“’Kay.” Davis drummed his fingers. “That works if he’s got the charisma.”
“He does,” she said emphatically. “He couldn’t be more perfect if we’d hired an actor to play the good ol’ boy cop.”
“Does he have a girlfriend we can play up?”
“What?” Ava asked, her voice all but a squeak. She heard Mihail snicker.
“You know…a girlfriend. Or boyfriend, I guess we could work with that. An engagement caught on screen would send our ratings through the roof.”
Ava blinked at Davis. “What is this, a tabloid talk show? You want me to bring his illegitimate children out of the audience too?”
Her boss’s eyes lit up. “Does he have them?”
“No, jeez! He’s a good guy!”
“So? Good guys have nice girlfriends whom they propose to on TV. Tell him we’ll buy the ring.”
“Gross, Davis,” Ava said in disgust. “And he’s not even dating anyone.”
“Huh. Why not? He’s a good-looking dude with a million fans. Should we set him up with someone?”
The thought of Luc’s being set up with some young, cute groupie made Ava slightly nauseated. Although it was a hell of a lot better than the thought of him proposing. That thought made her downright stabby.
Not that she had to worry about the last one. Luc was solidly anti-marriage. Just like she was. So there would be no presenting of rings, on camera, or off.
Ava let that thought sink in for a second and was annoyed to realize that she felt a sting of disappointment.
“Well whatever. I trust your judgment,” Davis said. “Just make sure you get us all the happy feels. The one that has the housewives sending letters of adoration.”
Ava nodded, feeling increasingly ambivalent about the plastic, posed story she was going to present the more Davis talked. Not that Luc was plastic or poised, but now that she knew he had a complicated past, it felt wrong to not even mention it.
But she couldn’t do that to Luc.
Not to mention, it would be torpedoing her career.
“Oh, before I forget,” Davis said, taking another sip of her drink. Ugh. Backwash city. “I wanted you to hear it from me…rumor from upstairs is that Holly Granger is interested.”
“Interested?” Ava asked, pulling her thoughts away from Luc. Holly Granger was the prime-time superstar over at BNC; what did she have to do with anything?
He leaned down as though he had a secret to share, even though there was no such thing as secrets in the news media. “You know all that chemistry she has with Bill?”
“Yeah?” Bill Terry was Holly’s co-anchor; their chemistry was legendary. It was hard to imagine one without the other.
“Apparently they decided to mix some on-screen chemistry with off-screen biology,” he said with a gross little wink.
Ava frowned. “They’re both married. Bill has, like, five kids.”
Davis lifted a shoulder. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
Ava held up a hand. “Okay, who cares? What does their affair have to do with me?”
“Keep up, Avie. Things have gone sour. Or something. She’s been talking about taking Gwen’s place.”
No.
No.
That was her spot. But if Holly Granger was interested, Ava was screwed.
Unless…
Mihail shook his head more emphatically this time.
Maybe she was going about this all wrong. Maybe she did want to make a name for herself. She couldn’t measure up to someone of Holly’s experience and polish, but she could deliver a kick-ass story that would get her noticed by other networks.
Say, a story about a cop whose partner had been killed arriving on the scene of a botched kidnapping…
“Hey, Davis,” Ava called after her boss, who was already strutting away.
He turned.
“Do you think you could spare a fact-checker or two? I’ve got a couple things I want to double-check on. Just to be sure.”
“Oh, Ava,” Mihail said quietly. “Don’t.”