Today I am so pleased to welcome Louisa Masters to Joyfully Jay. Louisa has come to talk to us about her latest release, I’ve Got This. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

 

Excerpt

It started when Trav texted me the details for our date tomorrow. Dimi, Gina, and I were having a lunch meeting—which basically means eating sandwiches in my office while we review whatever it is that needs it—when my phone went off with the tone I assigned for Trav’s texts. Yes, I assigned him a special tone. That’s what you do when you’re being all adolescent. Most importantly, it means that no matter what I’m doing or who I’m talking to, I know the text is from him. So I stopped talking pretty much midsentence, put down my sandwich, and pulled out my phone.

And of course, I was already grinning like an idiot before I even opened the text.

Lunch tomorrow, 1.00pm, the Gator Gate Café. Want me to come and pick you up?

Before I could type a reply, another message popped up.

Oh, you should know there’s going to be gossip about us. When I booked, I told them I was eating with you but they were NOT to apply your discount.

My grin got wider, which in retrospect I’m surprised was possible. I texted back quickly.

There’s already gossip about us. Lots of it. You’ve just fueled the fire. Pick me up, I want to feel pampered 😉

I looked up from my phone. Dimi and Gina are staring at me with mouths agape. “What?” I asked.

Gina pointed accusingly at my phone. “Who is it? Who’s the person who makes you look like a drooling idiot?”

Seriously, she said that. She called me a drooling idiot. I admit I spent a second rethinking my plan to promote her.

“It’s Trav, isn’t it?” Dimi interrupted. “The rumors are true?”

“What have you heard?” I knew people were talking about us, what with our date last night and the coffee break this morning, but I wasn’t sure how far it went. My phone buzzed in my hand with a new message, and I couldn’t resist looking down at it.

Really? People are already gossiping about us? We haven’t even been dating 24 hours!

“There it is again!” Gina exclaimed. I raised my head in time to see her turn to Dimi appealingly. “You see it, right? He looks like he belongs in a lunatic asylum!”

Ahhh, the love my subordinates feel for me. Heartwarming, isn’t it?

“I think it’s sweet,” Dimi defended me, but his lips were twitching. “So, is it Trav? Because I haven’t gotten in on the betting pool yet, but if it’s true I’m going to.”

That’s right, folks. The loving and supportive Joy Universe family is betting on my love life.

“What’s the pool?” I asked, partly because I was actually curious and partly because it would make a great story to tell Trav. And then I texted him.

We closed down a restaurant last night, had coffee this morning, I lent you a car, you booked another date. That’s enough for them to have us married with three kids and a condo at the beach. They’ve even set up a betting pool.

“Bets are on whether you and Trav are dating or just friendly. Then there’s a bet that you knew each other in New York, and the reason he was hostile on Monday was because of your bad breakup. There’s also a side bet on whether one of you cheated, and who it was. And then there’s a ton of bets about what happens next. So… you’re dating Trav, then?”

“Someone bet that I cheated on my hypothetical ex-boyfriend? Charming.” I made up my mind as my phone buzzed again. I didn’t mind some gossip, but this sounded like it was getting out of control. “Hold on.”

OMG! They’re BETTING on us? Suddenly a lot of things make sense. I think the pool has already spread to the performers at the village, because people here are being super weird.

I cast my mind over the events of the morning. Some of the people I’d spoken to had acted a little oddly. I did think it was because they’d heard the gossip about me dating Trav, but I was a bit creeped out they might think I cheated on my boyfriend… who never existed.

Same. Listen, I’ve gotta go, but I’ll talk to you tonight. If anyone asks if I cheated on you before I moved here, ignore them.

I set my phone aside just as a return text appeared.

???????!!!!!!!

It made me grin, but I ignored it for the time being and looked squarely at Dimi and Gina. “I don’t care if you guys want to bet, but I don’t like that it’s casting aspersions on my and Trav’s characters. So here’s the deal: I will give you some information to take back to everyone and close down some of those bets, and then you can bet however you like on anything relating to the future. How’s that sound?”

“Like a plan,” Dimi affirmed. “Spill.”

Gina leaned forward, her phone in her hand. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she started taking notes or live-texting everything I said.

“Trav and I met for the first time on Monday. I reminded him of someone he dislikes, and that’s why he was terse at first.” Nobody needed to know more than that. “We had a date last night, and we have another tomorrow. This morning we had coffee when he brought back my garage opener—which I gave him so he could borrow my car, Dimi. So far things are going well, but obviously it’s very early days. And that’s it.” I made my tone firm because I know what the gossip mill is like at JU, and if I gave them an opening, they’d ask all kinds of personal questions.

In fact, Gina looked like she had a list of them ready to go, but after a glance at my face, she closed her mouth and just nodded.

“Thanks, boss,” Dimi said jauntily. “Don’t worry, we’ll spread the word.”

Huh. Fancy that. I was supposed to be pleased that people were spreading gossip about me.

My phone chimed with Trav’s tone, and I glanced at it, the smile already forming in what was quickly becoming a Pavlovian reaction.

Can’t wait to talk to you later.

Dimi and Gina started to laugh.

“What?” I looked up.

Gina’s chuckles were too strong for her to answer, so Dimi did. “Every time you look at a text from him, you get that besotted expression. We can tell who’s texting you just from your face.”

I was torn between mild embarrassment and not caring because I felt so good. “Did you really just use ‘besotted’ in a sentence?” I heckled, but Dimi just grinned.


Blurb

Derek Bryer loves his life. His job as an assistant director at Joy Universe, the second-largest theme park complex on the planet, makes him indirectly responsible for bringing joy (pun intended) to millions of people. So what if none of his relationships are that close? Everyone he meets loves him.

Except Trav Jones. For some reason, the visiting Broadway performer would rather Derek just go away. He appreciates Derek’s work ethic, though, and after Trav steps up when Derek desperately needs someone to fill in for his sick staff, Derek seizes the chance to convince Trav he’s not such a bad guy.

Falling in love while distracted by a murder at the park, food poisoning, and colleagues laying bets on their relationship won’t be easy, but between the two of them and with the magic of Joy Universe, they’ve got this.

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Bio

Louisa Masters started reading romance much earlier than her mother thought she should. While other teenagers were sneaking out of the house, Louisa was sneaking romance novels in and working out how to read them without being discovered. She’s spent most of her life feeling sorry for people who don’t read, convinced that books are the solution to every problem. As an adult, she feeds her addiction in every spare second, only occasionally tearing herself away to do things like answer the phone and pay bills. She spent years trying to build a “sensible” career, working in bookstores, recruitment, resource management, administration, and as a travel agent, before finally conceding defeat and devoting herself to the world of romance novels.

Louisa has a long list of places first discovered in books that she wants to visit, and every so often she overcomes her loathing of jet lag and takes a trip that charges her imagination. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she whines about the weather for most of the year while secretly admitting she’ll probably never move.


Giveaway

Louisa is giving away a $20 gift certificate for Amazon, iBooks, B&N, or Kobo – enter via Rafflecopter below. 

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