30. Had To Be Done

30

HAD TO BE DONE

“ W e’ve got two special guests here today with a big announcement after this commercial break.”

Jamie looked at West sitting next to him in front of the cameras as they were getting ready to be introduced.

His heart was racing.

This was bigger in his mind than anything else in his life.

But it had to be done and it’d be fine. Everything was set up and planned on what he’d be asked and his responses. West had orchestrated this and he trusted the man who was his business partner and his girlfriend’s brother.

“We are happy to be here,” Jamie said. “You know as well as I do that I’d be nowhere else.”

“Dude,” Simon said. “After the past two years sharing the same stage, I would have been hurt if I couldn’t be the one to do this.” Simon and he got along well when they were on the road. They had a good group of guys for Fox Sports on Sunday.

It was West’s decision on where this was done, but he was sure that West pushed for this for a number of reasons.

He looked at West. The two of them were dressed about the same. Neither in suits, but dress pants, button-down shirts undone at the neck, no tie.

Not matching. West in black pants and silver-colored shirt. He was in blue pants and a light red shirt that was almost pink. Laken told him the women would love it.

He supposed it was good that Laken wasn’t the jealous type. At least not that he saw once.

“Are you ready for this?” West asked quietly while Simon was talking to the makeup artist who came over to touch him up.

“As ready as I’m going to be.”

He looked up to see the cameraman holding up his fingers and counting down.

“Today I’ve got none other than one of my broadcasting buddies, Jamie Wilde, on the set with me. And for those of you that don’t know, he’s starting a new business. His partner, West Carlisle, and he are going to tell us a bit about children’s soap.” Simon leaned close. “I always thought you smelled good, but didn’t know what it was.”

Jamie laughed. “I’ve got to keep this skin looking sharp,” he said.

“Why don’t you tell us a bit about this,” Simon said. He picked up a couple of the sponges and tossed one to Jamie and one to West, who caught them. “Penelope Plush Soap with animal sponges and baby bottles.”

Simon had it in his big hand and he realized how hilarious it looked.

Jamie turned and saw Laken off to the side watching everything. He needed that support today more than he realized.

“I didn’t always have this gorgeous skin,” he said.

“Let’s see a picture of that,” Simon said.

He turned his head and saw the picture of him up on the screen that he’d had since he’d left home. If he’d asked his parents for it, he knew his mother wouldn’t send it.

There was some laughter in the crowd. “Pretty embarrassing,” he said. “When my daughter’s skin was the same as mine, I got desperate. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t clear it up. She’d cry in the tub. Anything I washed her with made it worse.”

There were some gasps in the audience over that announcement. “Let it be known,” Simon said. “I’ve worked with this guy for over two years. Two years,” Simon repeated holding his fingers up. “And I had no clue he had a daughter. We will get to that soon. But of course we need to see this cutie who is the namesake of your company. This is Penelope Wilde.”

Jamie took a deep breath and looked at West and then Penelope came up on the screen.

She had a New York Jets jersey on, his number, with a green skirt and white sneakers. The picture was taken last week. Her glasses were green and there was a huge smile on her face.

There were a lot of oohs and ahhs in the audience over that.

“She is a doll,” he said.

“Skin looks great to me,” Simon said. “But here is a picture of the poor girl as a baby covered in a rash.”

“It was bad,” Jamie said. “It still breaks my heart. I remembered that I had the same problem as a kid and called my mother. I asked what she used and she told me nothing worked but this homemade soap she’d made. She sent it to me. I was skeptical, but she insisted it was that. No way I was letting it touch my little girl’s skin without me using it first.”

“I’ve got to know,” Simon asked. “Did you use one of the puff ball things or an animal sponge?”

He knew he was going to get busted about that. More so when the audience laughed.

“I used my hands,” he said, smirking. “Just like this is children’s soap, but adults can use it too. Not all of it will be sold in baby bottles and animal sponges.”

“We’ll move onto more of that soon,” Simon said. “Walk us through how you went from homemade soap to helping your daughter and starting a business with none other than the New York Hawk’s majority owner, West Carlisle. Maybe you’re thinking of stepping into the NFL?”

“Not right now,” West said. “But anything is possible.”

West glanced at Jamie, letting him take over this interview. It was probably for the best.

“You know me, Simon. I’ve always had to be the best. If I didn’t go all in, it wasn’t worth it.”

“We all know that,” Simon said. “So the best had to be West.”

“Of course,” he said.

“I’ll admit I don’t have any ventures into children’s lines,” West said, “but I loved everything Jamie stood for. His drive for perfection. His willingness to work hard. Those are the things I look for in a partner.”

“I know nothing about business,” Jamie said. “If you ask me how to get in the red zone with twenty seconds left in the game and we have sixty yards to go, I’m your man. But hiring, firing, production, supply and demand. No. And I just learned half those words in the past months thanks to Nelson and Laken. Two people in West’s company who have worked hard to get us up and going and need to be recognized.”

Laken sent him a huge grin and he winked out of the corner of his eye.

“So tell us more,” Simon said. “You’re up and running. You’re in stores, right?”

“We are fully stocked,” West said. Jamie let his partner talk business. Where to find the product and their website that went on the screen.

“Let’s get up and move over to all the products,” Simon said. “Explain them to me, Jamie.” Simon was smirking at him.

“Well, we’ve got some animals. Penelope got to pick the animals. She has had a big hand in this.”

“And we see one monkey with a pair of adorable glasses. I’ve got two teenage daughters. Both need glasses and hate wearing them. They begged me for contacts, and of course we do those things for our kids.”

“We do,” he said. “Just like keeping our children out of the public eye. As a parent, it’s our job to protect them. She’s young, she needs to learn it’s okay to be different and live her life without people hounding her over her father’s job.”

“But she sees her father on TV?” Simon asked. “We did the same with our children when they were young. Didn’t let them get photographed. Their faces were covered when they were out in public too.” Simon turned and looked into the camera. “We are people just like everyone else. I signed up for this life, my children did not. When they were old enough to decide to be out in the public eye, we allowed some pictures to be released.”

“I’m no stranger to keeping my life private,” West said.

There was a lot of laughter in the audience. “As we all know. Congratulations on the engagement. Though it’s been news for a few months, we later found out it’s been longer.”

“As Jamie said, we are entitled to our personal lives with our loved ones.”

“Well said, West,” Simon said.

Jamie talked a bit more about the product, joked with Simon about the off-season and getting together. When they broke for a commercial, he turned to his buddy. “Thanks. That went great.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Simon said. “I get it. I’m still shocked and don’t know how the hell this was kept so quiet, but you’re entitled to that. Maybe your story will reach people more than just on your products.”

“I hope so,” he said.

Jamie and West got up and went to talk to some of the audience. He signed autographs and then left the stage, Laken meeting them in the back.

“That was great,” she said. “And Nelson texted that the website is blowing up. It was the minute Simon said the name of the company.”

“Great news,” West said. “Let’s hope it continues. Ads started yesterday, but the uptick will be from this.”

“It’s going to start now,” he said. “I expect everyone is trying to find out more about Penelope. There is going to be a lot of curiosity.”

“Think of it as free advertising,” West said. “I know it sucks, but don’t respond. You don’t owe anyone anything.”

“I have no plans on answering anything in regards to Penelope. I did what I said I was going to do and that is it. At least for now.”

“I need to get back to the office,” West said.

“I’m going to take the day off,” Laken said.

When her brother laughed, she just grinned. “Good,” West said. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t even answer your phone.”

“I can’t promise that,” she said. “But I’ll try.”

“I didn’t know you were going to take the day off,” Jamie said.

“I thought it’d be nice. Maybe we can go get some brunch. I’m hungry.”

“Sure,” he said. “Where do you want to go?”

“The biggest busiest restaurant you can find,” she said, grinning.

“Seriously?” he asked.

They went to his SUV. “Yep,” she said. “And we are going to walk in holding hands. Be ready.”

“Don’t do this for me,” he said.

“I’m doing it for me,” she said. “If it helps you, then it does.”

He smiled and then leaned down to kiss her knowing that anyone could be watching and he couldn’t have cared less.

Just as it’d been said not that long ago. Not everyone signed up for this life and they had the right to choose when they were ready, or if they were, to let themselves be in the spotlight too.