Page 84 of The Wiener Across the Way

Penelope hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath. “Kelsey, there’s something I need to tell you, and I’m not sure how you’re going to react, but I want you know anyway.”

Ooph. I didn’t know if I was ready for more big revelations. “Okay. We’re living in a new age of openness and honestly like never before. No secrets between us, okay?”

She nodded and set her tablet down. Something I’d never seen her do before. Like, ever. She even had it when I was in the hospital. She was eternally taking pictures and videos of me, for me, for social media.

“Okay, here’s goes.” She swallowed hard and then looked me straight in the eye. “I’m Mz. Bestie’s Bestie.”

I stared at her, my mouth agape. “You? What? But how? Why didn’t you tell me?”

I stopped myself and took her hand. “I’m not in any way mad. Just surprised. I always assumed Mz. Bestie’s Bestie was just a huge fan.”

“I am a huge fan. Have been since forever. I voted for you when you were onThe Choicest Voice,” Penelope admitted, a sheepish smile on her face. “When I started working for you, I wanted to do more, be more than just an assistant. But Skeeter told me that without a degree, that’s all I’d ever be.”

Anger and sadness mingled within me. “Skeeter had no right to limit your potential. I don’t have a degree, why would you need one? Pen, if I’d known, I would have confronted her ages ago.”

One more mark against Skeeter. If I had any question in my mind whether I was going to fire her ass, that doubt was eviscerated now. I was going to need to find a new agent, a new manager, and actually, if I was going to start my own label, because yeah, that was a real possibility now, I was going to need a whole lot of staff. Might as well start from scratch with the whole she-bang.

With Penelope’s identity revealed, we put our plan into action. We crafted a careful message to the Besties’ Besties mod group, asking for their discreet assistance in locating Skeeter. They were excited about getting to help me, and I promised the group something special coming up from me if they could keep all of this quiet.

When we got back to Denver, Declan set Pen up in his guest room, and she and I took over his home office to start our plans for world domination. The first step was a team of lawyers.

Turned out Big Marine was in some serious trouble with the IRS, and they were going down, fast. The lawyers worked to ensure that I was at no fault with Big Marine and while it would take a lot of billable hours, they’d get all of that settled. Which meant, I could launch a whole new career.

Every day, Declan would go off to football practice and Penelope and I would get to work on all the first steps to setting up my own label and rescheduling concerts in the cities that had been cancelled. It was a lot of work, and while I was excited about most of it, I didn’t love the nitty gritty details and mountains of paperwork.

Penelope did though. She had quite the eye for detail, and she was maybe as big of a workaholic as me. She was definitely getting a huge raise and a promotion. Probably to vice president of my whole-ass company.

But I’d learned my lesson and built in downtime for the piles of work for us both. Each day when Declan got home from work,we had to close up shop. I think he came home extra early a few days in a row just to test if I really would quit working for the day.

When he threw me over his shoulder and up the stairs to make love to me five ways to Sunday, I did not protest one single bit. The one caveat I got in the new world order of work and rest was that songwriting didn’t count as work.

Mostly because it didn’t feel like work anymore. For the first time in years, the music brought me joy again. I was already planning an album with a bunch of my locked-away-in-the-vault music the label hadn’t let me release before. And I had the basics of a whole new album too.

After the tour was over, I’d need to get back in the studio and the songs would become magic. TheChunky Dunkin’album would be a reality by next summer, and I was definitely releasing a new Christmas song. Something about a Rocky Mountain white Christmas, I thought.

At first, Pen didn’t know what to do with herself if we weren’t working twenty-four-seven. I introduced her to Declan’s younger brothers and suggested she learn how to play video games with them, and after hanging out with them just a couple of times, she was talking about enrolling at DSU next fall.

Maybe I would too. I’d had excellent tutors to help me finish high school after I’d wonThe Choicest Voice, but college was never something I thought I could fit into my life. But being my own boss, and one who was working really hard to balance work and life better, I think it was high time I matriculated.

About a week after we asked the Bestie’s for help finding Skeeter, they did. It was amazing. The FBI should seriously consider hiring this team of women as investigators. They were sharp.

They traced her to the hotel I stayed in in Aspen, still charging to my account. Time to pull some vigilante shit.

Armed with a whole team of lawyers that had uncovered just how much she’d both screwed up my contract, and embezzled money from me, we were going to take Skeeter down, and make sure she could never do this to another artist ever again.

With the army of lawyers and a pack of Kingmans at my back, we headed to Aspen.

I was so ready to confront the snake.

We found her lounging by the hot tub on the concierge level taking up two deck chairs like the greedy bitch she was. It was sure going to be cold getting kicked out on her ass in only a swimsuit.

“Hello, Skeeter.” I stood right in her sun, throwing shade her way.

She looked up in surprise, but it took her only a second to put her familiar mask back on. “Kelsey, what an interesting surprise. I see you brought your himbo and your ditzy-ass assistant. Still can’t fight your own battles, hmm?”

Declan, standing right next to me, just crossed his arms and glared. He knew I got this, and I loved him for it.

“You’re fired, Skeeter,” I said firmly. “I am done with your manipulations and lies.”

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