Chapter 17
Relationships sucked. But it turned out that the problem with every relationship I”d ever been in was that I wasn”t married.
Or maybe it was because those partners weren”t Maya.
The video I posted of her got reposted by most of the guys on the team, and then it blew the fuck up. Her song was everywhere. She went from TikTok famous to straight-up a big fucking deal.
Maya”s online success only continued to grow after that reel of her own music went mega-viral. Her original songs all bypassed the covers she”d done before. And she continued to post them. Each one gained more attention than the last. I couldn”t keep up with the number of likes, views, and shares she had. There were entirely too many to count.
”What do I even do with all of this attention?” Maya said, pacing in the bedroom with a purple bottle of ZipZing in her hand.
I tried to focus on packing for training camp, but the weight of her uncertainty was palpable. As she continued to pace, her footsteps echoed in the room, in contrast to the silence that followed her question. Maya only paused her pacing to watch me toss in a pair of shorts and a tube of toothpaste.
I turned to look at her, her expression a mix of concern and apprehension.
”You keep being you,” I said, ensuring my words were heavy with reassurance. ”You”ve got something special. You”ve got a gift.”
Maya”s eyes met mine, a whole heap of emotions swirling within them. And then, without warning, she strode straight to me, set the bottle on the dresser, and threw her arms around me in a fierce hug. I pulled her into a tight embrace, her heartbeat thudding against mine.
She pulled back slightly. Our gazes locked.
”I”m just scared,” she confessed softly, her vulnerability shining through the facade of confidence. Her fingertips grazed my jawline, her touch gentle.
I cupped her face in my hands, my thumbs tracing small circles on her cheeks.
”If you”re scared, then I”m here to be scared with you,” I whispered. ”But, Maya, I have to be honest. If you keep pressing against me like this, I”ll never make it to training camp, and then Coach is gonna be furious. I won”t get a contract extension, and that won”t turn out well for anyone.”
She laughed, pulling away to survey my bag.
”Is that how you”re doing it?” she asked, frowning. ”You know you can fit so much more if you fold the pants like this.” She grabbed a pair of jeans to illustrate her method. Somehow, she folded, rolled, and tucked my pants into a small cylinder. ”And for bonus points, when you unroll them, they won”t have any wrinkles.”
”Maya?” I asked her name gently because I gave zero care to if my pants got wrinkled. But she cared, and she”d made that clear in her organization of my entire house over the past month.
”Huh?” She”d already moved onto folding, rolling, and tucking another pair of pants.
”Do you want to pack for me?” I asked. ”Because I would love your help.”
She glanced up from the new pants cylinder, her eyes soft. ”For real?”
”Do your thing, baby,” I said, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the forehead. ”Maybe it”ll help with the clarity you”re trying to find.”
She melted into my touch. It didn”t suck, that was for certain.
Honestly, I should”ve found a closet or a tool chest or something and really messed it up for her to fix. That”s a thing she”d totally get off on.
”Like twenty more people reached out to me this morning about opportunities,” she said, stepping away to go back to packing. ”I don”t even know where to begin to sort them out.” She”d moved on to the boxer briefs. I couldn”t describe how she did what she did to make them fit into a space two times smaller than what I figured they needed.
Even as she did her thing and made magic with my underwear, her anxiety oozed. I got it, the weight of all the contacts reaching out and pressing down on her. After the first dozen messages she”d shown me, it”d gotten overwhelming for me, too. And I wasn”t the one corresponding with them.
”You need someone who knows the industry,” I said.
Sure, I”d navigated the legalities of being a professional athlete, but I didn”t do it alone. I made damn certain my team—even if they drove me nuts—had my best interests in play.
Maya frowned and tilted her head back to stare at the ceiling. ”I sent some messages to friends and some of the headliners I”ve worked with. I just… It”s hard to know who is really on my team, though? You know?”
”I know a guy,” I said, certain I knew the perfect person to help solve this puzzle.
If there was one thing I”d learned, when you didn”t fucking know what to do, you went to people who did. Then you listened to them and did what they said.
”All of these people know a guy, too.” She pointed to the laptop with another pair of my boxers.
”But you don”t know if you can trust them,” I countered.
She blew out a defeated breath, even as she organized my suitcase in ways it”d never been organized before.
”You trust me?” I asked, already knowing the answer because a woman didn”t let a man do the things we”d done that morning in the shower if she didn”t have faith in his ability to take care of her.
”Of course, I trust you.” She looked at me like I”d fumbled the ball right before hitting the end zone.
”Then when Elliott gets here, we”re gonna loop him in,” I said.
She frowned. ”He reps sports athletes.”
”But his connections never fail to surprise.” There was a reason he”d been my agent for so long.
Maya trusted me. I trusted Elliott.
When Elliott arrived at our doorstep to drive my ass to training camp in Greeley, I knew I wasn”t wrong about my choice to trust him with Maya. Elliott, in his spotless suit and with the confidence of only someone who knew how to wrangle the sharks in a cutthroat industry, would know which offer was best.
I may have made his life hard as hell with some of my previous mistakes, but Elliott was the best at fixing shit that I broke.
Here, since I hadn”t broken anything yet, I figured his job would be cake. Maya laid it all out for him with a list of everyone who had cold-contacted her.
”There are messages and offers and more than a few inappropriate propositions,” she said the last part with a frown.
Nope, I didn”t like that frown or the propositions.
”I wish the answer was easy,” she continued. ”But I don”t know these people, and the people I know are all recommending different things. I mean, this is my career, and I”ve finally got a shot. I can”t wreck it right from the start.”
”There”s a dude in Denver,” Elliott said after he finished scanning the list. ”Owns a bar, and he”s a big deal in the music industry. He”s the one you need to talk to. I”ll call a meeting.”
”You trust him?” I asked, wanting that confirmation before anyone went near Maya”s career.
”He”s the one to trust,” Elliott assured. ”Let me make some calls, and I”ll be there for the initial talk if that”d make you more comfortable.”
”You”d do that for me?” Maya asked with a note of shock.
”Maya, you”re my sister”s friend, and you”re Sloan”s wife.” He paused, seemed to make sure she heard every word he said because they were important. ”And I consider you a friend, too. Of course, I”d do that for you. Honestly, I”m happy you”re asking.”
There was no escaping training camp, but Brek Montgomery—Elliott”s contact—couldn”t do the meeting straight away, anyway.
Maya”s videos continued to skyrocket in the meantime, and Elliott kept mentioning how her value was only growing with each viral push. By the time we all gathered to meet at the dive bar Brek owned, Maya”s value in the music industry had increased substantially.
Brek”s Bar was a hidden gem tucked away in the corner of Denver. People in the city knew about the bar because Brek”s connections with the music industry meant his performers were A-list. The guy had managed Dimefront for fuck’s sake. He”d left his management role to run the bar when he met and fell in love with his wife. But Elliott was right, his connections with the industry were solid.
Brek brought along Hans—the current manager for Dimefront and pop sensation Sami Jo—to the meeting.
”You”re the musician I keep hearing about,” Hans said, holding his hand to Maya.
She shook it. ”I mean…”
”Yes, she is,” Elliott said with an air of authority that I really appreciated. ”Her videos are currently trending on all major social media platforms. And without even trying, one of her homemade singles is trending on the two biggest streaming apps. Imagine what she could do with a professional studio and management.”
He proceeded to lay out statistics I didn”t even know existed about who was viewing, liking, and sharing Maya”s reels. While Elliott detailed the stats, I leaned back in my chair like I was lounging and this wasn”t a big deal, but I”d discreetly placed my hand on her back in a gesture of solidarity.
Not obvious so anyone else would even see, just so she”d know I was there and watching out for her.
”Look, I work with athletes,” Elliott finished up after laying it all out. ”Maya needs someone she can trust, and she”s got so many offers that it”s impossible to sift through them all in one sitting. Or four.” He paused. Was he thinking, or was this for dramatic effect? ”We came here because Brek knows the best. And Maya deserves the best. Is that you?”
”It”s me, and I agree. Here”s the deal. Dimefront goes on tour in three weeks,” Hans said, looking only at Maya. ”Sami Jo was their opening act, but she”s now unable to perform.”
Sami Jo was married to the Dimefront drummer, and she was a pop star in her own right. She”d had a breakout song about mozzarella sticks as a teenager, avoided all media for ages, and then broke back onto the scene when she and the Dimefront drummer connected. She was a big fucking deal.
”Sam will still be on tour with us, but not in a professional capacity,” Hans added in that way managers do when they don”t want to share too much information about a client, but you know the intel they”ve got is probably gossip worthy.
”Sam”s pregnant, and she”s taking it easy,” Brek said, his hands folded behind his head. ”Just tell her, Hans; she”ll see for herself soon enough.”
Hans gave Brek a look like he wasn”t pleased with the interruption. ”We”ve put feelers out for a replacement act, and given your popularity, I think you should take the job.”
”You”re offering to head my management team?” Maya asked, before Hans could say anything else. ”Because I have some terms of my own that I”d like to bring into the mix.”
Elliott looked at her like she”d lost her mind. But I had faith.
”I may be considered an overnight sensation, but I assure you I”ve been doing this long enough to know what I”d like in representation.” Now, it was her turn to lean in and take control of the meeting.
Hans sat up a touch straighter.
Brek seemed to enjoy this turn of events, what with his shit-eating grin.
”I don”t want to agree to something like a tour without understanding how it fits into the entire fabric of my career. Too many times, artists are a one-and-done because they don”t have a long-term plan.” She didn”t even blink as she continued, ”I am not a one-and-done.”
”No, no, you”re not.” Hans steepled his index fingers under his chin. ”I”ve got some ideas for you. I think you”ll like them, but launching with Dimefront is not a bad way to kick off your solo career.”
”I know. It”s likely the best way. I just want to ensure that I”m not only filler. That we”re working toward the same goal,” Maya said.
”I”ll make some calls to my record label guys. With Hans on board, they”ll take good care of you,” Brek said. ”Let”s see if we can get the gears rolling on that before the tour starts.”
Elliott lifted an eyebrow, but his wry smile gave him away.
”This sounds… this sounds perfect,” Maya said, sliding her gaze to meet mine.
I might”ve been grinning like an idiot, but damn, I was proud of my wife.