Page 10 of Love In The Spotlight

It didn’t matter she worked for someone like that. Or who everyone thought West was.

But he wasn’t.

Though she would admit it was because she knew a side of him that most didn’t outside of their close-knit family.

Her laptop was open on her lap.

“Down to business, huh?” Jamie asked. “Where should we start?”

“How about you tell me how this all came about? I’m trying to figure out why someone like you?—”

“Someone like me?” he asked, interrupting her.

“An ex-athlete that most women are likely throwing their panties to in the streets. Now you’re on TV. I’ve addressed the fact you’re nice on the eyes. I didn’t see anywhere that you were married so I’m going to say single?”

“I am,” he said.

“And here you are starting a business for children’s soaps and shampoo. Seems a little out in left field.”

“That’s a baseball reference,” he said, smirking.

She rolled her eyes. “How about seems like a hundred-yard fumble return that a three-hundred-pound defensive tackle has to make and no one is able to catch him?”

“There you go,” he said. It was the charming grin on his face matched with shock that she could know that.

She had to admit she only did it because she was reading up on the game to try to understand Jamie and how he worked.

What position he played and what that entailed.

Laken wanted to have some knowledge of him for conversation like she did everyone she met.

Be prepared for anything was what she’d always told herself.

Make her brother proud.

“So,” she said, clearing her throat. She reached for her bottle of water too since she’d felt some heat in her face. She didn’t want to admit it might be pride that he understood her or could appreciate that she understood his career some. “How did Penelope Plush come about and why?”

“First,” he said, “I’m going to go out on a limb that in your research of me, you discovered that I was seen with a lot of different women?”

“I did,” she said. She wouldn’t say anything else. Sometimes he was dating someone, other times it looked more like a party scene.

His choice to live his life that way.

Not someone she’d want to associate with on a personal level and never did. It wasn’t her to be out like that and have cameras in her face watching her every move.

“You probably also saw that my first four years in the league I was with a team that I didn’t quite get along with.”

“I did find a few articles about some tension, yes.”

She read he was released a year early from his contract and signed with the Jets for a massive amount of money. She knew athletes were paid well in prime positions and Jamie obviously deserved what he got.

“Not everything makes the news and that is fine. It was mutual why I left. The coach and the owners didn’t have the same vision as I did. They wanted to win, sure, but they didn’t want to pay to make it happen.”

“They didn’t give you enough money?” she asked.

“It wasn’t for me. You need to spend money on support,” he said. “Wouldn’t you want to have an assistant you could trust one hundred percent? Or a team under you that you were confident shared the same beliefs and work ethics?”

“Of course,” she said. Laken didn’t have that as much as she wanted. She needed it.

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