A Captivating Conundrum Read Online Free PDF Page A

warning in his voice, "You can't have both of them."
    I nodded hard. "Oh, no. I agree. He's absolutely adorable," I said, glancing at my blushing assistant.  
    Jason nodded. "Okay, you can ask him."
    "You are the best! NOW I know why that woman of yours jumped on the Jason train."
    He laughed out loud. "It took her long enough!"
    "Well, some women need to think these things through."
    "For fifteen years?" He smiled.
    I waved my hands in the air. "You know, hormones and everything. We're not exactly the easy sex, you know?"
    "Amen to that." Bobby grinned. "Why do you think I'm gay? You made me what I am."
    I slapped him on the arm. "Very funny. If you despise me so much, you wouldn't stay around helping me."
    He nodded. "True. I actually dig chicks in a way; they're sort of like watching a phoenix burst into flames." He turned to Nicole and offered his sweetest grin. "Although with you it's more like Satan with a pitchfork making others burst into flames."
    Nicole laughed and slapped him on the cheek lightly. "Bugger off, dear." She turned to me. "May I interject a point, here?" 
    I rolled my eyes. "Can I stop you?"
    "The tickets are sold and some of them were sold for the simple fact that 'Mr. Hollywood' is in this event. Don't we need to find him a job?"
    Jason nodded. "Don't worry about that. You saw the narrator role in mine, he can have that. I'll tell him it's very Shakespearean and can get him to London's West End."
    "He'll believe that?"
    Jason sat back in the cushioned chair. "It actually will."
    "How?"
    He smiled. "I'm taking this on the road. This is just one scene, but I've written a whole play."
    "Jason, that is so cool," I said.
    "Yup. I never thought I'd write a play, but I got so wrapped up in it, I couldn't stop." 
    "I am so thrilled for you. You are beyond talented and the thing will definitely fly!"
    He took my hand. "You need to do it, too. Beth, your material is outstanding. People would kill to see this on Broadway."
    I shrugged. "Oh, you know me; I'm a commercial success not an artiste like you."
    His eyes grew wide. "I mean it. This is the best piece I've read in a long time."
    Bobby nodded. "He's right. You can feel the passion in this, Beth…and you know it."
    I waved the accolades away. For some reason I just couldn't tell them that Father had been written and was already sitting in a drawer in my desk. Nicole had made me a superstar by using the material people had fun with, but Father was personal. I stared at Jason. "So I can talk to the guy? Well….Nicole can talk to the guy?"
    Nicole nodded, already putting on the mask of the steel enforcer and gearing up to make Matthew McKenna's life a living hell until he agreed to do it."
    Jason nodded slowly. "I have to interject something, too. The guy is totally not going to be swayed by Nicole. I mean, I did get the sense that he wants to be seen as an actor and not only a dancer and singer, but you're the one with the passion for this project, Beth. It's your heart and soul that has to convince him. I think Nicole may just make him run back to Hollywood and forget the whole damn thing."
    "Hey!" Nicole's chin went up in the air.
    "Well, you have a tendency to act like Hannibal Lecter at times. A shorter version, albeit, but just as mean." Jason grinned. "I have a feeling you even have a bottle of Chianti dead center on your bar at home."
    Nicole offered a self-satisfied grin. "You can't prove that."
    Jason rolled his eyes and moved his gaze to Bobby. I could see something pass between them and I knew what the next words were going to be.
    Bobby nodded at me. "Be sure about this. Me, Jason, Nicole—there are only a few people who know you're the real woman behind 'Lily Stone.' Are you ready to tell the world?"
    I swallowed hard, as I recalled the vision of the man whose lap I'd landed in. I remembered his look. There was something that seemed to radiate from Matthew McKenna, a luster that reminded me of some of the characters I'd written that the