Page 5 of Love In The Spotlight

There were plenty of pictures of him in a uniform, then in a suit on the broadcast stand.

He had dark hair that was cut short and stylish. His eyes were light blue and stood out as the strongest feature of his face.

There were pictures of him clean-shaven or with a close-cut beard. Both worked well on him. Along with his body.

Damn!

Then she switched over to see some articles about him from his forced retirement to his playboy ways.

A few more about how difficult he’d been to handle before he was traded to The Jets.

He was cocky, arrogant and always had to be right.

She wanted more than five percent if she had to deal with that.

“I’m upping my percentage,” she said when West hung up the phone.

Her older brother laughed. “You’ve been reading things, I see.”

“Of course I have. I do that with everyone.”

“But this is different. That is the media and we know what the media writes isn’t always the truth.”

She didn’t need her older brother to say that.

West had been in the media plenty in his life.

Laken tried her hardest to stay out of it unless she was getting her picture taken with him for some business, and even then, rarely wanted to be quoted. She liked doing her work behind the scenes.

“I guess you’re right,” she said. “But he looks like those things said about him might be true.”

“Could be years ago, but he’s not twenty-five anymore. I’m sure a lot of people would say those things about me at twenty-five.”

“They say those things about you now,” she said, smirking.

“And not much of it is true,” West said. “My family knows the truth. I believed Jamie when I talked to him. It’s not like it was just one conversation either but many of them over the past few months.”

“How come I’m just hearing about this now?” she asked.

“Because there was a lot to work out.”

“Braylon has to know,” she said.

Braylon was an attorney for West. Not the lead attorney, but he’d get there at some point. She knew that. Everyone did.

“Of course he does. It was finalized on Friday. As I said, reach out to Jamie. Get it set up and then we’ll go from there.”

“You mean I’ll go from there, not we, because you aren’t going to get your hands dirty hiring staff.”

“No,” West said. “Neither is Jamie. He’s the name behind the brand.”

“What is the name of this?” she asked. “You didn’t say.”

“Penelope Plush Soap.”

She snickered. “It’s cute and funny and not something I’d expect him to have or name. Nor you.”

“As I said, ask him about it before you judge.”

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