Spies, Lies, and Allies
Lisa Brown Roberts
Synopsis:
Spies, Lies, and Allies: A Love Story by Lisa Brown Roberts:
Summers
are supposed to be fun, right? Not mine. I’ve got a job at my dad’s
company, which is sponsoring a college scholarship competition. I just
found out that, in addition to my job assisting the competing interns,
I’m supposed to vote for the winner. Totally not what I signed up for.
My boss is running the competition like it’s an episode of Survivor. Then there’s Carlos, who is, well, very distracting––in a good way. But I can’t even think about him like that because fraternizing on the job means instant disqualification for the intern involved.
As
if that’s not enough, an anonymous informant with insider intel is
trying to sabotage my dad’s company on social media...and I’m afraid
it's working.
Much as I’d love to quit, I can’t. Kristoffs Never Quit is our family motto. I just hope there’s more than one survivor by the end of this summer.
Excerpt
from Spies, Lies, and Allies:
“Let’s see
where helping me on my project falls on this list.” Carlos picks up a pen and
clicks it, eyeing me from underneath ridiculously long lashes.
Cautiously,
I take a tiny step toward his desk so I can read the list.
“Number
three.” I point to the napkin. “Teamwork.”
He nods
and underlines the word. I notice he’s added numbers six through ten. Nothing
is written next to those numbers, except for ten, next to which he’s drawn a
smiley face.
“What’s that
for?” I point to the smiley face. He leans back in his desk chair and grins up
at me.
“Not sure
yet.”
My heart
throbs in my chest and my imagination is off and running, fantasizing about
number ten.
Carlos
points to number five: nicknames. “I think this is where we left off at lunch.”
He clicks his pen repeatedly and I resist the urge to snatch it out of his
hand. “I’d prefer not to be nicknamed for a pasta, but I gave you a cereal
nickname, so…” He shrugs but keeps his eyes on mine.
“I…pasta…what?”
He’s not making sense.
He bites
his bottom lip, and I have no trouble picturing what will make me “smiley face”
if we ever make it to number ten. Also, I’m pretty sure he’s a mind reader
because his gaze drifts down to my lips, then back up to my eyes.
“The
Manicotti. Who is it?” He glances across the room. “Elijah? He can be sort of
cheesy.”
My mind
analyzes his words, sliding them around like one of those puzzles where you
have to move a string through twisted metal. And then it clicks.
“You read my notebook! You’re the
one who—” Panic zings through me as I remember what I wrote about him, Carlos is trouble, and his editorial
comment, True. Is Carlos adorable?
Apparently I’m not the only spy
around here.
“Why’d you pick this desk?” I’m
desperate to change the subject.
“I like the view.”
“But it’s better by the windows.”
“Depends on which view we’re
talking about.” He gives me a cryptic smile, one that makes my stomach dip.
“Anyway, I saved your notebook. You’re lucky no one else read your notes.”
Mortified and defiant, I cross my
arms over my chest. “You didn’t have to read it. You could’ve just returned
it.”
“I was just checking to make sure
you’d listed all of Mr. Mantoni’s rules.”
“Uh huh.”
Across the room, Elijah stands up
and stretches. He glances at us, an amused smirk twisting his lips like he
knows something I don’t.
Carlos writes on the napkin again.
Number six: healthy disagreement.
“You’re kidding, right?”
His responding grin packs more
heat than it should.
“I think we’ve gone off track.”
I’m proud of how calm I sound, even though my nerve endings are exploding like
firecrackers.
About Lisa
Brown Roberts:
Award-winning
romance author Lisa Brown Roberts still hasn’t recovered from the teenage
catastrophes of tweezing off both eyebrows, or that time she crashed her car
into a tree while trying to impress a guy. It’s no wonder she loves to write
romantic comedies.
Lisa’s books have
earned praise from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the School Library
Journal. She lives in Colorado with her family, in which pets outnumber people.
Connect with Lisa at www.lisabrownroberts.com.
Author Links:
Newsletter: http://lisabrownroberts.us15.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=1f2f19aa89bc2b30b56c3d1f2&id=4accff162c
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