For Love or Money

Marvin Kauder

Description

Allen Tobias has a secret. He is a best-selling romance novelist writing under a pen name. His sister is the only one who knows. Her job is to run interference for him and take care of his growing fortune. After years of loneliness, Allen becomes involved with three beautiful women. Each has the power to sweep him off his feet. Complicating matters, Sunburn, his first novel has been made into a blockbuster movie and its premier has caused the spotlight to be cast in his direction. Allen doesn't want the notoriety that goes along with being a celebrity. He wants to be free to find a woman who loves him just the way he is, without the fame and fortune. He needs to make certain that the woman he chooses wants him for love and not for money.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669847441
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

FOR LOVE OR MONEY
Marvin Kauder

Copyright © 2022 by Marvin Kauder.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022917145
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-4746-5

Softcover
978-1-6698-4745-8

eBook
978-1-6698-4744-1
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 09/16/2022
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
844833
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty- Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Chapter Eighty
Chapter Eighty-One
Chapter Eighty-Two
Chapter Eighty-Three
Chapter Eighty-Four
Chapter Eighty-Five
Chapter Eighty-Six
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Chapter Eighty-Nine
Chapter Ninety
Chapter Ninety-One

For my wonderful wife, Elise
My best friend, inspiration and greatest fan
CHAPTER ONE
I don’t want to answer the phone. I know it’s my sister Marnie calling and I know what she’s going to say. And I don’t want to hear it. I answer it and guess who? It’s Marnie and she says what I knew she would say.
“Are you watching Hollywood Now?”
I am, but I say nothing.
“Well, are you?”
She is a lawyer by profession and a pain-in-the-ass, by practice.
“Yes Marnie, I am.”
“Then you heard.”
“Yes, I heard.”
There is a pause and then she becomes more circumspect.
“Dad’s not there, is he?”
“No” I try not to let my exasperation show. “Dad’s not here.”
She is waiting for me to verify that he is next door, but I do not. Even though I am thirty-three and she is two years older, we haven’t varied from our sibling script. She henpecks me and I pout. If I thought about it, and I don’t — I would be ashamed. But I’m not. She is really a good sister. She’s always watching out for me and taking care of me, and I resent her for it. She has a way of speaking — breathing actually, that is just so irritating.
“Well, what do you think?”
What do I think? I don’t know what I think. I watched it too and I think that there’s nothing to think about, and I tell her so.
“Allen you’ve got to do something.”
“What? What can I do?” I fire back. Then I add, “I’m just going to ignore it.”
“So what else is new?”
She hasn’t switched topics with that comment. She’s just inferring that ignoring issues is a well-worn strategy with me, and it is. I regret now that I pulled her back into the canoe when we were kids at the cottage. She would have drowned. I guess I would have been sad for the next few days, but then the last twenty years of my life would have a dance of joy.
“You know, sooner or later…”
I don’t let her finish that thought because I know I won’t like it, and I add a little ‘nasty’ to my tone when I say, “Well, I’ll worry about that then,” and I hang up on her.
A moment later, I am contrite when she answers the phone. I mumble something that might not be accepted as an apology in a court of law, but then I’m not the lawyer — she is. She grunts like mom used to. The grunt is an acknowledgement that she is not totally impressed with my repentance.
She breaks the silence first and continues on as if our altercation did not occur. She is so irritating.
“It’s becoming a gold mine for the media.”
I listen as she talks. The ‘gold mine’ she refers to is the publicity surrounding Sunburn , the blockbuster romance novel now being released as a blockbuster movie. The movie boasts a cast of Hollywood glitterati that makes it a hit, even before it opens next weekend. The movie studio that is producing it, is not leaving any publicity stone unturned. They have the stars, the director, the costume designer and even the creator of the musical score, out trumpeting the arrival of Sunburn as “the most powerful love story since Gone With the Wind .”
Now they are pushing a new wrinkle to hype the premiere. Who is D. Gale, the author of this runaway best seller? Why hasn’t he or she been seen or heard from in the six years since the book was first published? Then newsflash, D. Gale is Dorothy Gale and isn’t that the name of the Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz? Is Dorothy Gale just a pseudonym and if it is, who is the author of Sunburn? Who indeed?
“And are you prepared?” Marnie prods.
“For what?”
“For when they follow the yellow brick road, and it leads right up the pathway to your doorstep. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”
She is so insufferable sometimes.
“No, when I talk to you I feel like I’m in Oz.” I snap back. “And I’m having an irritating conversation with the Cowardly Lion.”
“I don’t think so. More like sage advice from the Scarecrow with the degree in Thinkology.”
Even her one-liners are obnoxiously annoying.
“Whatever.” I say as a clever retort, and then I shift to a more pleasant. “Did you buy the tickets?”
“The tennis tickets?”
“Yes, Did you get front row, centre court for the tournament?”
“Do you know how much front row, centre court for two costs?”
She is incredulous, but I don’t care and I tell her so.
“I don’t care. Did you get them?”
“Yes,” she says and then proceeds to bombard me with prices that would have knocked my socks off, once upon a time.
“And just how are we going to explain them? Tell me, you’re the fiction writer.”
“Just tell Dad that you’re getting the tickets from a grateful client.”
She scoffs. “Nobody is that grateful. He’ll never believe it.”
“So then tell him your firm bought them and left them to your discretion.”
“He’ll never believe that either.”
“Yes he will. He’ll believe anything you tell him,” I struggle not to sound bitter. “After all, you’re the lawyer in the family.”
“Yes, a lawyer, slash business manager, reduced to one client.”
“I thought seeing to Dorothy Gale’s holdings was keeping you busy.” I can be obnoxious as well as petulant, but as usual, she counters with maturity.
“Yes, Dorothy is keeping me busy.”
“And very rich,” I add, shamelessly.
CHAPTER TWO
Two chocolate popsicles later, my dad, the retired history teacher comes in and flops down in an armchair. He slips out of his sandals and sighs as he closes his eyes in exhaustion. I feel badly for him and say, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”
“I know, but you can try.”
He is worn and I hover between concern and anger. He has offered to help our neighbor’s daughter boost her marks, so that she can be accepted at a teachers’ college. The offer was noble, the effort valiant and the girl — so not worth it. I think he knows that, but he’s in love with her mother, so what better way to prove his worth.
I already know the answer to this question, but I ask it anyway. “Didn’t she have a rough of the essay done?”
His eyes are still closed and he begins to rub them for relief. “No, that’s why I have been slogging through Darwinian Theory for the last three hours. The good news is that she got the last Mango Punch lipstick at the drugstore. Lucky, she went there instead of the library.”
I can’t help but laugh. I love my father, Maury Tobias. He’s a good man. He was my hero when I was a boy and I guess he still is. It’s ju