Make Me Over_ Getting Real - Leslie Kelly [1]
Though honestly, she had to admit, the experience hadn’t been all bad. And the show had done really well in ratings this fall.
She also had to give thanks because of what it had led to in her personal life. She, tough-as-nails Jacey Turner, had let down her guard and fallen in love.
Lord, she missed Digg. Missed him like mad. But coming here to California to answer her father’s desperate call wasn’t such a bad thing. The past couple of months, when she and Digg had tried to make their unconventional romance work in the real world—his world of fire stations and big Hispanic-New York families—had been tough. Particularly because she suspected all of Digg’s friends and loved ones secretly looked at her as a sewer rat who’d glommed on to him for the million bucks he’d won on Killing Time. She couldn’t prove it, but she’d lay money his mother made the sign of the cross behind her back every time Jacey entered her house.
She’d been hiding her unhappiness at that—and at not being able to land a job with any studio in New York—for weeks now.
“It’ll be a good break for you,” Burt said, moving in for the kill. “A classy mansion in New England in the winter. Snow, skiing, hot chocolate.”
“Gag me. I’m not an Aspen bunny. Remember? I skied on a skateboard in the aqueducts of South Central.”
He chuckled. “Then do it because you need the money, too.”
She raised a brow, but didn’t ask how he knew. He knew everything. “What’s this show about, anyway?”
He didn’t gloat over being right, though he grinned as he filled her in. When he was done, she sighed. “Sounds boring. A social makeover show. Trashy girls get cash for class.”
His brow shot indignantly up toward his bald head. “It’s perfect. Like the musical, the one with Audrey Hepburn.”
Jacey hated musicals. She could never get past how moronic a guy would look breaking out into a big song-and-dance number right in the middle of a gang war. If it happened in real life, someone would have Baker Acted the loser in two seconds flat. Those things made reality TV look realistic.
“You know the one,” Burt continued. “He makes her over, she sings the song about how she coulda schtupped all night.”
That made her snort a laugh, exactly as he’d intended. The old man was good. Because in spite of hating all musicals, she did have a soft spot for one. My Fair Lady. For the same reason she liked Pretty Woman. She enjoyed seeing the gutter girl fool all the rich snots into thinking she was all highbrow and stuff.
But she wouldn’t give in so easily. “I still don’t see the great angle. It’s…ordinary.”
Burt hated to be told that anything he touched could be ordinary. His scowl wasn’t aimed at her, however; it was aimed at himself. Because even he had to see how dull the whole thing sounded. Put a bunch of uneducated girls in a house and teach them stuff. Whoop-de-fricking-wow.
“Well, this has certainly grabbed enough interest to land on the Times list,” Burt finally said as he slid his rolling chair back and pulled a hardbound book off a shelf Jacey had assumed was merely for decoration. This book actually looked like it’d been opened. At least once.
She took it from him, studying the title. Beyond Eliza Doolittle: Education vs. Genetics in Today’s Society. “Yawn.”
“But it’s not.” Burt flipped the book over so she could see the large black-and-white photo of the author on the back.
“Yum.”
“Exactly. He’s all the rage, and he’s agreed to let us do a reality show based on the theories in this book, as long as we donate a large sum of money to educational charities.”
Jacey hardly listened. She was too busy reading the bio on the author, Dr. Andrew Bennett. The bio didn’t say much, but it revealed the most important detail. “He’s single.”
Burt tilted his head. “Interested?” The mild tone didn’t fool her. He’d very much like to know what was going on with her love life. Heck, so would Jacey.
Shaking her head, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms,