Chapter 29
S omewhere in the Nevada desert, my phone rang again. My heart seized in my chest as I pulled it out, a private number flashing across the screen.
I sent a panicked look at Branch, who was driving today. “Just have to answer it, Tessa May. We can handle whatever is on the other end.”
I sucked in a deep breath and answered. “Hello?”
There was a small chuckle at the other end. “No need to sound so terrified, Miss Moore. This is Vanessa Sumich, of VANT enterprises. I believe I was talking to your, err, assistant a couple of weeks ago regarding possible sponsorship opportunities.”
My eyes flew wide in panic. “Ah, yes. Frankie. He’s not my assistant, he’s my boyfriend.”
“Hmm, I see. I believe I read about that.”
My heart sank. Shit. “Ma’am, I understand you might not want to sponsor me after what they published in the newspapers, but I promise, it isn’t like that. I’m, I mean we’re, not the way they painted us. They are all my, well for a lack of a better term, my boyfriends. We’re, err, polyamorous.”
I heard the distinct sound of a male chuckle in the background on the other end of the line and then some muffled conversation that I didn’t quite catch.
“Is that so? Well, Miss Moore, I can promise you that your relationship status has no bearing on my sponsoring of you. This is the twenty-first century for christsake. But perhaps, in light of the current scrutiny of yourself and your… boyfriends, we might have our meeting at my home in Fresno. Bring your partners.”
I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “Of course, Ms Sumich.”
“Please, call me Vanessa. We shall say tomorrow night at seven? I will send a driver for you if you like? Where are you staying?” I rattled off the name of the little motel that we were staying at on the outskirts of Fresno.
“Excellent. It will just be something casual, no need to stress over the minutiae, don’t you think? ”
I must have agreed because I was hanging up and looking at Branch with wide eyes. “She still wants to sponsor me.”
Branch reached across the hand brake and gripped my thighs. “Of course she does. You are a force to be reckoned with and anyone who wants to be on the right side of history would be dying to sponsor you. You are going to revolutionise this sport, Tessa May, whether you meant to or not.”
At exactly seven the following night, a limo pulled up at the front of our shitty little motel. It was almost comical, the look on the face of the man across the parking lot having a cigarette. Five cowboys get into a limousine. It was like a bad joke.
We were quickly ensconced in the luxury, and Dylan waggled his eyebrows. I gave him a mock stern look. “No funny business. I’m so goddamn nervous.”
Beau gripped one hand and Frankie had the other. “Relax, Querida. You’ve got this. And we are all here to have your back. You will show them how amazing you are, and she will love you, because you are impossible not to love.”
Dylan grinned. “I can testify to that.”
Still, my knee bounced the whole way up to the fancy area in Fresno, to a beautifully lit mansion on the side of a cliff.
It was an architectural feast, somehow managing to be modern and edgy, while still beautifully complementing its surroundings.
“Wow,” I whispered, and the guys murmured their agreement.
This was a level of wealth we would never obtain, but that's okay.
I was a simple girl with simple tastes, and I was lucky enough to have a solid life to fall back into when I finished living my dream.
Frankie gave me his elbow, and we walked up the flagstone steps to the front door.
My heart was beating a million miles a minute when I rang the doorbell.
Dylan whistled as he looked back out over Fresno. “Geez, now that's a million dollar view.”
The door swung open and a handsome older man with tanned skin and perfect teeth smiled back at us. “Thank you. You must be T.M. Moore. Huge fan,” he said, thrusting out a hand for me to shake.
“Uh, thank you?” I said, taking it. “These are, uh, my boyfriends. Frankie, Branch, Beau and Dylan.”
He shook their hands in turn. “Nice to meet you all.” There was no incredulousness in his tone, no surprise at all. Vanessa must have forewarned him. “I’m Trent, Vanessa’s husband. Come on in, we’re just grilling out the back.”
He led us through a house that was painfully perfect, interior designed down to the last throw pillow, but somehow it still managed to feel homey and lived in. It was a credit to whoever Vanessa and Trent’s interior decorator was, that’s for sure.
“Go on ahead, I’ll grab you some drinks? Beer? Champagne?”
We all asked for a beer, and he ushered us toward open french doors.
We stepped out onto a large back deck, which overlooked an infinity pool and a beautiful tropical garden.
It was a private paradise and I felt like a bumpkin when my mouth dropped open.
A gorgeous woman, probably in her late forties, glided over to us.
“T.M., it’s wonderful to finally meet you. I’m Vanessa Sumich.” She stretched out a delicate hand and I shook it. Her grip was strong and sure, as was the look of absolute confidence on her face. She was a woman who knew her place in life, and it was a confidence I envied.
“Please, call me Tessa. This is Dylan, Frankie, Beau and Branch. My partners.” I said it with a lot more confidence this time, and Vanessa smiled pleasantly at them all.
She shook their hands and walked us down the wooden steps onto another more private deck area.
A man was there, grilling on the world's most impressive grill.
Honestly, it was better equipped than most kitchens.
“Nathan, come and meet our guests. Tessa, this is my husband Nathan. Nathan, this is the talented bull rider that I am dying to sponsor.”
I frowned. Trent had said he was Vanessa’s husband at the front door, and now Nathan was her husband too?
How could she have… “Oh!” I blurted out as it hit me.
She didn’t care that the guys and I were polyamorous because she was in a polyamorous relationship too.
I realized I’d been just standing there gaping, and my cheeks flushed.
“Sorry, it's nice to meet you Nathan. I was just, you know, sorry.” I winced and Beau chuckled behind me. Traitor.
Nathan shook my hand, his grin never faltering. “Are you kidding me? People's reactions are my favorite part.”
Frankie was smiling at Vanessa. “I guess that explains your willingness to embrace our unconventional, um, arrangement.”
Vanessa waved a hand as Trent reappeared with a six pack of beer, handing us each one and then another one to Nathan. “It’s less unconventional than you’d think in this current societal climate.”
I shrugged, my face still on fire. “I’ll take your word for that. I had to google it. I can tell you, googling ‘what do you call it when one woman has four boyfriends’ came up with some interesting results.”
They laughed and Vanessa ushered us to a large outdoor table made of polished concrete, with rustic timber benches running beneath it.
“Come, we’ll talk business until Antony gets home, and then we can talk about life.”
There was a leather document wallet sitting on the table and she motioned for us to sit.
“You should get your lawyers to look these over, of course.” She slid the stack over to me.
“Originally, I was just going to sponsor you, Tessa, because a woman making her mark in a male dominated industry? That was something I could support wholeheartedly. But I talked it over with my husbands, and in light of that terrible article, we imagine you guys are coming under quite a bit of pressure from your sponsors as well, am I correct?” Dylan nodded, and so did Branch.
I frowned in his direction and he purposefully didn't meet my eyes. Hmm. We’d talk about that later.
“So we discussed it and decided that perhaps we’d sponsor a team.
All three of you would be sponsored by VANT Tech, each with your own individual contracts. ”
We all gaped at her now. She was throwing us a literal lifeline like it was nothing.
I looked down at the page in front of me.
“Holy hell. That's five figures.” I flicked through the contracts of the other guys too. They were all that high. “Ma’am, that’s a lot of money.
75K each is an insane number to contemplate for a rookie rider.
Maybe for Dylan, or Branch who is on track to be at the top of the leaderboard, but me?
I’m not even going to crack the top thirty this year. ”
Vanessa waved away my protests. “But having the honor to sponsor a trailblazer for women in sports? That is priceless.”
For the next hour we went over specifics of what would be required for the sponsorship, but it was all standard stuff.
Some advertising campaigns, wearing their logo on our flak vests, the usual things.
It just seemed too good. I’d have the lawyers go over everything but I desperately wanted to believe this was the break we needed.
Eventually whatever the hell Nathan was cooking on the grill was done and a well dressed Italian man walked onto the back deck, tugging at his tie, the jacket of his three piece suit already gone.
He gave us a polite smile, but walked straight up to Vanessa and kissed her like he hasn’t seen her in a year.
“Antony, these are the bull riders I was telling you about.”
We introduced ourselves and Nathan delivered a perfectly slow cooked hunk of cow to the table. It smelled divine. Trent put out salads that are obviously catered from a restaurant in heaven, but other than that, it was like an average cookout.