7. Something To Prove

7

SOMETHING TO PROVE

“ I know you’re nervous about this,” Laken said once West left. “I can see it in your eyes. My brother doesn’t like to fail. He rarely does.”

“Neither do I. I hope this isn’t one of those rare instances.”

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. Rather than wear a skirt today, she’d put on black pants with wide bottoms that showed her nude heels with the red soles. She had a fitted white sweater on and a leopard print scarf around her neck.

She knew Jamie would come in in jeans and they’d be meeting for hours again. Might as well be comfortable.

Lunch was arriving in a few minutes too. She’d gotten a club sandwich, Jamie a salad.

Guess he took healthy to another level.

Not a lot of drinking, lots of exercise, and his food choices were better than hers.

Though she didn’t get to eat often either so if she wanted to shove a bunch of calories in at once, that was her prerogative.

“Let me ask you this,” she said. “When you left for college, what was your goal? Your plans? What did you want to accomplish?”

“I wanted to win the Heisman,” he said.

She cringed. She couldn’t remember what that was or if he did. “And what happened?” she asked.

He laughed. “I got nominated but didn’t win.”

“What was your next goal?” she asked.

“Be drafted in the first round,” he said. “I wasn’t stupid enough to actually think I’d be drafted first, but that would have been sweet.”

“You were drafted fourth,” she said, grinning. That much she remembered reading.

“That’s right,” he said. “And I was the first quarterback drafted.”

“What was next on your list?” she said. “I’m sure you had a list of goals. Based on what I know of you and wanting this business, you had to have a five-year plan or more.”

“I did,” he said. “I wanted to win a Super Bowl like everyone else does but knew that wasn’t going to be easy. I think realistically I wanted to be the person that turned a team around. That proved I had what it took after my first four years with a losing team. But I knew being signed by a losing team might happen too.”

“You couldn’t get there staying but you worked hard enough that you had someplace to land when the time came,” she said. “You didn’t give up because you had something to prove. Correct?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Well, Nelson has something to prove. I’m not saying he’s a screw-up, because he’s not. But he’s young. He’s cocky. He has his big brother backing him and sometimes needs to get the chip knocked off his shoulder. We all know it. But at the heart of it, he wants to be just like West. He idolizes West.”

“I see where you’re going. Nelson is going to work harder than someone else to prove he has what it takes.”

“Yes,” she said. “He’s been wanting to be near West for a while. He wants to learn from West. But West is busy. It’s not easy.”

“Then why now?” he asked.

“Because I asked,” she said.

“Are you doing it for Nelson or for me?” he asked.

“I’m doing it for everyone,” she said.

This was the largest stake she had in a business, but she wouldn’t tell Jamie that. It hadn’t been finalized and what West did with his shares was his decision, but West would never give up majority.

“Do you believe Nelson has what it takes?” he asked.

“I don’t know. But I do know that with me and West watching him, it won’t fail. That much I can promise you.”

“Thanks,” he said. “This means a lot to me.”

“Can I ask you something personal?” she asked.

“It hasn’t stopped you yet,” he said.

“True. You said this is your mother’s formula. Why not put her name on this or have some shares in her name?”

Jamie snorted. “I tried. I’ve tried giving them things for years. They don’t want it. They say money is evil.”

“Ouch,” she said. “I’ll have you know if money is evil then I’m standing in line to be the head devil.”

He laughed. “I’m with you. Money can be evil. My parents tried to say that is what changed me. They don’t get it. I didn’t have money in college. Nothing like college athletes can get now. I’m still the same as I was then. I didn’t blow through my money. I’ve got a lot of it left and make millions a year working part time on top of it.”

She grinned. “I’m sure you’ve got a nice house,” she said. “A guest house and all.”

“I live in a nice area with a few acres of land. There are houses around but not on top of each other. I bought the cheapest most worn-down house in the best area. I put money into it to increase its value and made sure it was a good investment for when I sell.”

“Smart,” she said. “Did you buy this house before or after Penelope?”

“I was in a nice townhouse and living life well having no responsibilities,” he said. “Then once I knew Penelope was coming I had to change. I think at that point I accepted that my football career was over and focused on Fox Sports.”

“Because you didn’t want to be gone so much with a baby?” she asked.

Though he hadn’t volunteered a lot about Penelope’s mother, she knew he’d had the baby since she was born.

“Yes. I’m still gone but not as much as if I was training and traveling for games. I normally arrive and leave the same day as a game now. I can work from home rather than away. It’s just a different life. A calmer one.”

“I’m sure there are some single broadcasters out there not thinking that and still living it up,” she said.

“There are,” he said. “But it’s not me.”

“No one knows about Penelope?” she asked. “No one you work with or players?”

“Very few know,” he said. “I’ve kept it that way on purpose.”

“Are you embarrassed by her?” she asked.

His face changed. She’d insulted him.

“No,” he said. “I’m not. She deserves to live her life out of the spotlight. I personally can’t do that with my job. Not if I want to keep the career I’ve got. The best thing I can do for her is to let her live as normal of a life as I can until she’s old enough to make her own decisions.”

“I’m sorry I asked that,” she said. “I commend you for that thought and for putting your daughter first.”

“You didn’t think I had it in me, did you? Just judging me like everyone else.”

Yeah, she made a huge misstep here and would mend that bridge.

“I’ll admit when I’m wrong and I was,” she said. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “You're not the first one who has thought I’ve been selfish.”

She was saved by the knock on her door and lunch brought in.

“Why don’t we eat and take a break? I think we both need to cool off. Then we can talk more about product design and I can bring in someone from marketing to go over things.”

“You’re not doing it?” he asked.

“No. Consider me the liaison for every facet of your business. I’ll keep things on track and facilitate what goes on, but there are things I won’t have a hand in, though I could play mediator if I have to.”

He nodded and they went to her table to eat.

Which they did in silence.

She’d have to let West know what happened if they couldn’t get back on track. No reason to have the guy she was working with pissed at her.

“How did it go?” West asked her three hours later. Braylon was in there talking too.

“It was good, but I think I stepped on his big toe before lunch.”

“What did you say?” Braylon asked.

“I might have crossed the line on a personal comment,” she said. “I’ll fess up and I apologized.”

She told them what she’d asked.

Braylon didn’t know as much as West did about Jamie. “He’ll be fine,” West said. “Give him a day or so. If I have to talk to him, I will.”

“He seemed fine when we were done with lunch. He liked some of the ideas the marketing team had. He narrowed down the drawings of the sponges but then asked if he could bring them home and let Penelope choose them.”

Which she thought was a great idea and super sweet that he was keeping his daughter involved in this process.

“I don’t see a problem with it,” West said. “Not if you’ve got them narrowed down anyway.”

“I didn’t think you would. What’s wrong with you?” she asked Braylon. Her brother wasn’t paying attention and just staring off into space.

“Nothing,” Braylon said.

“Doesn’t look it to me,” West said. “Spill. This is family, not work.”

“Is Thomas being a dick?” she asked of Braylon’s boss. Braylon hardly ever complained, but she’d stick up for her brother. All her brothers, just like she had Nelson earlier.

“Nothing more than normal,” Braylon said. “It’s more Lily. Her boss is giving her a hard time at work.”

“Really?” she asked. “That’s too bad. What’s going on?”

“I guess Lily’s immediate supervisor was out one day and a few higher ups talked to her. They had some questions about a project because Stella wasn’t available. In the process the two guys realized Lily was doing the work and not getting the credit, but Lily tried to cover it up to not make waves.”

“Good on her, but she needs to make sure she gets the credit.”

She’d talked to Lily a few times about this. Feeling a little like a mentor since Lily went to college for communication like Laken and had a similar background.

What she’d love more than anything would be to hire Lily as an assistant. She needed one desperately. More so spending so much time with Penelope Plush Soap when she still had other responsibilities.

But the last thing she was going to do was bring that up when Braylon had only been dating Lily for a few months, and on top of that, their relationship started under false pretenses.

A fake engagement ring Lily was trying to pull off and then Braylon riding in on his white horse like West would have done. Heck, at the start Lily had even said she went by Lilian and now they found out she went by Lily her whole life.

Braylon was like West in that her oldest brother had saved Abby when they first met too.

Funny now that she thought of it.

“I told her that too, but I know she doesn’t like all the attention on her. There is only so much I can do other than be there for support.”

“Good for you,” she said. “But back to Jamie. I’m flying to Chicago tomorrow to deal with a few things and won’t be back until Saturday. I can tell Jamie is a little nervous about Nelson, but I think he’s on board.”

“What did you tell him?” West said.

She filled them in on how she approached it. “Boy,” Braylon said. “You know a lot of personal things about him. That’s not like you. What gives?”

She didn’t need her brothers to realize that. Then they might start to think she had a crush on Jamie.

Which she did but would never admit it.

The guy totally wasn’t her type.

Besides, they were doing business together.

Never mix business and pleasure. That’d been drilled into her head from day one.

Or maybe it was her own mantra because she was so used to men only wanting to get to know her because of who her brother was.

She’d just given up at this point.

“It’s conversation,” she said. “I used it to my advantage like I do everything in life. You should be happy.”

“Laken knows what she is doing,” West said. “Let’s get back to work then if you’re going to be out of town for a few days.”

All conversations about Jamie ended and she and her brothers talked about work more than anything. When they finished she wound up listening to them talk about their significant others and she started to feel alone again when she hadn’t in so long.