“I bet you will. Wait till I’m 18 and then you can kiss this girl,” Sandy offered.
I heard room service knocking.
“Hey, I’ve got to get going. Tell Devin thanks, and since I know you’re mainly responsible, thank you also. I appreciate you taking care of me. I’ll try to stir up an even bigger story to help sell Range products in the next few days. Keep an eye out,” I teased.
“Don’t worry about it. Devin says you’re the best money he ever spent. Just don’t knock me up, and I think we’ll be good,” she teased back.
I finally let the poor man in so he could deliver the food. He worked in the grill.
“How bad is it down there?” I asked.
“Not bad. The kids are all well-behaved, but they’re restless. They want to hit the slopes. The lodge does have a pool. Maybe you could wear them out there.”
“Sounds good, but where can I get swimsuits for them?”
“They have ’em in the sports shop, you just have to ask. They’re in the back room this time of year,” the delivery guy told me.
“Tell them to go back and get fitted. I’ll call Pat and get it set up,” I said, as I gave the guy a big tip and signed for everyone’s lunch.
As I was wolfing down my sandwich, I realized I hadn’t eaten yet today. I called Pat and arranged swimsuits for everyone. I was just finishing eating when I got a text from Kendal to call her. I wasn’t used to using my tablet for texting. It seemed to be working just fine. I called in and the secretary wanted to put me through to Tom. I convinced her that would be a bad idea today.
“Holy shit, Batman, you’re a frickin’ money machine,” Kendal proclaimed.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying to figure out what I’d done.
“I just got a call from the photographer, and he sent over the offers for the video and pictures from today.”
“Video? What video are you talking about? He only had a camera.”
“‘Stupid boy,’ those cameras also shoot video,” Kendal said.
Who knew?
“Anyways, once the networks saw you with the little kid, and then hugging on a new girl, they went nuts. If you approve all fourteen offers, you’ll clear over thirty grand today. If you go exclusive, it jumps to just under forty grand. The photographer said to go with everyone. Getting greedy will only piss the others off. What do you want to do, boss?” Kendal asked.
“Do the deal for all the offers,” I told her.
“The photographer suggested you do a sex tape in the next 48 hours. You’re on a roll. He said we could all get rich,” she teased me.
“But I would feel like such a whore,” I whined.
Kendal dropped the phone, laughing. She finally picked it back up.
“Who should I get for the sex tape?” Kendal asked.
“Oh, this is so good. Call my brother and tell him you’re contacting Hannah Minacci to do a tape with me. I want to hear him cry, so record it for me.”
“You’re bad. That’s why I like working with you. Consider it done. And oh ... Tom says he’s sorry. He seemed pretty sincere,” Kendal told me.
“That reminds me. Get your secretary in hand. She tried to forward my call to him. That better not happen today.”
I heard a knock at her door.
“Crud, it’s Tom; she ratted us out,” she said.
“Make the deal, and tell Tom to cool his jets. I’ll sit down with him when I get back. I’m not doing this over the phone.”
“Got it. Talk to you later.”
I WENT SWIMMING WITH the horde. I had my own suit from being in Florida. I think we may have gotten kicked out if the hotel staff hadn’t recognized me. The kids were a little out of control. While I relaxed in one of the lounge chairs, Sun came over and sat by me. We caught up on everything. She liked her new family and our church. She seemed to be in a much better frame of mind. Not being homeless probably does that. She also was doing well socially. Her new boyfriend seemed like a nice guy.
Everyone was wiped out when we got done. Each room in the suite had its own bathroom. We split it up so that Sun took care of the older girls and Mrs. Kelly got the younger ones. I got the older guys and Pastor Dan got the younger ones.
I stuck my head in the older guys’ room.
“You think you can figure out how to take a shower, or do you need help?” I asked.
The ungrateful twerps flipped me off. Did I say church group? So much for taking care of them; the little stinkers were on their own.
My message light was on. I checked and I had three messages: two calls from networks wanting comments, and one from Kendal telling me to call her right away.
I called Kendal first and the secretary put me right through.
“You’re just making my day a living hell. I now have six requests for interviews. They all have deadlines, so they’re pushing. They want video, so we can’t do a conference call. Can you get a conference room set up?” she asked.
“I have two more. I’ll get something set up here. Call Clare and tell her we need her publicist on this. I want talking points in the next thirty minutes. Make sure Range Sports gets all the credit. Have someone call all these people back. Can you schedule fifteen-minute slots?”
Kendal said she had it covered, so I called the front desk and got some flunky. It took me ten minutes to get someone in management to get a room for me. It turned out to be another suite that I had to rent for the night. I told them if they comped the room, I would mention them in the interview. They agreed, taking that worry off me.
I grabbed my suit and bolted for the other room. I needed a shower also. On my way out, I told Pastor Dan where I was going and to order pizza for the kids. I gave him my debit card. Thank God I got that back from Tracy. I made him promise to hide some pizza for me.
I was finishing getting dressed when the first group arrived. I suddenly realized I needed to have Range Sports gear on, so while they were setting up I ran to the other suite. Clothes were flying as I ran to my room. I was down to my underwear as I closed my bedroom door. Mrs. Kelly got an eyeful, but luckily everyone else was taking a nap or shower. I put on a thermal sweatshirt and jeans. I rushed back and opened my tablet to find my talking points. Thank goodness, Kendal came through. I noted that Tom had made some good points about not embarrassing the little guy in the video.
Right away it was clear that the local affiliate had sent their ‘A’ team. That meant this was going national. With the prep from Ford’s spin-doctors, I was ready for the interviews. I was into two-and-a-half hours after the eighth interview. Number nine turned out to be Sunny Skye. Her cameraman was holding the camera at his waist, pointed at us, so I knew he was filming.
I jumped out of my chair and pulled her into a big hug and kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, Sunny, how are you?” I asked.
“So I hear you have a new girlfriend?”
I almost laughed, because I knew Sunny was ambushing me. I stuck to my talking points. She frowned halfway through my second response. I just stopped and grinned.
“I give you an ‘A’ for effort, Sunny, but did you think I would fall for the old ‘oops, the camera was on’ routine?”
“How did you figure it out? That one always works,” Sunny complained.
“My ex trained me well. You have everything you need, or do you want to redo it sitting down?”
“Let’s do it right and sit down. We need to hurry, though, because I have a deadline.”
While they were setting up, the pizza guy knocked on my door.
“Sorry, Mr. Dawson, but I need your signature on the receipt.”
I signed it and gave him a cash tip. He slid a large pizza out of his thermal bag and gave it to me. Pastor Dan had remembered! Once the cameraman and Sunny saw I had pizza, we all took a break. I was impressed Sunny that was no shrinking violet when it came to chowing down pizza. The three of us made short work of the large pie and got to the interview. While we were eating, I told her about the photographer suggesting I do a sex tape.