If Ever I Fall (Rhode Island Romance #1) by Sophia Renny Page A

here. Is there
something you’re not telling me?”
    Veronica was
clearly taken aback. “What do you mean?”
    “When you insisted
that I not meet the brothers until shooting began…  Why did you do that?”
    “I did that with
the other episodes, too, Willa. Not just this one. I am trying to make
each episode as real as possible. God, I get so annoyed when reality shows look
too staged and scripted. I want this series to stand apart.”
    Willa considered Veronica’s
response and felt the sincerity behind her words. “All right, that sounds
reasonable.” She managed a smile. “I think you got your ‘good TV’ today. All
the single, female viewers are going to be jealous of me.”
    Veronica laughed,
fanning one hand in front of her face. “Not just the single ones. I confess the
words ‘eye candy’ were the first to pop into my head when I viewed the audition
tapes Tony sent to the network last year.”
    “Is either of them
married?”
    “No. Otherwise I
would’ve yelled ‘cut’ when you were all upstairs, and Tony had his hand on you.
Those two are born charmers, especially Tony. He was made for television. He
has an instinct for saying and doing the right things that will draw in the
viewers.”
    Willa looked down
at the crayon drawing, tracing a fingernail slowly across her printed name.
“Joe didn’t seem to like being on camera,” she observed, keeping her voice
nonchalant. “He was very quiet at first.”
    Veronica sighed.
“We’ve been working on that. It wasn’t his idea to do this series—”
    There was a soft rap
on the backdoor before it cracked open enough for Collette to poke her head
inside. “Are you done yet?” she stage-whispered.
    “All finished for
now,” Veronica said, standing up from the table. “Why don’t you go and relax
with your friends, Willa. We’re going to be here for about another hour packing
up. And the guys are taking measurements and doing a more thorough appraisal of
the overall condition of the house. I’ll be in touch with you in a couple of
days to schedule the visit to their office. Okay?”
    As Veronica left
the kitchen via the hallway, the girls swooped into the room, drawing Willa
into their collective embrace.
    “Veronica let each
of us go inside the video truck for a few minutes,” Mercy shared excitedly. “I
was watching when you were talking to the brothers in the dining room. That
Tony was flirting with you.”
    “ Shh ,”
Audrey scolded, nodding her head towards the hallway. “They might hear you.
Come on, Willa. Let’s go up to your apartment. We can watch everything from
there.”
    Shirley lagged
behind. “I want to get a closer look at that cameraman. He was kind of cute.
Such big shoulders…”
    Once Collette had
dragged Shirley out of the kitchen and they were all ensconced in Willa’s
living room, the four women started talking at once.
    “When you were in
the bedroom—”
    “I saw the way he
looked at you upstairs—”
    “We should’ve
washed those curtains—”
    “Damn. Those two
are HOT!”
    It was Mercy’s
words that drowned out the others. Everyone looked at her, mouths agape, before
bursting into ribald laughter.
    “If only I was
twenty years younger,” Shirley said with a mournful sigh after the laughter had
died down. “I’d be all over that Tony like butter on toast.”
    “Who says you need
to be twenty years younger?” Audrey asked, smoothing a hand over her sleek
blond hair.
    Of the four women,
Audrey was what Collette called the “sophisticated one”. Tall, slender,
polished and poised, she had the bone structure of Audrey Hepburn and the voice
and mannerisms of Kathleen Turner. After graduating from RISD, she’d left for
New York to start her own jewelry design company, which she’d since moved to
Rhode Island. She had a factory in Pawtucket and a retail shop on Thayer Street
in Providence.
    Collette wagged her
finger. “Back off, Aud. Those boys only have eyes for our Willa. The way they
were