Page 95 of Love In The Spotlight

But it had to be done and it’d be fine. Everything was set up and planned on what he’d be asked and his responses. West had orchestrated this and he trusted the man who was his business partner and his girlfriend’s brother.

“We are happy to be here,” Jamie said. “You know as well as I do that I’d be nowhere else.”

“Dude,” Simon said. “After the past two years sharing the same stage, I would have been hurt if I couldn’t be the one to do this.” Simon and he got along well when they were on the road. They had a good group of guys for Fox Sports on Sunday.

It was West’s decision on where this was done, but he was sure that West pushed for this for a number of reasons.

He looked at West. The two of them were dressed about the same. Neither in suits, but dress pants, button-down shirts undone at the neck, no tie.

Not matching. West in black pants and silver-colored shirt. He was in blue pants and a light red shirt that was almost pink. Laken told him the women would love it.

He supposed it was good that Laken wasn’t the jealous type. At least not that he saw once.

“Are you ready for this?” West asked quietly while Simon was talking to the makeup artist who came over to touch him up.

“As ready as I’m going to be.”

He looked up to see the cameraman holding up his fingers and counting down.

“Today I’ve got none other than one of my broadcasting buddies, Jamie Wilde, on the set with me. And for those of you that don’t know, he’s starting a new business. His partner, West Carlisle, and he are going to tell us a bit about children’s soap.” Simon leaned close. “I always thought you smelled good, but didn’t know what it was.”

Jamie laughed. “I’ve got to keep this skin looking sharp,” he said.

“Why don’t you tell us a bit about this,” Simon said. He picked up a couple of the sponges and tossed one to Jamie and one to West, who caught them. “Penelope Plush Soap with animal sponges and baby bottles.”

Simon had it in his big hand and he realized how hilarious it looked.

Jamie turned and saw Laken off to the side watching everything. He needed that support today more than he realized.

“I didn’t always have this gorgeous skin,” he said.

“Let’s see a picture of that,” Simon said.

He turned his head and saw the picture of him up on the screen that he’d had since he’d left home. If he’d asked his parents for it, he knew his mother wouldn’t send it.

There was some laughter in the crowd. “Pretty embarrassing,” he said. “When my daughter’s skin was the same as mine, I got desperate. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t clear it up. She’d cry in the tub. Anything I washed her with made it worse.”

There were some gasps in the audience over that announcement. “Let it be known,” Simon said. “I’ve worked with this guy for over two years. Two years,” Simon repeated holding his fingers up. “And I had no clue he had a daughter. We will get to that soon. But of course we need to see this cutie who is the namesake of your company. This is Penelope Wilde.”

Jamie took a deep breath and looked at West and then Penelope came up on the screen.

She had a New York Jets jersey on, his number, with a green skirt and white sneakers. The picture was taken last week. Her glasses were green and there was a huge smile on her face.

There were a lot of oohs and ahhs in the audience over that.

“She is a doll,” he said.

“Skin looks great to me,” Simon said. “But here is a picture of the poor girl as a baby covered in a rash.”

“It was bad,” Jamie said. “It still breaks my heart. I remembered that I had the same problem as a kid and called my mother. I asked what she used and she told me nothing worked but this homemade soap she’d made. She sent it to me. I was skeptical, but she insisted it was that. No way I was letting it touch my little girl’s skin without me using it first.”

“I’ve got to know,” Simon asked. “Did you use one of the puff ball things or an animal sponge?”

He knew he was going to get busted about that. More so when the audience laughed.

“I used my hands,” he said, smirking. “Just like this is children’s soap, but adults can use it too. Not all of it will be sold in baby bottles and animal sponges.”

“We’ll move onto more of that soon,” Simon said. “Walk us through how you went from homemade soap to helping your daughter and starting a business with none other than the New York Hawk’s majority owner, West Carlisle. Maybe you’re thinking of stepping into the NFL?”

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