Romancing Miss Right Read Free Page A

wall and into
Mister Perfect’s bed during the flip seasons.”
    Dinah grimaced. “Like that awful
Michele.”
    “She wasn’t the only one. She was just the
only one the producers decided to use in the final cut of the
show.”
    Dinah sat up sharply. “You’re kidding. How
many? Did they ever actually get as far as his bed? Did you ever sneak over for a little illicit nookie?”
    Marcy sank down to sit on the squishy carpet
and began massaging her already aching feet. Tonight was not going
to be fun for her arches. “Five that I know of. None successfully.
And no. I played by the rules. Didn’t want to spoil the
process.”
    Her sister rolled her eyes. “ The
process. I can’t believe you call it that. You already talk
like one of them.”
    “If we call it a show, it makes the audience
think it might be fake. It’s always the process, the experience,
the journey.”
    “God forbid anyone thinks it’s fake,” Dinah
drawled.
    Marcy narrowed her eyes at her little sister.
“Be supportive or get out, brat. I have enough to deal with tonight
without wasting my last hour of peace having another argument with
my family about why you all think I’m an idiot for doing this.”
    “We don’t all think you’re an idiot. That’s
just Daddy.”
    She winced. “Not helping, Di.”
    “He’ll come around. You know how protective
he is. He hated you going on the show the first time. You didn’t
see him but he was a nervous wreck the whole time you were gone,
worrying about you getting hurt on national television. He felt
like you got away with a close shave because you didn’t fall in
love with Jack and get your heart broken. And then you signed up to
do it all over again.”
    “It’s different this time. I’m in control. I
get to pick. It’s virtually impossible for me to get hurt. And the
exposure is a thousand times more intense than when I was one of
thirty Suitorettes. The sales bump I got from going on Marrying
Mister Perfect was fantastic, but this is going to make me a
household name, Di. If my next book isn’t a New York Times
bestseller after this, I might as well give up writing because I’m
never going to get there.”
    “So it’s all for the publicity?” Dinah asked
dubiously.
    “Not entirely. I do have all the power, and
statistically Romancing Miss Right is four times more likely
to end in a successful relationship than Marrying Mister
Perfect is. Just goes to show it pays to have a woman in
charge.”
    “Or that men can be led around by their dicks
for eight weeks before realizing they’re dating the Wicked Bitch of
the West on national television.”
    “That too.” Marcy looked around, taking in
the glamorous trappings of life as Miss Right. “I’m not going to be
taken in by it, Di. I have a level head on my shoulders, don’t I?
I’m going to make good decisions and pick a nice guy with homegrown
Midwestern values who wants to start a family.”
    A guy just like her dad, even if he was
threatening never to speak to her again because she was making a
spectacle of herself on national television for the second time in
two years.
    “I’m never going to find the love of my life
staying cooped up in Murphysboro, Ohio and keeping my heart in a
box. Laurie already married the one eligible guy in a fifty mile
radius. I don’t have the chance to meet men at work because I work
from home and the few times I do go to industry conferences, they
are almost entirely populated by women. Working in a female
dominated industry is awesome, but it doesn’t put me in the path of
very many eligible men. And these Suitors are handpicked to be
incredible. I’m not saying I’m going find the love of my life
tonight—but my odds are a hell of a lot better here than they are
back home.”
    At least those were all the rationalizations
she gave herself when she was standing in front of the camera
gushing about opening her heart and trusting the
process . She’d never really been emotionally invested the