Page 124 of Family Bonds- Emma & Warren

“It’s all good,” she said. “Busy. Thankfully my phone isn’t going off like yours is, but my email box is almost full.”

“It’s not like you’re dealing with most of it,” her mother said.

“No. I’m sure you’re not dealing with yours either.”

Her mother had a personal assistant for years.

“Never,” she said. “I’m getting a summary of what people are saying. I’ve reached back to some, but I can’t do it all. Ninety percent of it is positive. Mainly from women saying they understood why I did it. Some wished I’d come out long ago.”

“I knew that would happen,” she said. “We all told you to.”

“I know,” her mother said. “I was complacent to be anonymous.”

She burst out laughing. “You can’t be anonymous in this family, but I understand what you’re saying. I’m realizing more of that now dating Warren.”

Speaking of her hunky boyfriend, she picked up the remote and turned the TV on. She knew they’d put the camera on him and she’d get to look her fill.

It was easier to watch him on TV than live, but she’d never say that to him.

He liked her at his house when he got home. She had to admit she enjoyed it.

He even left her alone when he got home until she finished writing, then she would seek him out. It worked for them. Others might think it was odd.

But then she thought of what her mother was saying. It worked for her parents also.

“And if I went public at any other time in your life, you’d have to live with this. You and Roark. Not just the comparison of your writing, but being Steve Spencer’s daughter.”

“So you did it for your family?” she asked.

“I did it for a lot of reasons. It started out being as simple as I said in the interview,” her mother said. “You know those things. They would have dismissed me as a woman writing thrillers back then. It’s sad but true. Just like people would think it was odd a man would write romance. That shouldn’t be the case, but you know as well as I do, that some readers wouldn’t buy a romance book written by a man.”

Since romance was the majority of women readers, she knew that would be the case.

There would be a large population of women out there who would think men wouldn’t understand romance like them.

She didn’t think she believed that so much.

Look at her. She didn’t even know what love was until recently, yet she wrote about it all the time.

But assumptions were deceiving to the market.

“That’s true,” she said. “Wrong, but true.”

“And your sales are going through the roof,” her mother said. “I know it. Mine are jumping like crazy.”

“I figured yours would,” she said. “Women who hadn’t read your books before will buy them.”

“They will,” her mother said. “And people who have read my books are going to buy yours and compare.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know.”

“That is going to bother you,” her mother said. “There isn’t anything I can do about it. If I went public years ago the same thing would’ve happened. What I hope is that it doesn’t bring negative publicity down on you.”

She knew how social media could be and it had crossed her mind.

She’d even told Warren that two days ago when they talked.

He’d seemed distracted for some reason and she assumed it had to do with football.