the best part. We both want to bike all day and stay in five-star hotels at night. We’re thinking France.”
“It sounds like you had an actual date! Forget the ten million. Run away with Miguel!” Caroline said.
Suze laughed. “We may or may not have discussed that.”
“Whoa. Miguel is so fired,” Janey said.
“Unless he’s the millionaire, which is entirely possible,” said Caroline. She had met with only one person, a pleasant-looking guy named Nicholas who had been particularly interested in her work trying to change the school-to-prison pipeline. So often people glazed over when she talked about what she did. Almost everyone in LA was in “the industry” and preferred to talk about TV shows, movies, and celebrity scandals. Caroline had cancelled her cable three years ago when she found herself spending far too much time watching junk, and she hadn’t looked back.
For once Caroline hadn’t tried too hard to be a perfect date, to be whatever he might want her to be. There was something about this process that made her feel like she might as well risk being herself, for better or worse. There was nothing to lose.
Now she was glad to keep the conversation focused on the men who had interviewed Janey and Suze. Ridiculous as it was, she wanted to keep her encounter private. She found that as soon as she talked about an experience, she became more removed from it. Overanalysis took the spontaneous and imperfect moments in life and categorized them.
In the past, as soon as she put them in the hands of her girlfriends, her dates had been reduced to a critique of his clothes, his manners, the awkwardness with which he’d said good-bye. After that kind of judgment, how could you possibly be excited at the prospect of a second date? Caroline felt the same way about this process. Judging it too much might ruin it. So she asked the girls questions about themselves and their experiences, all the while wondering, but not deciding, what her own night meant and what might come of it.
Chapter 21
Janey had a pile of scripts to read that night, and each of them proved to be some variation on the fish-out-of-water theme: a misfit with supernatural powers; a big-city lawyer moves to the country to follow her dream of becoming a farmer; a former beauty queen takes a job as a bounty hunter; and so on. It was well past midnight when she finally threw the last script to the floor and turned out the light.
Exhausted though she was, Janey couldn’t sleep. She swept her arm across the empty bed next to her, wishing she had company. But this man of mystery, if he ever revealed himself—would he deign to sleep in her bed? Could a man who lived in a house like that ever be comfortable in her Craftsman bungalow, with its low-slung ceilings, rough floors, and single bathroom? With bad water pressure?
All she could do was have faith
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