The Partner Plot (The Greene Sisters) - Softcover

Forest, Kristina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593546458 ISBN 13: 9780593546451

Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

Two former high school sweethearts get a second chance in this marriage of convenience romance by Kristina Forest, author of The Neighbor Favor.

To Violet Greene, fashion is everything. As a successful celebrity stylist, she travels all over the world, living out her dreams. Professionally, she’s thriving, but her personal life is in shambles. After surviving a very public breakup with her ex-fiancé six months ago, Violet is now determined to focus on her career. But life hands her something—or rather, someone—that might derail everything…

Xavier Wright did not expect to run into his high school girlfriend Violet—the girl he once thought he’d marry—on a birthday trip to Vegas. As a high school teacher and basketball coach, he rarely leaves his New Jersey hometown, so what were the chances? But when the initial shock wears off, they decide to celebrate together. They feel young and reckless as they party the night away—and reckless they clearly were when the following morning, they wake up beside each other with rings on their fingers.

Their impulsive nuptials might be a blessing in disguise, though, when they realize that both of their careers could benefit from the marriage. So they play the part of a blissfully wedded couple. Yet when their passion comes hurling back, they realize their feelings are just as real as they were back when they were teens. But are their lives too different to stick it through or will they finally get a happy ending?

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kristina Forest is the critically acclaimed author of romance books for both teens and adults. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at The New School and she lives in New Jersey, where she can often be found rearranging her bookshelf.

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1

Present Day

Valentine's Day was nothing but a capitalist scam, and the world would be a much better place if everyone accepted this simple truth about this senseless holiday.

At least that was Violet's new philosophy.

She'd never thought of herself as a love cynic or someone who crapped on things that most of the population enjoyed for the sake of being difficult or edgy, but Valentine's Day could kick rocks this year. It might be a pessimistic outlook to hate the day of love, but Violet figured she deserved to revel in her animosity, considering that five months ago, just two weeks shy of her wedding day, she'd discovered that her charming, successful and seemingly dedicated husband-to-be had been sleeping with someone else.

Now it was the middle of January and she was standing in line at a Walgreens in Las Vegas, surrounded by Valentine's Day balloons and teddy bears and silly cards with weird romantic puns, like Thanks for bacon my Valentine's Day eggs-traordinary! She imagined each of the fluffy pink teddy bears laughing at her and her silly attempt at a love life, which had so easily gone up in flames. It was all a huge joke. Love was a joke. At least the romantic variety.

But she wasn't at Walgreens to shoot the stink eye at innocent teddy bears. She needed vitamins and snacks to cure her fatigue because she had a tendency to get so caught up in work, she forgot to eat. Between her consistent twelve- and sometimes fourteen-hour workdays and her crumbling personal life, she was grateful that fatigue seemed to be the worst of her symptoms and that her stress wasn't creating bigger problems, like a stomach ulcer or something.

"Did you have any trouble finding what you needed?" the cashier asked when it was finally Violet's turn to be rung up.

Violet placed a bag of salt-and-vinegar chips and a box of Goobers on the counter next to the bottle of multivitamins. She kept her Dior sunglasses perched carefully on the bridge of her nose as she shook her head. The cashier, a youngish guy with shaggy blond hair and a thin mustache, looked her up and down in a slightly suggestive manner. Violet sighed and rolled her eyes behind her glasses. Men had been objectifying her since she'd sprouted boobs in the ninth grade, so while his behavior was exhausting, it wasn't new. This guy was really reaching, though, because you could hardly see anything about her figure underneath her black oversize Off-White T-shirt and matching joggers.

"Nope," she said.

Then, as he was bagging up her items, Violet spotted something behind his head.

"Wait." She pointed at the latest edition of Cosmopolitan. "Can I have that too?"

He scanned the magazine and started to slip it into the bag, but Violet reached to take it from him. "I'm going to read it now. Thank you."

She hustled out of the store toward the black Mercedes-Benz SUV that was waiting for her in the parking lot. Her eyes were glued to the photo of Cosmo's January cover star, Meela Baybee, the up-and-coming alternative R and B singer whom everyone was obsessed with lately. Meela's silver hair was cut into an asymmetrical bob, and she was wearing her signature biker-shorts-and-nipple-pasties combo-a look that Violet had created specifically for her. Violet flipped to the interview, quickly skimming over the uninteresting sections about Meela's upcoming album, and when she reached the inevitable question about who Meela was dating, Violet narrowed her eyes.

Cosmo: There's been a lot of talk about your relationship with your manager, Eddy Coltrane. Can you speak to that?

Meela coyly takes a sip from her drink and laughs.

Meela: We're together. I'm happy. That's all I'm going to say.

Eddy Coltrane, Meela's manager turned boyfriend, was otherwise known as Violet's ex-fiancé.

Otherwise known as the world's biggest asshole.

An unfaithful asshole who'd called and texted Violet so many times after she broke things off, she'd had no choice but to block him.

She'd met Eddy at a Halloween party the year before last in LA. She'd heard of him in the way that people working in the entertainment industry always vaguely hear of one another. Eddy was a talent manager for some of the most popular up-and-coming musicians, and Violet had happened to work with some of his clients on various music video shoots, where she'd gotten her start. At that fated party, Violet had been dressed as Cruella de Vil, with a faux-Dalmatian-print coat and elbow-length red satin gloves. Eddy hadn't been wearing a costume at all, just a white button-up and black slacks. He'd bumped into Violet by the bar and bought her a drink in apology.

He was older than her, in his late thirties, and right away he was very clear about his desire to meet someone and settle down. Up until that point, Violet had been solely focused on her career. She had fun with guys here and there, but she never let them get too close. Her career was flourishing, and she felt like she was ready for her personal life to finally flourish too.

They'd only been dating three months when he proposed. He'd flown out to Italy while she was at Milan Fashion Week and he'd whisked her away to Venice. While riding in a boat through the Grand Canal, he'd kneeled down and popped the question. Violet had said yes because she cared about Eddy. They might not have had a love that was overwhelming or all-consuming, but it was steady. He was steady. With Eddy, there would be no surprise breakups or intense heartache that lasted for years. She'd been through that once and didn't care to experience it again.

Eddy understood her busy lifestyle. Often, he was even busier. He'd felt like the smart choice. The safe choice. So it was ironic that while Violet had been celebrating her bachelorette party in Miami, TMZ posted a video of Meela and Eddy kissing on the beach in Jamaica. Even worse was that, at the time, Violet was Meela's stylist and had introduced them.

"Damn, girl, I thought somebody went and kidnapped you inside that store."

Violet snapped her head up, and her best friend, Karina, aka Karamel Kitty, the number one rap artist in the country and Violet's biggest client, was leaning out the SUV window, beckoning Violet forward. The glittery polish on her long stiletto nails shimmered in the sunlight.

"We've got things to do, mama!" Karina said. "Hurry that cute ass up."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Violet grinned and tossed the magazine in the trash before sliding into the back seat beside Karina. She handed her the box of Goobers.

"Oooh, you know I love these." Karina squealed and wrapped her arm around Violet, hugging her closely. The hair of Karina's jet-black waist-length wig brushed against Violet's leg. Karina opened the box of chocolate-covered peanuts, shook a handful into her palm, then placed the box in her highlighter yellow Telfar bag. "Thanks, boo."

"You're welcome," Violet said, eating a handful of chips before chewing two vitamins and taking a swig of water. "I'm pretty sure you're the only person in the world who still eats those."

"All the more candy for me." Karina eyed Violet, who was rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck from side to side. "You good?"

"I'm fine. Just tired, but what else is new?" She shrugged, and Karina leaned her head on Violet's shoulder.

"We've been through worse. At least it's not as bad as that night in Québec, right?"

Violet snort-laughed. At least it's not as bad as that night in Québec was one of their mottos. Two years ago, when Violet had dressed Karina for a festival performance in Québec, they'd gotten stuck in the hotel elevator for three hours. They'd gone into the elevator as a stylist and client who got along pretty well and had a decent rapport, and they'd left the elevator with a new...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593546458
• ISBN 13: 9780593546451
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 416
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland