Page 59 of Seized by Love at Seaside
Blue explained about theNaked Bakerwhile Lizzie turned a pretty shade of crimson. He reached out to her, but she covered her face and pulled away, as if Duke could see her through the phone.
“Dude, those types of shows are hot right now. Did FCN tell her what they’re thinking? Did they talk numbers?”
Blue was relieved that Duke’s reaction was positive and that he didn’t say something negative about the type of show she was doing. Then again, if he wasn’t Lizzie’s boyfriend, he might not have reacted the way he had, either. “Not yet.” He smiled at Lizzie and mouthed,It’s all fine. Relax.
She nibbled on her lower lip, and it made him want to draw her in close and reassure her, but he had to focus on the conversation with Duke first.
“Well, if she’s really thinking about selling out, send me the financials and her business plan and let me look it over. We’ll make sure she’s got the best proposal she could possibly have before she walks in the door. FCN is here in Manhattan. I know one of their acquisition execs, Carly Christianson. She’s a hard negotiator.”
“Great, something to look forward to,” he said sarcastically. “We’re putting the proposal together, so we’ll send you everything by the end of the week.”
“These types of negotiations can be a bear. Make sure Lizzie’s mentally prepared for it. Networks are known for trying to swoop into the little guys’ houses and take advantage quicker than they can saythank you.”
Blue glanced at Lizzie, who was standing by the window nibbling on her lower lip. He knew that when push came to shove, that tenuous persona would go out the window. “My girl can handle anything.” He blew Lizzie a kiss, and she grabbed the air like she caught it and pressed her hand to her cheek. That small act of love warmed him all over.
“I’ll do some research, pick a few industry brains, and look into comparable transactions and metrics.” Duke was speaking fast. Clearly he’d gone into investor mode. “They’ll look at precedent transactions and cash-flow analysis, although I can’t imagine there’s much analysis to do in that regard unless she’s using proxies and doing a boatload of marketing. Online investors usually gravitate toward earnings multiples for business valuation because of its simplicity in the face of scarce comparable data, but I’ll dig into all of that. You get me her financials for the last three years, projections for the next two, and stats: views, length of time spent on site, et cetera, and I’ll handle the rest.”
“Thanks, man. We’ll get it all together.” As he listened to his brother clicking away on his computer keyboard, he imagined Duke watching Lizzie in her apron and heels, purring into the camera, and jealousy scraped up his spine.
One look at Lizzie, and he slayed that green-eyed monster before it had a chance to do any damage. He ended the call with Duke and folded her into his arms.
“Well?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Get ready for the ride of your life, sweetheart. The Ryder boys have got your back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
OVER THE NEXT week and a half Lizzie and Blue fell into a routine as naturally as they’d come together on their first date. Blue spent the days working at his cottage on the bluff, sending Lizzie sweet texts to let her know he was thinking of her while she was working at the flower shop. Sometimes he stopped by midafternoon to bring her lunch and see how she was doing. She knew he worried about her being upset over her father not speaking to her, and his love was comforting and a reminder that when you love someone, any hurdle could be overcome. If only her father would learn to jump.
The Food Channel Network had contacted her again and scheduled a meeting in New York for Friday. She was excited beyond belief and more nervous than she ever thought possible.
She and Blue had worked tirelessly through the evenings, combing through ledgers, collecting graphs and figures, preparing the strongest proposal they could for the network, and sent the information to Duke. Lizzie fought the urge to call and thank her father for pushing her to earn her degree, which she realized had helped her tremendously over the years. Thanking a man who wouldn’t speak to her would be not only difficult, but heartbreaking.
Blue still wasn’t quite ready to watch her film an episode. She could tell that he was still fighting jealousy, but she also knew how hard he was trying to push past it and support her. She was actually relieved that he didn’t want to watch her film, because the idea of Blue watching her made her nervous. She worried she’d either fall into full seduce-Blue mode or look like she was trying too hard and totally flub up the episode.
Even though he wasn’t comfortable watching, tonight he wanted to help her edit the show she’d taped the night before to get a better understanding of her process.Baby steps.
They sat before the laptop, waiting for the video to queue up. It was one thing to talk about the videos or for Blue to watch them without her in the room, but even though her heart told her that their relationship was strong enough to handle it, she worried that watching aNaked Bakervideo together could reignite Blue’s discomfort.
Lizzie looked up from the laptop where they were working and stole a glance at the man who had relentlessly pursued her, challenged her, and had, remarkably, remained by her side. She’d never met a man like Blue before, blatantly honest about everything, even his insecurities. She didn’t know a single man who would readily admit that jealousy stood between him and what he wanted, or that his need to protect her, and her reputation, was causing him conflict. She’d always considered herself an honest person, but she was quickly learning that her idea of honesty wasn’t nearly as clearly defined as his. He’d shown her more about unconditional love than her own father had, and it made her love him even more.
He lifted his eyes, caught her watching him, and reached for her hand. She loved his tender touches as much as she loved his heated ones.
“Why don’t you try calling your dad before we get started?” He smoothed his hand down her back. He always seemed to know what she needed.
She had called her father every day since they’d had dinner, and he still refused to come to the phone, which just about killed her. Her mother was trying to act normal, but Lizzie heard tension in her voice and felt the strain of their relationship every time they spoke. Lizzie hated feeling like a disappointment to them, but she’d come this far. She wasn’t about to back down.
“I’m too nervous about you watching the video to call tonight.”
His eyes warmed as he drew her into his arms. He was always drawing her into his arms, even more often now than before he’d found out about her secret. She used to pop out of bed in the mornings, but waking up in Blue’s arms had changed everything. She was in no rush to leave the house, because nothing outside could possibly feel better than being held by the man she loved.
“I told you I’m ready for this,” he insisted. “I’m not going to let you down, and once you see I can watch it, you’ll be less worried about my family finding out.”
“What if your family reacts like my father did?” She had almost begged off attending his cousin’s wedding because she worried about how his family would react, but she knew that wouldn’t be fair to Blue, especially since he was going to such great lengths to overcome his issues with the webcast and to support her decisions.
“Then I’ll be right here by your side setting them straight, but they won’t react that way. Duke is a businessman. He’s so impressed with what you’ve done that he commends you every chance he gets. And all my brothers have a thing for hot women, so they’ll think it’s sexy.” He touched his forehead to hers. “Fair warning…You should prepare to see the jealous boyfriend in me come out if they hit on you.”
“They wouldn’t do that.” She laughed at the thought, even though Jake had flirted with her and every other woman in his path last summer. She’d seen the way Jake and Blue stood up for each other, and she knew that now that Jake was aware that they were dating, he’d never cross that line.
