Prologue

"Come on, Jay. Do it for me."

Jerricka eyed one of her two best friends skeptically. "How is me signing up with a dating agency doing something for you? Couldn't you do it for you and sign up for yourself?"

Nia's face twisted into a pinched expression. "Ugh... You don't have to be like that. Don't you want to meet someone? Someone other than actors, producers, and directors with big egos and no self-control?"

Putting a pin in the bodice of the gown she was stitching, Jerricka walked over to the low bookshelf in her sewing room. When she turned back toward Nia, Jerricka held her electronic reader in one hand.

"I meet someone new at least once a week. Right in here." Tapping the sticker laden protective cover, she placed the device back onto the charging pad. Then, she returned to the prom dress she was making for her niece.

"You know I love a good book boyfriend as well as the next smut reader, but I'm talking real life. You can meet a guy straight out of your favorite romance.

And the best part is, the agency vets them. So, you won't get some pretender or wannabe. It'll be the real deal."

With her hand on a section of sequined material, Jerricka paused to look at her friend.

"Is he gonna stay on the phone talking to me all night while we watch my favorite old T.V. show? Or will he ruin someone's business because they hurt my feelings? Or, how about this? Will he sell me back the business my ex-husband gambled away for a song?"

Laughter bubbled from Jerricka's throat at Nia's exasperated expression.

"For real, Jay? You know good and well you wouldn't tolerate a man who was actually as unhinged as the guys in the books you read." Holding her thumb and pointer finger less than an inch apart, Nia continued, "they can be a little cray, but not all the way."

Jerricka's bottom lip protruded as she put her attention back on assembling the dress on the form. The soft sided, headless mannequin didn't complain about the pin she jabbed into it to secure the zippered back panel to the bodice.

"Well, that's no fun. Besides, not all of my guys are unhinged."

"Name one who isn't." Nia propped her elbow on the arm of the tufted chair and placed her chin on her fist. "I'm waiting."

"I'm thinking!." Jerricka rolled through her mental Rolodex of book baes, dismissing one right after the other. She definitely couldn't count the ones prone to kidnapping and fucking heroines into submission once they had them.

"You can't do it, can you?" Laughter laced Nia's remark. "That's okay. You don't have to keep struggling. There's no shame in being a smut lover who likes her book boo less tethered to reality."

Jerricka wasn't comforted by Nia's reassurance because her phone was back in her hand—ringing. On the second ring, Shanice's voice came over the line.

"What's good, Ni-Ni?"

"She's trying not to do it."

Jerricka's jaw dropped. "I know you don't call yourself telling on me because I don't want to be set up with a strange man through a dating app."

Shanice's giggles nearly drowned out Nia's huffs of protests.

"Niecy, you're supposed to help me here." As the youngest of their trio, Nia took on the role of the baby sister that neither of them had.

A little throat clearing from Shanice ended her entirely-too-amused laughter. "Okay. Okay. My bad. Hey, Jay. Quick question."

Rolling her eyes, Jerricka looked at the phone Nia held out to her. Her friend's pretty face stared back at her wearing a serious expression.

"Yes, Shanice."

"Don't pull your mama voice out on me. You ain't nobody's mama."

With a wave of the hand, Jerricka gestured for Shanice to continue.

"Which one of your book boos is gonna blow your back out tonight? Or suck your soul out through your vajayjay? The Yakuza boss, the Russian billionaire, the celebrity chef?"

"He doesn't like being called a celebrity chef." Jerricka blurted automatically.

"He isn't real." Shanice immediately shot back.

Before Jerricka could respond, Nia piped up, holding her tablet in her other hand.

"But you know who is real?"

On the screen was a picture of a very big, very sexy man. A shirtless man... holding a sledgehammer and wearing a construction hard hat.

Wiggling the device closer to Jerricka, Nia practically sang. "He's real. He's single. He's big the way you like them. And he's local. You can tell by looking at him that he can lift heavy things."

Adding to Nia's sales pitch, Shanice chimed in. "You know how you like to say you're something heavy for the gym rats to lift. Here's your chance."

Jerricka's eyes rolled upward and her lids slid closed. They weren't going to give up. They were seriously going to keep at it. And she couldn't even pressure Shanice to join her, since her friend was happily married. But Nia... Looking at her other friend, a slow grin spread over Jerricka's face.

"Jay? Why are you looking at me like that?" Watchful trepidation coated Nia's words.