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I avert my gaze out the window. “Not for her.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because of my track record. I fuck up everything that’s good.” Whoa. Where did that come from?
And…do I?
I don’t even feel like it’s a conscious thought I’ve had before, but there it is, as if Ellie has this magical ability to expose my soul right here in her office.
Maybe she should’ve gone into psychology instead of publicity.
“What have you fucked up?” she presses.
“My friendship with Beckett if I bang his little sister again,” I admit.
“Okay, but what if it doesn’t fuck it up? What if he’s okay with it?”
“You didn’t hear him when he saw the photos her ex posted of us. He was pissed, Ellie. He would not be okay with me dating his little sister, and to be honest, I don’t blame him.” A vague memory comes back to me from when I was fourteen and I was with Beckett just after his dad’s funeral. He told me his dad had gone out of town for work one time and he promised his dad he’d be the man of the house any time his dad was gone. He promised to take care of his mom and his siblings.
He took that promise to heart. His dad wasn’t just gone for a few days on a business trip. He was gone for good.
And then he reached out and asked me to help him keep that promise.
I didn’t. I failed. I fucked up because she lied.
Of course I’m holding onto anger because of that.
But I’m also holding onto something else because of that—something much, much stronger than anger.
I just haven’t quite identified what that is yet.
“Sometimes people surprise you,” she says softly. “What else have you fucked up?”
“I just left an old team for a new one, and everyone thinks it’s because of nepotism.”
“Nobody thinks that,” she says.
I raise my brows pointedly.
“Okay, fine, some uninformed idiots might think that. But the truth is that you’re a kick-ass defensive back, and before I met Luke, I didn’t even know what a defensive back was.” She shrugs.
“Neither did Ava.”
“Ava? That’s our girl’s name?” she asks.
“Yeah. And I hope it’s okay, but I invited her to come here at four for her first lesson with you.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “How’d you know you were going to sign with me?”
I laugh. “You’re married to Luke Dalton. I saw your client list. I think that speaks for itself.”
She grins. “Welcome to Prince Charming Public Relations. I think we’re gonna have a really good time working together.”
I smirk at her. “Now I’m scared.”
“Yeah, you probably should be.” She winks at me, and then she gets down to business.
We talk through my current list of sponsorships, and she takes notes as she has some ideas for redirecting my image. Instead of focusing on my relationship with my brothers, she wants me to build my own image in Vegas, which means working with charities or even starting a foundation of my own. She wants to use the relationship I’m in to showcase my dependability and my commitment to the Vegas community since that’s where she lives. She also thinks it’s a good idea to make it seem like I made the move to Vegas for her instead of allowing the focus to be on my brothers.
