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“No, because thatwouldbetray Jenna’s trust,” he emphasizes and I scowl at him, not happy that he won’t tell me. “All I will tell you is he’s not happy that you’re in her life and she’s not happy with how he’s handling it, but she feels guilty for never telling him about you in the first place.”
“Why do you think she didn’t?”
“Because she never thought you would be in her life again,” he comments softly, giving me a pointed look.
“Right.” I nod, wanting to change the subject because the thought ofnotbeing in hers and Avery’s lives makes my chest ache. “There’s one other item I need your help with.”
“Oh God, what is it? I still haven’t agreed to your first request, you know?”
I smile and ignore that because I need him to help me. I have no other option. “The tabloids are publishing some false stories about Jenna that are affecting her reputation.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen them and they’re awful.” He scowls and shakes his head. “How can they get away with saying some of that stuff?”
“First Amendment rights. But here’s what I think we need to do—any negative stories we find about Jenna, we’re going to counteract with one that sheds a more positive light on her. I will need you to do that and be the ‘anonymous source.’”
He looks at me as if I’ve grown two heads. “I don’t know how to do any of that shit!”
“My publicist will teach you.”
He blinks a couple of times and just stares at me. “Wow. Does this kind of stuff happen frequently?”
“All the time.”
“Hollywood is weird.” His face scrunches up in disgust and I chuckle because he’s exactly right on how ‘weird’ it actually gets in Hollywood.
“So, will you help me, Robert?”
“Fine,” he says with a sigh, not looking happy at all. “But this bodyguard better get here soon.”
“I’m working on it. I’ve interviewed a couple, but the problem is how quickly I need them here. Most of them have to serve out the rest of their contracts and that can take months.”
“I’m not going behind her back like this for months, Cal.”
“No, we won’t be,” I confirm just as there’s a knock on the door and my assigned butler pops his head in.
“Ms. Pruitt is on her way up, sir.”
“Thank you, Randall.” Robert gets up from his chair and we walk out of my office and to the front door. We step outside and close the door, not wanting the girls to see my surprise yet.
They round the corner and as soon as Avery sees me, she runs down the hallway and hugs my legs. I lift her up and hold her in my arms while we watch Jenna walk toward us. She’s wearing Jax’s team’s jersey with tight jeans that hug every inch of her legs and open toe booties. I bite the inside of my cheek to not show my displeasure because I would like nothing more than to rip that jersey off her body and burn it.
“Why are you waiting outside for us and Robert, what are you doing here? You told me you were going for a site inspection.”
“Yeah, I lied,” Robert confirms nonchalantly with a shrug of his shoulders. “Cal arranged a surprise for Avery that he needed my help with.”
“A surprise? For me?” Avery giggles in excitement.
“That’s right, but before we can go in, you need to close your eyes. Do you think you can do that without opening them or do you need a sparkly eye mask?” I ask, wanting to see which she chooses.
“Eye mask because Mommy says I cheat sometimes when we play games so I would cheat and open my eyes.” We laugh at her honesty, and I set her back down on her feet.
“Well, since Avery chose the mask, that means Mommy has to wear one too.” Robert produces two sparkling masks and hands one to Jenna and then one to Avery.
“Ooh, this is exciting,” Jenna exclaims, intrigued by the surprise. She helps Avery with her mask before putting on her own. When we know the masks are secured, I take Avery’s hand and Robert takes Jenna’s and we carefully walk them inside.
We move about two feet in before we stop. “All right girls, on the count of three you can take off your blindfold. One, two…three!”
They rip off their masks and Avery starts to scream in delight. She runs toward the pile of treasures and starts bouncing around from the turquoise balloon wall to the arts and crafts table to the themed food table complete with gummy sharks and mermaid tail cookies, and then continues through the seashell teepee dining “room”.
