Home Matters (A Ripple Effect Romance Novella, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

to say, so far you’ve done an excellent job.”
    Olivia thought she should smile, but her lips refused to turn up. She may have appreciated the compliment had it not come as a brush-off in disguise. The scenes they’d shot so far had been mostly opening segments with the Calhouns where they discussed budget and “deal breaker” lists with William and her. In other words, necessary requirements for both their current, and/or future home they’d later use to consider when making their final decision. And then there were those shots of Olivia or William walking pensively along a scenic street. Her favorites were the segments with William where they compared each other’s challenges in the form of back and forth jibes aimed at convincing the other he or she had the tougher job ahead. But through all this, she had yet to hear whether or not she’d been meeting expectations.
    “I was just…” she started to explain her misgivings over the design when she caught sight of a group of fans. Held at bay by yellow caution tape, they were holding paper masks with her face printed on them. The show had a pack of groupies that followed it from location to location. Most of them were Team-William, but evidentially she’d somehow picked up a few supporters of her own. Then the upward skyrocketing number of her social media followers flashed before her eyes. The show’s first episode hadn’t even aired yet, but the early buzz generated by the network had driven thousands upon thousands of new fans to her Internet pages. A few paparazzi had even been waiting outside the hotel this morning to take her picture.
    And working with William had been more amazing than she could have imagined. He was generous and beguiling. The spark of affection they’d lit during her screen test had ignited into the perfect onscreen, and off-screen, mix of friend and foe. Her career, her future, was ticking through the final countdown to “lift off.” Was she going to blow all the progress she’d made thus far over a design—a matter she technically knew nothing about?
    “Well, of course.” She gave Marty a repentant smile. “The design’s perfect.”
    A triumphant grin stretched across Marty’s long face. He looked like he’d stuck a banana between his cheeks. “Splendid,” he agreed, then turned to the director. “Gus, are we just about ready to roll?”
    Gus held up a couple of sausage-like fingers. “Two minutes.”
     

     
    Mortified by how easily she’d surrendered to being nothing more than a puppet with a pretty face, Olivia averted her gaze back to the tablet in her hands. If she didn’t learn to control her feral tongue, she’d plummet from being an almost somebody to a nobody again faster than a flowerless bachelorette at a rose ceremony.
    Searching for clarity, she turned her eyes over the outer façade of the home. Tall windows flanked in black shutters, three on the top floor and two on the main, engulfed the front of the mansion. The front door sat to the left. Adorned in Greek-style accents and haloed by a half-moon window, it was covered by a small balcony. Two street level windows peeked out from behind the black iron railing, and a third from under an arched opening beneath the stoop. From the left side of the house, another balcony held up by pillars shaded a small veranda that looked out over a garden, veiled by trees draped in Spanish moss. Down the street in both directions, similar homes stood lined up like a row of dominoes turned on end. Knock one over, and the rest would fall in turn.
    “One, nonfat, hold-everything-that-makes-it-worth-drinking, latte,” a happy voice sang in Olivia’s ear. Startled, she looked toward her assistant, Tristi. On the stout side of slim, she wore a plaid mini skirt, dark tights, and Dr. Martens boots. A knit cap caged her riotous mass of blonde, chin-length ringlets. She pushed the cup into Olivia’s hand and nodded across the narrow street. “Looks like someone has a