Page 20 of Wildly Inappropriate

“The one on her cheek, just under her eye,” I say, my voice a bit softer.

“Okay, I may remember that. Though, to be clear, it’s not noticeable. And even if it were, how could that possibly be your fault?”

“She was working two jobs to pay for everything after my dad quit his job to coach me.”

“And?”

“And one day, after working the night shift, she got home and had to drive me to meet my dad at the course where he had been trying to get in a couple of rounds himself that morning. I could tell she was exhausted but made her drive me anyway.”

I cough, trying to hide the emotion that finds its way into my voice any time I think about that morning. “On her way home, she fell asleep behind the wheel. The car hit a tree and the windshield broke. One of the pieces of glass cut her face. Because we were so short on cash at the time, she didn’t go to a plastic surgeon. Now, it’s too late to make it go away.”

“Oh, JT,” Sam says, sympathy in his voice. “That’s not—”

“Sam,” I cut in. “I appreciate that you care about me, I do. But my parents love me. I like being able to pay them back for all their sacrifices by lending them my jet time or by investing in the business they started.”

“They've lost half a million dollars of your money, JT.”

“What?” I ask.

“Your accounts with your dad lost 500,000 dollars this year while the stock market has soared. And it’s not just that I’m concerned abouthowthey managed to lose so much money, it’s also going to make a substantial impact on your cash flow for the year…especially since you aren’t bringing in a lot of money right now.”

Here’s the thing about being a professional athlete: we make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money too. I have a substantial number of people on my payroll and spend a lot on traveling across the world to play. I’m working really hard to not be one of those athletes who end up broke because of their spending habits, which is why I have a lot of my net worth tied up in investments. Unfortunately, it means cash flow can occasionally become an issue when I go for a while without bringing home money from a tournament.

“Will the winnings from Phoenix cover what we need?” I ask.

“Yes. Of course it will. But we were talking about investing it in that—”

“Okay, well, as long as I have the cash flow to pay you all, then I’ll be fine. I don’t need to invest in another startup right now.”

Being an angel investor is one of my favorite things to do with my money. The one time I brought it up to my dad, he told me I should leave the investing to the professionals. Unfortunately, my parents’ investment firm doesn’t invest in start-ups, so I’ve been keeping some “fun money” on the side to try out a few investments that speak to me. Sam and I are both interested in new business opportunities, so he spends a ton of his time finding one or two perfect investment opportunities each year for me. It’s not a fail-proof system, so while we’ve had a couple of really good returns, we’ve also invested in two companies that went under completely.

And while I appreciate it as an investment vehicle, it isn’t truly about the money for me. It’s about seeing passionate people finally have the resources they need to make their dreams come true, kinda like when I was able to invest enough money with my parents that they could start their own firm.

I’ve never felt something as amazing as the first time I met with the CEO of a company I had just invested in. Her excitement was palpable, and it felt like that moment a roller coaster starts racing down the hill you just climbed—pure euphoria.

“Are you sure? We’d found that baby bottle company with the screw-on bags. It seemed really good.”

“I know. And it is a really good one. Keep monitoring it. I’ll win another one soon, and we can make sure everyone has the money they need.”

But for the first time ever, I start to question if I will ever make enough money for my parents to have what they need—what they deserve for the sacrifices they’ve made for me.

Chapter ten

Lila

“Wait. You didn’t seehim at all?” Izzy asks. It’s only been two days, but I can already tell Izzy is going to be a highly entertaining officemate.

We are seated in the small coffee shop on Main Street, the smell of baking bread making me wish I’d ordered a cinnamon roll in addition to my iced latte. Becca was on a call with one of her clients, so Izzy and I decided to take a quick break. I’m already realizing I’m going to need to bring in my headphones if I’m going to have any chance of getting any work done. Not that I’ve had to focus on anything too intense. I spent yesterday morning with Kelsey going through my tech setup, an onboarding packet with company policies, and a detailed list of our current and past clients and the type of work we did for each.

As the first project and account manager for Kelsey’s cybersecurity firm, it’s my job to make sure our clients are happy and our projects are completed on time. From what I can tell so far, I’m mostly just a go-between for our clients and the developers, installers, and security personnel on our team of twenty. I feel like I’m drinking from a firehose of information, but I’m doing my best to make sure no one can tell I have no idea what any of the acronyms they are using mean. The last thing I want is for Kelsey to think she made a mistake in hiring me or that I can’t handle the work.

I pick at my cup lid, thinking about Izzy’s question. “It’s weird, right? I mean, it was our first real night living in the same house, and it’s like he purposefully timed it so he was never in the common space at the same time as me. Jack kept getting up and walking over to JT’s door too. His doggy sense could tell something was happening. At like seven, I finally felt like I had to do something, so I just curled up with Jack in the living room, reading my book.”

“Ooo. What book are you reading?”

“It’s a pirate romance. It’s so good. I’m trying out doing fancy annotating on it, and I feel like I’m really getting into it a lot more because of the underlining and notes.”

“Oh. I could never do that. I like to fly through the books I’m reading. I barely remember the characters’ names once I’m done. Having to stop and write something does not sound fun to me. But I love it for you.” She takes a drink of her hot vanilla latte before continuing. “But that’s beside the point. What are you going to do about JT avoiding you? Do you want to do something about it? Maybe it’s just less awkward if you both stay holed up in your own space. I mean, you were kinda pissed that he was there in the first place. Maybe he was just trying to stay out of your space.”

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