Page 24 of Six Wishes

CHAPTER12

A twist

Van

My cell phone going wild on the table by the door distracts all three of us from what Zach was going to say, if anything at all. I am curious what role Hunter is playing in his head, and I want to know why I’ve never heard the story before.

Also, had he brought me around the Montgomeries sooner, I could’ve met Chloe sooner. I feel like he’s robbed me of valuable time with her. He owes me big.

I grab my cell and look at the screen. It’s my agent, and I vaguely remember him calling me earlier before the volleyball game started, when I cut the conversation short.

“Chuck, I was just about to call you back.” My eyes are on Chloe when I say that, and I grin at the way she rolls her eyes and shakes her head at me. “I felt like there was something else you wanted to tell me earlier.”

“Uh, yeah, there was…” I have never found Chuck at a loss for words. I feel myself frowning in concentration as I wait for him to tell me what the deal is. “I got a call from Kalypsos. They are interested in you representing their brand.”

“Holy shit, that’s huge!” I could hug him right now. Kalypsos is a company that makes pre and post workout dietary supplements. They’ve been looking for a professional athlete to represent them for the better part of a year now. The negotiations with them have been intense, but I knew Chuck wouldn’t let me down. This will be a badass paycheck when I get it, which is even more important nowadays given my future with the Sliders.

“Yeah, yeah, uh, it is.” Somehow, Chuck doesn’t sound as excited about it as I feel. “There’s a catch.”

“Oh?” I can’t imagine what the catch would be.

“They’ve gotten wind of your new girlfriend. And they’re interested in filming commercials of the two of you working out together.”

Now this is a twist.

“How did they find out about her?” Chloe’s eyes grow as big as ping-pong balls when she’s catching on that we are talking about her.

“I can’t believe you are not aware of it,” Chuck talks like he is my father, chastising me for not being more careful with my personal life. “Pictures of the two of you frolicking at the beach are everywhere. And people love them.”

“Frolicking,” I let out a surprised snort.

“Well, regardless,” Chuck’s annoyance comes over the line. “You two are everywhere now, and I don’t know what’s going to happen with this contract.”

I swear to fucking Christ that as soon as Chuck speaks those words, my phone starts blowing up with calls and text messages. To say that I am confused does not begin to cover how I feel. I had no idea that me getting a girlfriend would create such a frenzy.

“Well, let’s not jump to conclusions, Chucky,” I call him that even though I know he hates it. “Are they willing to pay her too? What are these new terms?”

“I’ll email you all the info I got. Be on the lookout for that in the next hour or so, then get back to me ASAP.” With that, Chucky slams the metaphorical phone in my ear. It’s actually very disappointing that we don’t have phones to slam nowadays like I see happening in older movies from the eighties and nineties.

I start scrolling through my messages just to make sure there’s nothing major in there. I see a couple of them are from my parents. One from my mother asking why she had to find out from the press about me being in a serious relationship. On a side note, I love that she calls social media the press. And one message from my dad to inform me that my mother is driving him crazy because of whatever is happening on the internet, and for me to save him.

“Well hell,” I look up to make sure Chloe is okay, only to see her looking at her own phone with a horrified look on her face. I’m assuming that she’s getting just about the same messages that I am. And now I understand better why she kept on mentioning her mother.

Zach is the only one of us that’s cool, calm and collected. No fucking worries in the world. I see that he’s helped himself to a container of peanuts from my pantry, and he is chomping away as he’s waiting for me and Chloe to get over the shock.

“Van,” Chloe bursts from her spot in my kitchen. “This is crazy! Why are you this popular?” She almost has tears in her eyes now. “What if I get attacked by a mob of crazy puckers now?”

“Chlo,” I give her a sympathetic look. “You’ll be fine. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you just because you’re with me, beautiful.”

I hear the way Zach is crunching on the peanuts echoing through the room and it is distracting as I am trying to have a serious conversation with my woman. It’s like he’s got a hollow head.

“Puckers, though,” he mumbles around a mouthful, and it takes me a second to understand what he just said. Chloe and I both look at each other until it hits us, and we burst into crazy laughter.

“I didn’t know what else to call them,” she wheezes out in between fits of laughter.

Once we’ve calmed down, I herd all three of us to the living room where we drop on the huge couch I got facing the wall of windows, with an impressive look of the lake. I am on one end of the couch, Zach on the other, and we got Chloe in the middle but leaning against my side. It dawns on me that I am still shirtless, but it doesn’t seem to bother anyone, least of all her, going by the hungry looks she gives me once in a while.

“I can’t believe you got a house that’s across the fuckin’ lake from my sister,” Zach points toward the windows with his bottle of water.

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