AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 21: JOLENE
I meet with Marcus pretty much daily if not more often, but Monday mornings are the time when the entire sports team meets to discuss our coverage plans for the week. This meeting is when Marcus assigns stories and gives feedback, and it’s the time when he gives us his vision for what VG03 sports news will look like to ensure we’re covering Vegas sports the way our viewers deserve.
But it also means I have to sit in the meeting with the entire sports department, and as I get ready for work on Monday morning, I feel a bit on edge.
It only gets worse as my phone starts ringing a few minutes before I need to leave for work.
It’s my father.
“Hi, Dad,” I answer.
“Hey, pumpkin,” he says. “What’s the scoop?”
“You called me, buddy. You tell me.”
“Rumor has it you stayed the weekend with a Nash in Ohio. That true?”
I heave out a breath. “It was a work event, Dad. Nothing more.” I hate lying to him.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” More than fine. More satisfied than I’ve been since…well, since the first time he did that to me all those years ago. Obviously I refrain from mentioning that to my father.
“You couldn’t stay anywhere else?”
“No, actually, I couldn’t. Marcus booked me on some standby reservation, and he happened to be checking in at the same time as me, heard me yelling at the poor desk agent, and offered for me to stay in his room as a gesture of goodwill toward the media. That’s it.” That’s not it, but that’s how it started. “I said no at first, the agent let me know all the rooms in the area were booked, and I had basically no other choice.”
“And?” he asks.
I’m not sure what he’s getting at. And we had sex? Is that really why my father called? “And what?”
“You were spotted out at breakfast.”
“It was a working breakfast,” I say. “I had to interview him ahead of his commencement address.” I hate having to defend my actions. “Might I remind you that I’m a grown adult now who is capable of making these sorts of decisions for myself?”
“I’m aware of that, pumpkin. But they’re bad people and I’m just trying to protect you. It doesn’t matter if you’re fourteen, thirty-four, or eighty-four. You’ll always be my little girl, and I will always do what I can to protect you from the bad guys.”
“I know, Dad. And when I’m eighty-four, you’ll be…” I trail off as I let him do the math.
“Dead, probably.”
“Dad! Don’t talk like that!” The mere thought of losing him sometime in the next fifty years springs tears to my eyes even though it’s likely a morbid reality. “I have to get to work. Is there anything else?”
“Just be careful with him, JoJo. I know you once had a thing for him, and I’d hate to see him manipulate you the way his father manipulated me. It runs in families, you know. That stuff gets passed down.”
“I know, Dad. Thank you for the reminder.”
“Love you,” he says, and I say it back before I hang up.
That call only made me even more anxious about this morning’s meeting.
It’s been over a month since Ryan Rivera caught Lincoln and me kissing in the lobby. He hasn’t done anything with the photo he took of the two of us, but after the weekend with Lincoln I just shared, I feel like the guilt will be written all over my face. I’m nervous he’s going to see it, too, and he’s going to out me in front of the entire sports department, and then it’ll become public news, and then my dad will find out what I’ve been doing behind his back, and then who knows what sort of destruction we’ll cause.
The sports department is a relatively small department—just seven of us that include the editor, two anchors, and four reporters. But I still don’t need the scandal.
And that’s why I text Lincoln before I leave for work.
Me: Sam had an idea to help us out. Call me if you have a sec.
