Eat Your Heart Out Read online

  TV chef Dimi Anderson has the hots for her bad boy producer, but is their romance just a flash in the pan? Find out in New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis’s fan-favorite novella! And look for Blind Date Disasters, featuring Dimi’s twin sister!

  Dimi Anderson may be a TV personality, but she’s never had the pizzazz possessed by her twin sister. And pizzazz—read sex appeal—is what her new producer, Mitchell Knight, thinks is missing from her cooking show. So, not only does Dimi get a radical makeover, she also gets Mitch as an on-air sidekick who really turns up the heat…

  Originally published in 2001.

  “Fall in love with Jill Shalvis! She’s my go-to read for humor and heart.” —Susan Mallery, New York Times bestselling author

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you SO MUCH for buying a Shalvis classic romance! These books might predate the digital age, but they’re still fun and sexy! We hope you enjoy this peek at my earlier work!

  Best wishes and happy reading!

  Jill Shalvis

  www.jillshalvis.com

  Eat Your Heart Out

  Jill Shalvis

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  CHAPTER 1

  “TWENTY-FIVE SECONDS until air time!”

  Dimi ignored both that and the makeup woman powdering her face and concentrated on Suzie instead. “You think I haven’t tried hard enough?”

  Suzie consulted her clipboard, snapped her fingers at two people standing idle, both of whom leapt to attention and ran off, and then sighed at Dimi. “Look, babe. The truth hurts.”

  “But I have tried. I’ve tried everything!”

  Suzie’s expression was pure doubt. “Have you placed a personal ad?”

  “Twenty seconds!”

  Dimi didn’t take her eyes off Suzie. “Only nutcases place personal ads. But I’ve tried everything else. Online dating services, in-person dating services, the grocery store, the zoo, everywhere. I’ve made dating a virtual spectator sport, and nothing.” It was frustrating, this failure. She hated to fail. Maybe it was her father’s seven divorces or her mother’s controlling nature. Or maybe it was the fact that everyone she knew had someone to go home to except her, and she didn’t know how to fix that.

  Pathetic. “No Mr. Right anywhere.”

  “Fifteen!”

  Suzie shook her head. “I’ve seen you at happy hour.”

  “So?”

  “So you’re far more concerned with the appetizers than the beefcakes at the bar.”

  Okay, she liked her food. A lot. “The beefcakes at the bar are only interested in one thing, anyway.” Dimi stopped talking to purse her lips so the makeup woman could apply lip gloss.

  “And so are you, after only one thing.” Suzie adjusted the microphone on Dimi’s collar. “After all, we are talking about getting laid, right?”

  Dimi nearly swallowed her tongue.

  The makeup woman let out a laugh.

  “Ten!”

  “Not exactly laid,” Dimi muttered, avoiding some interested sidelong glances from her eavesdropping crew.

  The truth was, she wanted more, much more, than any physical release.

  Although, in retrospect, that would be nice, too. Embarrassing as it was to admit, especially for a single, relatively successful woman in the new millennium, Dimi wanted the minivan, the white picket fence, the two point four kids. She wanted to be held by warm, strong arms at night.

  And yes, maybe she also wanted someone to take out the trash. So what? She wanted it all.

  “If not sex, what then?” Suzie lifted a brow. “I know for a fact it’s been years for you.”

  “Hey! Only two.”

  “Years,” Suzie repeated, as if Dimi had committed a crime. “Honey, a body like yours was made for hot, down-and-dirty sex.”

  Dimi tugged at her rather severe business suit, which had been the only thing to fit that morning without having to suck in her breath all day long. Not eating doughnuts for breakfast would help greatly, but that meant she needed to go grocery shopping, and that was worse than taking out the trash.

  “Have you tried the Laundromat at about eight o’clock, any night of the week?”

  Dimi blinked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It’s a regular men buffet.”

  “The Laundromat? It’s desperation city. No one goes there to pick up guys anymore.”

  “Wanna bet?” Suzie leaned close, inspecting Dimi’s face. She tsked and pointed, and before Dimi could blink, she was getting her nose powdered. Again.

  “And five, four…”

  “I’m done trying,” Dimi announced.

  “You’re far too serious.” Suzie’s eyes were kind but firm. “In both life and getting a man. Relax a little.”

  “Maybe I’m too serious, I’ll give you that one, but I’m not changing my stance on this. No more losers. No more dates.”

  “Clear the set!”

  The crew scrambled away. Everyone but Dimi’s persistent assistant.

  “You can’t give up,” Suzie protested.

  “Watch me.” Dimi straightened in her chair. “I mean it, Suzie. No more men, not ever again,” she vowed for once and all, at the exact moment Suzie finally backed off the set.

  And just as the director punched a finger into the air, signaling they were live. The red light was on the camera. The camera pointed right at her.

  The camera to which she’d just announced, on live television, no less, that she’d permanently sworn off men.

  From just off the set, Suzie was shaking with silent laughter. Oh, yeah. Funny. But Dimi Anderson, former high school beauty queen and homework aficionada for the football team, hadn’t gotten to where she was today by giving in to public humiliation.

  Host of the live cable cooking show Food Time, for the serious chef, Dimi forced a smile into the camera and said, “Just seeing if you’re awake, folks.” She cleared her throat and went resolutely ahead. “Welcome to today’s show.”

  Off camera, but still in Dimi’s line of vision, the determined Suzie held up her clipboard.

  A woman needs regular orgasms! it said.

  Dimi faltered but, always the ultimate professional, covered it up with an unfortunately stiff smile. “Today we’re making—”

  Suzie was busy scribbling, and she held up the clipboard again.

  And not from anything battery operated!

  Dimi choked, covered it with another smile, but she still had to repeat herself to get back on track. “Today we’re making—”

  We’re making sure you get some. In this millennium!

  “Carbonada Flamande and a lemon tart to die for,” Dimi said firmly, refusing to look at Suzie again.

  * * *

  Somehow Dimi managed to finish the show, in spite of Suzie’s occasional very obscene clipboard suggestions. She’d created a new twist on the Carbonada Flamande and had made the lemon tart look interesting and challenging—she hoped. It tasted fabulous to her, anyway.

  She should know, she’d put away three pieces of it, not a good thing. Not that any man would ever notice an extra few pounds on her hips, because she’d given up on men.

  Things were fine. Really. She had a nice place to live and a job that let her eat all day long. What more could she want?

  Plenty, apparently, given the odd sense of loneliness coursing through her as she drove home through the small historical town of Truckee toward Donn