“I never thought of you that way. You’re far from dumb. Truth be known, I was a little jealous. You always seemed to have the perfect girl on your arm. I mishandled the whole thing. There was a near-revolt on my board when they found out I’d fired you. That was an expensive lesson.”
“I bought a farm with that money,” I said.
“Can we talk about Caryn?” he asked. “Did you go after her to hurt me?”
“A little, but I really needed someone. You letting Cora treat her like dirt made it easy.”
He looked out the window, and we watched the traffic.
“I messed that up. Caryn was way overqualified to be doing what I had her do. She has a ton of potential. Do right by her,” Devin said.
“She’s shown that I need her for much more than just to manage me. I plan to put her in charge of everything as soon as she’s up to speed. I have big plans for Caryn,” I admitted.
“So, she’s happy?”
“Yeah, I believe she is.”
“Do you think we can work at being friends again?”
I thought about it. I’d always liked Devin. It was his immaturity when it came to women that caused friction between us. He would be so busy with his divorce from Cora I was sure he would leave my women alone.
“Yeah,” I said. “Do you have an ironclad prenup in place?”
“Why does everyone ask that?”
My eyes got big.
“If everyone’s asking you something, shouldn’t you at least wonder why? Did you at least have her investigated?” I asked.
“You’re just being a jerk,” he pouted.
“If I hadn’t asked, I’d feel responsible if something happened. I really hope that ‘everyone’ is wrong,” I said.
“Yep, jerk,” Devin said.
“Just saying,” I said and held up my hands.
I’d tried. Only time would tell for both Cora and me, as far as Devin was concerned.
◊◊◊
Chapter 25 – Best Christmas Present Ever Tuesday December 29
When I came back from my run, Mom and Dad were sitting on the patio, drinking coffee. The paparazzi had figured out I’d moved to the beach house. I took my shower and met my parents and Fritz for breakfast. Mom had made an enormous Spanish omelet.
“Do you have to deal with that all the time?” Dad asked.
“It’s a daily occurrence. I just assume that someone has a camera on me whenever I’m in public. In retrospect, I should’ve listened to Uncle John’s warning. This really has changed the way I live,” I admitted.
I spotted the goofy guy from
“Want to see how this works?” I asked.
Mom and Dad gave me funny looks. I ran down and let him in.
“Here’s the deal: I feed you breakfast, and you don’t film inside the house or my parents,” I said.
When he saw what we were eating, he put his camera away. Mom and Dad were going to play tourist today. I’d arranged for them to go to Catalina Island with Sandy, Pam, and Tracy. Lacy had to help Cora with wedding stuff. I’d signed Dad up for a fishing trip while the girls were touring and shopping. I was kicking myself because both Pam and my mom had debit cards. Those two might do some serious damage since I’d upped their limits for the trip.
After breakfast, I took the
“I know you’ve modeled and done some love scenes in movies. The big thing now is to do reality shows with people getting naked.”
“I’ve seen those. There’s a dating one I saw, and then something about surviving in the wild,” I said.
“There are also some popular podcasts. Would you be willing to get naked for a role or a reality show?”
“Sure, if it was right for the scene.”
“My girlfriend does a podcast called
“Is your girlfriend naked on it?”
“No.”
“Then probably not,” I said.
“
I laughed.
“If it does, I’ll do your girlfriend’s podcast, no questions asked,” I said.
We’d originally been scheduled to come out the same weekend. It would’ve been a disaster. Jessup told me the studio would be very excited if we did fifty million the first weekend. That would mean we turned a profit.
I had to get to the studio, so I wrapped it up with the
◊◊◊
Today was another heavy shoot day. Everyone wanted to get out early for New Year’s Eve. Caryn took good care of me and brought me lunch on the set.
I received a text from Maria wanting to get together for another learning session. As much as I enjoyed teaching her, I didn’t think my friends would appreciate my efforts. So I begged off until after the New Year when everyone else would be going home.
Dad was irritating me. He kept sending me pictures of the fish he was catching. So far, he’d caught three albacore tuna, a yellowtail amberjack, and two yellowfin tuna.
“What do you keep frowning about?” Zak asked.
