Chapter 14
RAKE
“That was one memorable trip, huh?” Tyler asks, wiping the sweat from his face as we return to the locker room from weight training.
“I’ll never forget it,” I say.
Actually, the sooner I forget it, the better. There’s no accounting for the idiocy of marrying someone in Vegas on a dare, whether you know them or not.
And I do not know Petal Parker. Not in any meaningful way, anyway.
“So, did you fuck her?” he asks.
This guy.
“No, I did not fuck her,” I say. “I barely even know the woman.”
Jonas joins us, getting ready for the shower. “That never stopped you before, my man. In fact, I always thought the less you knew of the woman you fucked, the happier you were.”
He’s got a point. But this wasn’t some one-nighter. I can’t do that shit with Petal Parker. Our date was way too public, just like both our profiles. I like privacy when I get my rocks off. Leave no trace, no forwarding number. That sort of thing.
I pick up my buzzing phone to see a text from Vince.
Great. Just great. I wanted a peaceful workout, then a shower and maybe some lunch after a crazy night in Vegas. Now I’m going to have him all over my ass.
what can I do for you, Vince?
can you come by the office before you leave?
sure
“Vince wants to see me,” I groan.
“Oh boy. Didn’t take long for him to find out,” Jonas says.
“It’s like he has me bugged. The man probably knows when I take a shit.”
“Sucks, dude,” Jonas adds.
“Hey, text me where you’re getting lunch. I’ll try to catch up,” I say, and head out.
I get to Vince’s office just as my agent is arriving.
“BJ Sullivan! Good to see you,” I say, taking his extended hand. “How long you here for? Got time for a drink?”
He avoids my eyes. “C’mon. We’ll talk in Vince’s office.”
Damn.
I take a seat and for a change don’t throw my feet up on Vince’s desk. With my agent being here and all, I’m not messing around.
Vince leans onto his desk. “BJ, thank you for coming.”
He nods. “I was in town anyway. Shall we get down to business?”
Vince nods, and something grinds in my stomach. “I’m going to get right to the point,” he says. “A sham wedding in Vegas was not what we had in mind when I set you up with that charity fundraiser, Rake.”
Oh. That.
I relax.
“Vince, what I do in my free time is none of your business—”
He raises his hands and cuts me off. “Unfortunately, it is. If there hadn’t been issues in the past, this debacle would be left for you to navigate. But once again, I have to take time out of my day to babysit you.”
The fuck?
I get to my feet. “I don’t need to take this kind of shit from you, Vince.” I head for the door.
“Rake, hold up,” BJ says. “Come on back. We need to talk.”
I don’t like the look in his eye. Not at all. I’ve been with BJ since the start of my career and have never seen him like this.
“Look, Rake,” he says, “a sham wedding is not the end of the world. But Vince asked me here to help work out what happens next.”
I look between the two of them. “What do you mean, ‘what happens next?’ Not that it’s anyone’s business, but we’re getting a divorce. We already talked about it. No big deal. It was a dare we took with friends.”
Vince shakes a finger at me. “That’s where we have an idea for you, Rake.
Instead of letting the world know you got married in a Vegas wedding chapel just for kicks, before people accuse you of pulling a Britney Spears, we want you to play it like it’s the real thing.
You met Petal, fell for each other, and a walk down the aisle was the next natural step. ”
Britney Spears? “You’ve got to be out of your minds. You think people are going to believe that over ‘we just got married as a joke’?” I ask, using air quotes.
I look at BJ, who seems happy to let Vince continue to talk.
“That’s exactly what we’re saying. Look, I told you already, Rake, the team owners are… wanting to see some changes. You’ve attracted their attention, and not in a good way. You want to be on their radar for good reasons, not the other way around.”
For fuck’s sake. So I got in a few bar brawls. Like the world is coming to an end.
On the other hand, if I’m on the owners’ radar, maybe I ought to shut my ass up and listen.
“So, you’re saying, I need to pretend that my marriage to Petal was the real thing? Like you need us to play house and stuff, like we’re really in it?”
Vince and BJ nod.
“What if Petal wants no part of it? I mean, I can’t really pull this off by myself.”
“That’s where your power of persuasion comes in,” Vince says.
“You will talk to her. Tell her what’s up and that you need her to go along with the charade.
You can do this. It won’t be hard. She’s a nice woman, attractive, and well-known in San Francisco.
What could clean your reputation up faster than being married to a nice girl like her? ”
“You guys don’t know her. She doesn’t suffer fools. I don’t think anything I say will get her on board. She doesn’t want to be married to me any more than I want to be married to her.”
Vince slaps his hand on his desk and stands.
This fucker thinks our meeting is over? He can think again.
“I’m telling you both that she won’t only say no, she’ll say fuck no.”
“Talk her into it, Rake. Your career depends on it.”
BJ stands too, and I accept that the meeting’s over not because Vince says it is, but because I’m completely out of things to say.