Free She Sins at Midnight by Whitney Dineen Page B

think she’s teaching him Pig Latin.”
    Jilly looked alarmed, “What? What do you mean?”
    Bill ran his hand up his wife’s arm, “What I mean is when I tucked him into bed, he told me that he ovelayed emay eryvay uchmay.
    Jilly rolled her eyes, “What are we going to do with that boy? I mean why can’t he be nice and average like me? Is it asking too much to be smarter than your three year old?”
    Nibbling along her neck, he answered, “Don’t worry honey. If we can keep him out of major trouble for two more years, we can sign him up for the advanced program at Elgin Academy.”
    Starting to lose her train of thought, Jilly responded, “Two years, huh? In two years he’ll be speaking Swahili and inventing a new time bomb.”
    Bill nibbled his way to his wife’s earlobes and before too much longer, they were using their second condom in five months.

Chapter 8
    L ila woke up to the insistent music of her cell phone. She rolled over and groggily answered, “Hello?”
    She was rewarded with the vivacious sound of her literary agent’s voice. “Oh my gawd, dawling, how excited are we about the best seller’s list?!”
    Lila quickly rolled over and checked to make sure she was alone. She knew she was being paranoid but she wanted to enjoy her moment with Mitzie without worrying her parents might overhear. After all, her agent was the only other person in the world she could share her success with. With excitement coursing through her body, Lila exclaimed, “Mitzie, I saw the book at LAX yesterday! Can you believe it? I’m being sold in the airport!”
    Mitzie replied, “Of course I can believe it dawling. But that’s nothing compared to the great news I have for you today.” Lila couldn’t imagine the news getting any better. But her agent continued, “You, my dear, have just been nominated for a RITA Award!”
    A RITA was the highest honor that a romance writer could receive. It was their Pulitzer, their Emmy… Who was she kidding, The RITA, was their Academy Award! Lila realized that she had stopped breathing when she started to feel a little light headed. She finally took a deep breath and exclaimed, “Mitzie, you have got to be joking. The RITA is HUGE!”
    Mitzie laughed, “You betcha, hon. But I never had any doubts. I knew this book would be a hit.” Then she continued, “I just got off the phone with Maggie at Marsupial and she wants you to know that she has four tickets to the event, one for her, one for me, one for you and one for your guest. So mark October 30 th on your calendar.”
    A bolt of dread shot though Lila, “Mitzie, I can’t go to the ceremony. I write under a nom de plume for god sakes. You know I can’t actually show up!” Feeling like she was starting to lose control she added, “I would get found out!”
    Mitzie made a tsking sound, “I don’t know why you don’t want to share your success with people, Lila. But there is no way out of the award ceremony. It’s part of your contract with Marsupial.”
    Spiraling into full tilt boogey panic, Lila nearly screamed, “What do you mean its part of my contract?! How can it be part of contract?”
    “Lila dawling, calm down. It’s right here on line 23G on page 42. It clearly states that the author agrees to promote the book through all normal channels including but not limited to book signings and award ceremonies.”
    Lila nearly swallowed her tongue. She didn’t worry about those clauses at the time because truth be told, she couldn’t begin to conceive that She Sins at Midnight would become such a hit. But now… now what was she going to do? “Mitzie, there has to be some way out of this.”
    “Not unless you want a lawsuit on your hands. You signed a legal agreement and Marsupial has every right to believe you will live up to it. Plus, if you win the award, Maggie is going to expect you to go on a national book tour.”
    Lila thought she was going to throw up. If she won the award there was no way she was going