CHAPTER 15 JOLENE

I'm eating yogurt in the kitchen a quarter after eight when the doorbell rings, and I find Ellie at the door before Lincoln arrives. The boys just caught the bus to school, and Sam is getting dressed in her room, so it's just Ellie and me for a minute.

"Come on in," I say.

"How are you handling all this?" she asks.

I shrug. "It's hard watching the man you love take your best friend to the events he should be taking you to, but even if Sam wasn't in the picture, he wouldn't be able to take me."

"What if I could change all that for you?"

My brows dip. "What exactly have you whipped up?"

"I have an idea that I think is going to benefit you both and it'll give you time to spend together. But there's just one problem."

"What?" I ask, my brows dipping together.

"We need your boss on board."

"He knows about Lincoln and me," I admit. "So anything you say here today…I could bring it to him, and I trust that he'd be on our side." I think back to my last conversation with Marcus when he told me to dig deeper into what happened between our fathers.

I haven't.

I'm too scared about what I might uncover.

Fear is a silly reason not to look, though. Because what if someone else uncovers something before I do? That might be even worse, and the thought never occurred to me until now.

Digging into something that has caused so much strife seems silly, but if I could find some answers about it, maybe that could be the key to solving the feud between our families.

Sam walks into the kitchen and greets Ellie, and she seems as down today as she did when she walked out of the room last night. She's not her usual prancing, happy self, and I have a feeling the whole Devin thing is weighing on her more heavily than she let on.

I make a mental note to find some time for just Sam and me…pronto.

Lincoln knocks on the door a minute later, and we all take a seat at the kitchen table.

Ellie is practically bouncing with excitement in her chair. "Are you ready?" she begins, and we all turn to look at her.

"I saw a clip last night of you and Sam fighting outside a restaurant. It's a great first step, and we need another fight in public—maybe one where Jolene is at the same event and she runs to her best friend and they patch things up. Keep it simple. Sam, maybe you're mad he isn't making time for you because he's so focused on his career. That's always an easy out. Any questions there?" She glances around the table at each of us in turn, and we're all shaking our heads.

"Okay, great. Next on the agenda is my plan for the two of you. As I already told Jolene, we're going to want to make this look like her boss's idea, but I think this idea will benefit both of you as well as the Aces and VG-oh-three." She grins as she clears her throat. "Here's what I'm thinking: a podcast with the two of you as co-hosts. Jolene, as a local, you introduce Lincoln, who's new to town, to all your favorite Vegas places." She throws air quotes around the word favorite. "And obviously those favorites of yours will be paying for a slot on your show, and those payments will cover production costs first with the rest going to charity."

She pauses to glance around at us, and we're all silent.

"You work together to promote charity events benefitting local organizations, you get exclusives with Lincoln to boost your ratings, and you get all sorts of ideas for features. We'll grab video while you're on your outings, and of course we'll film production to get it up on YouTube. We'll be everywhere, all social media platforms, and you'll run preview clips on every broadcast to get people to your socials and to listen or watch the full episodes. Because this will theoretically be an assignment from your boss, Jolene, nobody will question why you two are always together, including your families. You'll not just be able to attend events together, you'll be expected to." She glances around at the three of us. "Thoughts? Reactions?"

The three of us remain silent as we stare at Ellie. My jaw drops open a little as I consider what she's telling us, but it's Lincoln who speaks first.

"This is brilliant, Ellie. Nobody can argue the two of us working together for charity, and if it's coming down from her boss, nobody will fight us on exclusivity or playing favorites." He turns to me. "Can you get your boss on board and have him call my agent?"

Ellie jumps in before I get the chance to respond. "I was thinking I could stop by to get him on board to keep her hands clean."

I nod. "This is…this is genius." I shrug. "The two of us forced out on the town and partaking in community events together? Even our families can't argue that one."

"My father will find a way, just to be clear," Lincoln says dryly.

And I'm sure my father will, too. But a spotlight on the Gridiron should quiet those complaints pretty quickly.

"What can I do?" I ask.

"For now, nothing," she says. "I've already got an appointment to meet with Marcus in a few hours, so I'll take care of that. Let's start a group chat that'll serve as our idea log, and once Marcus is on board, we'll get him in on it too. But let's work out some details first so I can go to him with a proper proposal."

She starts firing questions at us including everything from what our schedules look like on a weekly basis to where we can record to whether we'll both need studio equipment in our homes to what sorts of restaurants we like and which charities we most want to work with. Sam excuses herself to go to work, clearly not part of this project other than the break-up with him and the make-up with me. A sadness pulls at my chest since I know she's upset and we don't have the time or space right now to talk it out.

We hammer out the major details—Tuesday afternoons work best for us both to record the show, my office has a studio we can use to record and we can also set up some equipment at Lincoln's place, and Dave will likely accompany me places to grab a little footage before he takes off. We even come up with a mission statement for our podcast: Combining passions for football and Vegas, co-hosts Lincoln Nash and Jolene Bailey will contribute to the community with insightful football discussions as they explore Vegas and raise money to benefit local charities. And our working title? Coach and Correspondent: Aces Wild Vegas Style.

Ellie has some ideas in mind for producers who can take our raw footage and create a weekly show to air on Thursdays and another person who can pull social media clips, but that's only if Marcus won't put someone at the station up to the task. He may tap me to do it, but more likely he'll choose someone else since I still have my correspondent duties.

We draft up some ideas for our first episode, and then all three of us part ways to head toward our own offices.

It's just before lunchtime when Marcus calls me into his office. "I'm meeting with Lincoln Nash's publicist in a few minutes. Since you're our team correspondent, I'd like you to sit in."

I nod. "Of course." I grab a pad of paper and a pen as if I have no idea what this is about, and I sit at the round table in the corner of Marcus's office. Ellie walks in a minute later, and she smiles at Marcus and shakes his hand as I stand to greet her. I nearly make the mistake of introducing myself before I remember that she represents lots of Aces players, and we met before Lincoln entered the picture.

"I'm having Jolene sit in with us today since she's the team correspondent. What can I do for you today?" Marcus begins after the three of us take a seat around the table.

"As you know, Coach Nash has an uphill battle coming in as the replacement for a beloved coach who led our team to a ring last season. My goal is to keep his reputation clean, and given the events of the charity ball, I'd like to let the community see more of who he is. I'm proposing the idea of a podcast hosted by Mr. Nash, and I'm looking to partner with a local news channel for a co-host who can really showcase our new coach's personality while introducing him to places around town and giving us all a peek into the personal life of a coach. Of course we'd have guest stars to interview, and all proceeds from our advertisers would benefit local charities. Depending on the parameters we set up, we can either produce the podcast ourselves or in-studio, and when this idea first hit me, I immediately thought of VG-oh-three and Ms. Bailey as a co-host. A female co-host who is as aggressive and charming as Jolene would appeal to listeners and viewers who aren't just football fans, and my hunch is that this could be an extremely lucrative and successful venture for us all."

Marcus folds his arms across his chest and nods as he narrows his eyes at her, and I already know his answer.

It's an immediate yes.

But first he needs to ask a million questions.

"Who would generate content?" he begins.

Her answer is immediate. "Mr. Nash, his co-host, myself, and my team of publicists."

"Who would produce it?"

"I have a small staff who could handle it, or you could have someone at your station do it since you have the equipment set up here already," she says.

"And is this something you'd want to do?" he asks, turning his attention toward me.

I snag my bottom lip between my teeth as if I'm considering it, and then I nod. "I think it would be a great way to benefit the community and to show goodwill toward our new coach."

He studies me for a beat as he calculates what he knows about Lincoln and me with what Ellie is proposing. He tosses out a few more questions that Ellie already has prepared the answers to before he finally nods. "I need to discuss it with Ken," he says, naming the station owner, "but pending his approval, I'll have our lawyers review your contract. I'll also figure out who can produce this for us since you're right, we have the manpower and the staff to handle it. I'll chat with our social media team to pull teasers, but between your reporting and this podcast, I think this will be the ratings boost we've been looking for."

I feel the heavy weight of what he's saying.

He's putting a lot of pressure on me to boost ratings for our station.

I know I'm up to the task, but I just hope he's not putting all his eggs into the wrong basket.