Influenced: The Entrepreneur Academy

By Holly Mortimer

From USA Today Bestseller Holly Mortimer comes a small-town, second-chance romance sure to make readers swoon!

Thirty-eight years old, and moving back in with my parents. That's definitely not the path I saw my life taking.

Unfortunately, I'm out of options.

Divorced, broke, and trying desperately to launch my career as an influencer, I just need time to get back on my feet. Of course, at this low point in my life, fate decides to kick me while I'm down. Who should appear as soon as I pull into their driveway, but Everett Malone.

Ex-best friend.

Mister sunshine and roses.

The town's hot as hell mayor/ lawyer.

The last time we spoke he was dumping me at prom. I need to focus. To get my life in order. But one look at him with that sexy suit and a smile, and I'm officially influenced...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Holly Mortimer
• Release date: Oct 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9780995225886

Holly Mortimer

Travel romance writer, Holly Mortimer, will transport you to the shores of romantic Ireland, where you'll lose yourself inside the drama and the love that is The Murphy family. From oldest to youngest, these five siblings fall in and out of love, travel the Irish countryside and learn that loving someone, doesn't always go as planned. Holly transports the reader into her world, filled with travel, babies and lots of alphas!

Book preview

Influenced

Influenced

Book Two, The Entrepreneur Academy

Holly Mortimer

Copyright © 2022 by Holly Mortimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance of fictional characters to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or a book review.

eBook ISBN:

Paperback ISBN:

Formatting by Kate Tilton’s Author Services, LLC (www.katetilton.com)

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This book was made possible by Club 33.5.

IYKYK

Thanks to my incredible editing team of Jen and Kim. Without your guidance this story would not look the way it does and sound like a professional actually wrote it. Thank you.

And thank-you to one of the best, Kate. Without your organization, I’d still be floundering around trying desperately to figure out what comes next.

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Contents

Vlog 127

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Vlog 128

Chapter 6

Vlog 129

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Vlog 130

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Vlog 131

Epilogue

Also by Holly Mortimer

About the Author

Vlog 127

Title: This One’s Hard To Tell You

Vlog #127

"Hey guys. It’s Monday. Around here, this is usually the day I tell you what’s up for the week, we do a little work together and we take Larry for a walk. But we’re going to be doing something a little different today. Well, actually a lot different.

"I’ve got something to tell you that might just take you by surprise. I’ve made a huge life decision and I don’t want you to be cranky because this wasn’t something that I didn’t decide to do without a lot of thought.

I know you love Larry’s walks around LA, but we’re going to be changing the location up pretty soon. I’m moving back home to British Columbia! To Cayley, the small town I grew up in, to be exact. Yup, I’m moving back in with the parents.

Chapter 1

L arry, get your head back. You’re going to fall out, I said as I pulled into the parking lot. Larry is my dog and the worst listener. He had been whining for the past hour which meant he really needed a dose of fresh air and most likely a pee, but since I’d been traveling on the highway, I wasn’t keen on rolling down the windows and watching my life fly out of them and finding a safe place to stop hadn’t yet been possible in the mountains where we were. So, as soon as I’d decided to pull into a truck stop for a quick break, I’d given in and now was trying to pull out my phone to record a quick video and keep Larry from making a break for it.

I get it, Larry. Just a little bit longer and we’ll be out of this prison. Just let me record this bit and then we’ll get to grandma’s house.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit that at this point, Larry was probably the keeper of most of my secrets and the one friend I turned to when things were at their worst. He might thoroughly enjoy licking his privates, but he cuddled when he was done with that chore and never left my side. Even when I’d shoved him in a car for nearly 2 days straight.

I picked up my phone and got to work. Hey guys, I said, making sure no one was watching me. That always just felt so weird. Seeing the coast was clear, I continued. It’s me.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it out, noticing a new wrinkle around my mouth that I would have sworn wasn’t there the day before and for the fiftieth time this week contemplated my stance on Botox.

Well, I’m here. I made it to just past Vancouver. Next stop, my parents’ house about an hour north of here. I made a face to the camera that I hoped represented how I was feeling. Anxious, afraid, excited and embarrassed. It was official. I was thirty-eight years old and moving back home with my parents.

I was divorced and financially struggling after my dick of an ex spent all of our money on drugs, alcohol and ‘guaranteed to win’ stocks. And now I was trying to convince the world I was doing just fine. Yup, juuuussst fine.

I’d turned to social media after my divorce initially as a place to vent, and it just kind of grew into something I’d never imagined was possible. One post went viral and the next thing I knew, I had more than just strange men offering relationships in my DMs. I had real, live brands who wanted to work with me, an actual manager and low and behold, an actual business.

Of course, a lot of the followers were there because of my ex. I’d been married to Johnathan Marks, a sometimes A, but mostly B-list actor who’d convinced me to marry him, hold my career while he developed his, and his addictions. Until I just couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror every day and got brave and left him. So, yeah, initially, they were there because of who I was divorcing and what kind of salacious gossip could they get from me.

We moved out of the house we’d lived in for the five years we’d been married and that had then become the property of the bank, finalized the divorce and went our separate ways. The only thing I took with me outside my clothes was Larry the wonder dog, who, at that moment, was totally preoccupied with his offensive foot that he had been attempting to chew off most of the drive up here from LA. He was my best friend and yes, that statement was a sad one, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, now could they?

We’d been driving for over twenty hours and Larry was pretty much over it. I needed to drive the last few kilometers to mom and dad’s and then give him a break. He’d been pretty good for the most part, but the last few hours he’d cried like if he wasn’t let out of the car, he’d eat his foot off from the anxiety.

I checked my gas tank, figured I had enough gas to get me to my parents’ house and talked to the phone one last time.

See you on the other side! I said with a huge smile I wasn’t sure I felt on the inside, but it didn’t matter. This was my only option now. I set my phone down, turned out of the parking lot and laughed to myself as I drove away.

Barb and Tom were the best parents a girl could have asked for, with one exception. They were meddlers. With the best of intentions, but meddlers nonetheless. And to be moving home at my age with two parents who wanted to exact their extreme revenge on my ex while planning my entire second act felt a bit like entering a dangerous lion’s den. It was going to be wild and rough, but as soon as I could, I’d find a place of my own. Which I’m sure would also be something they took issue with.

About an hour later, I turned onto Kent St., the street I’d grown up on, and took a deep breath. Larry had his head sticking out the window, tongue hanging out and completely oblivious to my nerves. Just busy living the dream.

I found one thirteen and pulled in. I was home. And here they came. Before I’d even gotten the car in park, my mom, Barb Rollins, was flying out the door, beaming and clapping and looking like she’d won the car on The Price Is Right. Larry barked and circled in the seat he barely fit in, getting himself worked up into a state of insanity. My mom came over, opened his door, talking to him like he was the grandchild she’d yet to have and it was over. I’d lost my alliance with my last remaining LA family member. Larry was over me and way into my mom.

Ellie. I turned to my left to find my dad reaching into my open window to ruffle my hair, just like he had done a million times over since I’d gotten hair, and I tried. I tried really hard not to cry, but as per usual, I was incredibly unsuccessful and it all came pouring out and just as suddenly, it all stopped.

Standing just beyond my dad on the driveway next door, dressed in a killer deep navy suit, stood the one person that could either make me feel incredibly annoyed or very devious depending on the day and the moment. He was standing beside his car, watching our reunion with curious eyes, like he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at, but knew he would figure it out at some point.

His name was Everett Malone and we’d been best friends until high school, when he’d moved on to the A-list and I languished down in the list that didn’t really count. Growing up, we’d always been competing against each other with me usually falling short of beating him. It didn’t matter if it was sports or debate, he’d always been just that much better and man had it pissed me off then. Now though, all I could feel was shame as I tried to sort my life out right back in the place I said I’d never come back to.

I looked my dad in the eyes and lowered my voice to a whisper. Doesn’t the mayor have to live somewhere fancier than the house he grew up in? Shouldn’t he have moved by now?

Yes, Everett was the mayor of Cayley, British Columbia. Population: 3000. He was also the town’s lawyer, but with a town this small, apparently Everett the wonder-man could do both. Easily.

My dad looked at me with a raised eyebrow. We’re starting this up again, are we Ellie? It’s been a long time and you two need to bury the hatchet. He’s a good man. Good for the town and no, this isn’t like your fancy city and our street is good enough for anyone, thank you very much, including wayward daughters coming home from their celebrity lifestyle in Los Angeles.

He said Los Angeles while waving his jazz hands in the air and prancing around my car door, and I tried not to laugh at him. It would only encourage him to up the ante with his insane antics and all I wanted to do was to get out of my car and into the house. I’m sure word was spreading like an unwanted wildfire that the scorned daughter had returned with her tail tucked between her legs and I wasn’t in the mood to give anyone more of a show. That was one thing I was looking forward to in Cayley. No drama.

Cayley might not have been a city, but it still had its fair share of drama. The kind of drama that started because everyone knew everyone else’s business, moments after said business had commenced.

No, Dad. I’m just tired. Hop back. I’m coming out and I wouldn’t want to mow down an old man only minutes after my arrival. I don’t think I’d survive in jail.

He rolled his eyes, but stepped back so I could get out of the car, self-consciously tugging my shirt down and wishing I’d at least stopped to put on mascara before I’d arrived and at the same time, wondering how in the hell I’d have ever managed since just holding my eyes open had felt nearly impossible mere moments ago. I was exhausted. Mascara would have to wait, incredibly hot nemesis nearby or not.

Hello, Mr. Mayor, my dad called out, waving Everett over. Come say hello to Ellie. She’s just returned from the Los Angeles, the city of stars.

I inwardly groaned while simultaneously standing up a little bit taller at the sight of the man. I’d seen him from time to time over the past twenty years, but aging had totally been kind to him. He’d never looked so good, but I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him that.

Dad, I said grimacing. He’s probably really busy and I just got here—

Of course. I’d love to say hi.

He smiled at my dad and set down his laptop bag as he started to walk over and I tried not to stare. Tried and failed miserably. As mentioned, he was wearing a deep navy suit with a clean, still-crisp shirt, even at the end of what might have been a long workday. His broad shoulders framed the rest of his body and he moved on those long legs like a tiger about to pounce. He was something else in that suit and stupid, old, unwanted feelings had started stirring around in my belly, flipping between heat and nausea and something I didn’t want in my life. Shame. I’m pretty sure the last time I saw him I’d been married and fawning over my then-husband and thinking we were all that and a slice of cake. I had probably been in my obnoxious mode which made me ill thinking back. How I could have thought my success was better than anyone else’s because I’d married a movie star and moved to LA was embarrassing and a time in my life I’d love to forget. Except I couldn’t because I was being reminded of it everywhere I looked.

Eleanor. Wow, haven’t seen you in forever. How are you?

I bit the corner of my inner lip, a bad habit that had seen me through more than a few uncomfortable situations in my life. Something about that man had always set me on fire in a bad way and a very good way. I’m fine, thanks, I managed to spit out without sounding like a petulant child crossed with an exhausted zombie.

My dad slung an arm around Everett’s shoulder and shook him excitedly. Ellie’s come home to stay, Everett. Isn’t that amazing? He was practically shaking the man he was so happy. I bugged out my eyes at him to try to calm him down with my non-existent powers of mental telepathy, but he wasn’t having any of it. He truly was just that happy to have me home.

Not quite home to stay, Dad, I reminded him but knew it was pointless because he’d just keep on believing his own hype.

Everett turned to me and raised an eyebrow. Really, he said. What happened to LA?

My cheeks heated and I looked at the ground, trying to pull up all of my therapy lessons in that instant. I left.

I see. He extrapolated himself from my dad’s grip and turned to go. Well, great seeing you again, Eleanor. You too Tom. See you soon, I’m sure.

Not if I could help it. I was staying far away from that man. Everywhere he went, trouble just followed, and I was done with men who dated trouble professionally. But man, he did look good walking away, so a girl could stare for just one, tired second.

I snapped out of it and grabbed my suitcase from my trunk and began the task of emptying my life onto my parents’ driveway for all the neighbors to see. Three suitcases, a bunch of boxes and bags of dog paraphernalia littered the ground when I was done. I’d sent my parents inside to dote on Larry while I took stock of my life without an audience. None of it was heavy so I’d be able to manage putting it into the garage on my own. But I just needed a minute to process this step.

Breathe in counting to four, breathe out counting to four, I whispered to myself. I’d been going to therapy off and on for the past year and this mindfulness exercise had been on heavy rotation while going through my separation and eventual divorce.

I took one more deep, slow breath in and then grabbed a few things and moved them to the garage door, punching in the code my parents would never change for fear of forgetting it, and watched as it slowly opened to my new life.

Need a hand? My body recognized its attraction to the deep voice behind me before my head got the message to not turn around. I watched as Everett walked across his driveway again towards ours, but this time he was