Free Fix You by Lauren Gilley Page A

even bother to glance the other woman’s way. There were two girls waiting to be interviewed and both of them glanced up at Jess, both of them doe-eyed and ten years younger than her, both of them exactly what Brad was looking for. She gave them frosty glares and their eyes dropped back to the trash mags they were reading.
                  Just to the left of the door was a rack of brochures and real estate booklets. Jobless, homeless and hopeless, Jess snapped one up on the way out because, apparently, she hadn’t been tortured enough for one day; why not look at houses she couldn’t afford too?
    **
                  “It’s brilliant.”
                  Ellie closed the door of her Explorer with her hip and the sound echoed like a gunshot against the concrete of the parking deck. “Really?” she asked, breath catching just a little to hear so wonderful a world spoken in reference to her novel. She pressed her cell to her ear and smoothed the front of her dress over her stomach as she headed for the elevator.
                  “Really,” Delta said from the other end of the line. “No romance agent in the world will touch it - ”
                  “I know,” Ellie sighed.
                  “ – but it’s absolutely brilliant.”
                  Her manuscript, the product of three years of effort and doubt, hadn’t been read by anyone except Paige and Jordan. One of her professors had sampled a few chapters and left her with half-hearted suggestions that hadn’t felt plot- or character-specific. Nervous to a point of physical tremors, she’d let Delta read it at Jordan’s suggestion. Delta was a literature buff who spurned trendy porn romances, so if she said it was brilliant, it carried some weight. Ellie wished she could somehow reach through the phone and hug her sister-in-law.
                  “You dared to develop your characters and weave backstory throughout,” Delta continued, “and there’s way too much emotion and not enough three-way sex for those slavering agency idiots.”
                  “That’s what Jordan said.” She reached the elevator alongside another pregnant woman and they shared tight, hey-we’re-both-pregnant smiles as the other girl pushed the down button.
                  “Have you started querying agents yet?” Delta asked.
                  “No.”
                  “I would. Don’t expect a ‘yes,’ but I’d send to romance and literary agents – send to all the agents. Just see what they say. In the meantime, I want my book club to read it.”
                  “You do?” Ellie’s pulse gave a little lurch as the elevator doors slid open and she stepped onboard. The thought of an entire book club reading her work left her slightly nauseas. “But it’s not published.”
                  “That won’t matter. I’ve got the file – I’ll turn it into a PDF and send it to the girls, make it mandatory for July’s discussion. I mean, if you’re okay with it, that is.”
                  “It makes me nervous,” she admitted. “Not everyone’s going to think it’s ‘brilliant.’”
                  “But being published wouldn’t change that,” Delta reasoned.
                  “But having an agent and a book deal would make it seem more legitimate.”
                  Delta chuckled. “Honey, you’re the second coming of Jane Austen – you don’t need an agent to make you legitimately incredible, okay?”
                  As the elevator car hit bottom and the doors opened, Ellie felt tears sting the backs of her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, voice shaking, and could tell by the softening of Delta’s voice that her sister-in-law knew she was on the verge of becoming too emotional over the praise.