Hollywood Hit (31 page)

“Finally…” Nikki looked out into the sea of celebrities at her feet. Her gaze locked with Rush’s and her heart burst wide. “Finally, I have to thank the love of my life, Rush Nelson. I wouldn’t be standing here without you, baby. We both know that. You saved me every which way, and I can’t count how many times. The love and gratitude I feel for you is never ending.”

Nikki’s heart swelled—so wide that the scar on her side throbbed. She didn’t care. This moment was worth the bad, the pain, the hours in the hospital, the moments of the second criminal trial… She would slog through every bit of the uphill battle again if she had to. She would endure the good, the bad, and the ugly to feel this moment, this success, this joyous celebration and love.

Nothing beat winning an Academy Award. Well, nothing but being in love with Rush.

“This is only our first production, baby,” Nikki yelled as she reached the award out toward Rush in the audience. A smile lit with fire radiated from his face. “We’ve got an even bigger production set to premiere soon.” Laughter barreled through the theater as Nikki looked down and cradled with her hands her ever-expanding belly.

Joy filled her with an effervescence that lifted her soul and radiated outward. She wouldn’t remember the words she said or how she said them, but she would always, for the rest of her life, remember this moment, this feeling, this accomplishment, and this honor. The honor of producing her first Hollywood Hit.

The End

I have so many people to thank. First, I must thank every fan of the Hollywood Girls Club Series. Your love for the books and the characters inspires me. I am so grateful for your support. Thank you to my agent, Kristin Nelson, who always believes in me even when I doubt myself. To everyone at Nelson Literary Agency, thank you. Thank you to Lori Bennett, the ever-patient and all-knowing digital-liaison guru. Kim Killion, thank you for the breathtaking cover—I am always in awe of your work. Thank you to my editor, Anne Victory; you make my words look good. Thank you to Mikhail Nayfeld, Markus Goerg, David Hillenbrand, and Robb Watts, my managers for TV and film. Thank you to Shan Ray, my TV and film agent.

I want to thank the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, RWA, and the Los Angeles Romance Association—these women keep me comforted and inspired.

Thank you to my producing partner, Peg Cafferty, who is understanding and patient when I need time to write.

I have to thank my ever-supportive family and friends. Without your never-ending love and support I could never have my career(s): Margaret Marr, Nancy Veskerna, Paula & David Glasscock, Nealie Harrison, Lauren Harrison, Gavin White, Mark Morgan, Peyton Morgan, Linda & Bill Henderson, Lindsy & Mark Henderson, Joyce & Tom Leahy, Garrett L. Marr, Janet L’Huillier, Gayle Leftwich, Eloise & Dixie Marr, Amy & Brent Zacky, Penney Finkelman-Cox, Melissa Clark, Megan Crane, Jane Porter, PEG and the entire PEG Family, E. Lockhart, Ally Carter, Alan Gratz, Lauren Myracle, Maryrose Woods, Tara Altabrando, Sarah Mylnowski, Jennifer Barnes, Sara Zarr, Molly Carle, Barbara Brumleve, Carolyn Jacobs, Leslie Ferguson, Wendy Woodmore, Debi Meuret, Mary Ann Cullen, and special thank you to Bob.

Finally—to my husband and my children—thank you for always believing in me and supporting me. You are the reason for it all.

Maggie Marr is an attorney, author, and producer. She began her career in the entertainment industry pushing the mail cart but rose to the position of motion picture literary agent. She has written for TV, film, and celebrities.  Maggie has been featured on KCRW's
The Business
and reviewed by
Publishers Weekly
,
Kirkus
, and
Romantic Times
. She lives in LA with her family.

Maggie is eternally grateful for the graciousness and support of her readers.

Please visit her Website at:
http://www.maggiemarr.blogspot.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/maggiemarr

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maggie-Marr-Books/168071873226783?ref=ts

If you liked
Hollywood Hit
, read on for an excerpt from Maggie’s upcoming New Adult contemporary romance,
Hard Glamour
!

The
Hollywood Girls Club
Series

Hollywood Girls Club

Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club

Hollywood Hit

Hollywood Girls Club the Series

Can’t Buy Me Love

Courting Trouble

Coming in 2014: The
Glamour
Series

Hard Glamour

Broken Glamour

Fast Glamour

Easy Glamour

HOLLYWOOD HIT

Maggie Marr

Copyright © 2013

All Rights Reserved.

AGENCY INFORMATION

NLA Digital Liaison Platform LLC

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Writers spend years laboring over a single book. Please respect their work by buying their books from legitimate sources. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

A New Adult contemporary romance

coming January 2014 from Maggie Marr

Hard Glamour

Chapter One

Lane

I wasn’t supposed to be in Los Angeles.  I wasn’t supposed to drive halfway across the country for a job in entertainment and live in a city where I knew absolutely no one. This wasn’t supposed to be my summer.  No. I was supposed to take the summer corporate job in Kansas City.  A summer job that would pay enough for my tuition and books for the next year, a job that nearly guaranteed me a permanent gig when I graduated college.  A job I should have been thankful to get, a job that any responsible, Midwestern girl from Brokes-ville, with no backup plan, would get down on her knees and thank the good Lord above for providing. 

I didn’t take that summer job.  In fact, I’d burned a gargantuan bridge by declining, but getting into my Jeep and driving to an adventure was the first time I’d felt alive in months.  The first time I didn’t feel numb.  I pressed the accelerator down and whipped around a curve on Oak Canyon Road.  The guy at the front desk of my motel told me I’d get a great view of the city if I wound up this road.  I hit the brakes and made a quick right onto a turn-out.  I jumped from my black Jeep and felt the familiar crunch of gravel under my boots.  A breeze whipped my hair and I pulled a caramel-colored strand behind my ear.  I settled my hands on my hips and looked at this giant monster of a city.  LA  Out there... way out there, but not too far, where the sky merged with the sea was the Pacific.  I was a landlocked girl from the middle of the country and this was a helluva sight. 

My best friend and roommate, Emma, had called going to LA for the summer The Big Risk.  I bit down on my bottom lip and shook my head.  Emma with her sweet periwinkle-blue eyes and corn-silk hair and a surgeon for a mother and CEO for a dad couldn’t begin to understand why I would want to risk everything and go to Los Angeles.  Here’s the thing Emma didn’t understand, couldn’t understand:  The Big Risk is not that big when you have nothing left to lose.  That’s how I felt this past semester after my mom died.  I loved Emma, she was my best friend, but how could she understand?  She had the perfect life with a whole lot of money and a great family.  Me?  I had nothing and no one left.  At least not in Kansas.  Maybe this summer in Los Angeles was a Big Risk, but I wanted into the world of entertainment.  I wanted to make movies.  I wanted to live in California.  I wanted to feel alive and whole.  I wanted so much more than a girl from Kansas should ever want. 

My heart pounded.  My internship at CTA was an opportunity I’d chased down for myself, a big opportunity that would hopefully lead to another big opportunity that would lead to another and another and another.  Until someday Los Angeles might be my town.  I cupped my hand over my aviator sunglasses and took one final scan of my summer home.  Then I hopped into my Jeep.  I had the entire summer to explore LA.

*

The winding roads back down the hill circled and curved and circled again.   I leaned forward trying to read the street sign on my right.  I’d driven by the big white house with a Mercedes and a BMW parked on the drive three times.  I pressed the brake and stopped in the middle of the road... shit.  I was lost.  The sun sank in the west, and even with my sunglasses on, the harsh light blinded my eyes.  I pulled hard on my Jeep wheel and turned left.  There had to be a way out of this maze of streets and back to my motel, I just hadn’t found it yet.  I sped down the road.

Orange and white barriers closed off the way I needed to go.  Three giant white semi-trucks lined the road that I needed to drive down.  I could back up, turn around and try to find my way back to my motel the other direction but I wasn’t sure where I was.  My fifteen-year-old Jeep barely had power steering much less GPS.  Instead I pressed the clutch and pushed the stick into first gear and wove around the barricade.  The sun beat into my eyes and I squinted.  I swiveled my neck to get a good look at the giant white semi-trucks.   

There was a planet logo and the studio name painted on the cab door of the trucks.  My heart kajolted in my chest.  These were production trucks.  Someone, somewhere on this street was making a movie.  I craned my neck to the right, lifted my foot from the brake, and my Jeep rolled forward.  In front of the last truck was a giant RV.  Was there a star inside?  Someone I’d have seen on the big screen?  My eyes widened and my heart beat faster.  This was the very reason I’d shucked my golden opportunity in KC and taken the Big Risk.  I wanted to be part of this world.  I wanted to make movies.  To work with people who made movies.  For me, movies were magic.

Metal clanged and I slammed my foot into the brake pedal.

“Hey!  Watch the fuck where you’re going!”   

Standing beside my Jeep with his eyes burning fire was the best looking guy I’d ever seen.  His white T-shirt strained over his chest and his black hair blazed in the sun.  His arms were thick with muscle, and a giant tattoo wound over his forearm to where his hand was balled into a fist.  The same fist that he’d just pounded onto the hood of my Jeep.  His bright blue eyes pierced through my window.  He squinted and his full lips pulled tight.  He walked around to my side of the Jeep.

Up close he looked even better.  Hot little flashes pulsed over my skin.  His cheekbones were high and cut hard.  His lips were full.  His golden skin was perfect, flawless.  His body muscled and tight under his clothes.  With so much masculine perfection so near I could barely breathe.    

“D… d… do?  Do I know you?” I stammered out.  He looked so familiar.  That face.  My eyes dropped down to his neck and roamed over his body. 

“Do you
know
me?” He shook his head and rolled his eyes up toward the sky.  “Oh, sweetheart.” He crossed his arms and the muscles in his forearms flinched.  “There is no way that you don’t recognize this face is there?”  He pointed at his own mug.  He looked at me like I’d fallen out of the sky from an alien planet.  The sun lit him from behind.  I squinted.