Page 5 of Rockstar Untamed
“Except today. Pudding stomach is out of action?”
“Yes, sir.”
Bodhi chuckled. “If my mom was here, you’d been talked into it. She’s been making gelato since I was a kid, before that even. Family recipe.”
“Your mom’s Italian?”
“She is. An artist. She lives in Florence, and I don’t get to see her as often as I would like. She would like you, Sailor. She hates women who pick at their food. So, do I. One of life’s great pleasures, food.”
“Especially if it’s made by a rockstar,” Sailor grinned and, laughing, he toasted her with his glass.
They were sitting out on his patio, looking over the hills at Los Angeles in the distance. His huge infinity pool shone bright blue and a small breeze took some of the afternoon heat off. Sailor studied her host. “Do you live here alone?”
Bodhi shook his head. “No, my son is here with me at the moment. He’s ten, well, only just. His name is Tim.”
He reached into his pocket for his wallet, then pulled out a photograph to show Sailor. She studied it. “Adorable. He is your twin,” she said, nodding.
“In looks only, I’m afraid,” Bodhi smiled a little sadly. “While his old Pa is an exhibitionist and a show-off, Tim is definitely erring on the side of science. Not that it’s a bad thing. He could run rings around me, and frequently does.” Bodhi gazed out at the view for a long moment. “I didn’t know him, or even that he existed until six months ago. His mother, Gemma, was my girlfriend a decade ago, but we hadn’t seen or spoken for that long. She came to me, she needed some alone time and that it was my turn to raise my son.” He looked at Sailor and gave a hopeless shrug. “I have no idea what I’m doing, Sailor. None. And Tim…Tim resents me.”
Sailor was startled at his frankness, but touched that he opened up to her. Two hours ago, they were strangers. “I think you’re probably doing better than you think, Bodhi. It has to be hard; there’s no owner’s manual when it comes to kids.”
With a pang, she thought back to how she was raised, there, in the cult, there was definitely an owner’s manual, and it was one of subjugation, terror, and manipulation.
“Sailor? You okay?”
Sailor realized she was frowning and grinned sheepishly. “Sorry. Stuck in a memory.”
“Bad childhood?”
“Something like that.” But she didn’t want to ruin the mood by telling him anything, besides, she’d promised herself she would never tellanyone.If word got back to Bart where she was…
“I meant what I said about hiring you, Sailor. I do need a personal assistant, desperately actually. It would involve some childcare, if that doesn’t freak you out, but you’d be mostly working from here with me or traveling with me.”
Sailor suddenly felt shy. Being that close to this man all the time sounded like heaven. “Iwouldwork my ass off for you, Bodhi, I admit, but I wouldn’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of your kindness. You’ve already done more for me in the few hours I’ve known you than anyone else in my lifetime.”
Bodhi’s eyes were troubled. “That’s just plain wrong. Sailor, I’m just glad I was there, you don’t owe meanything.But, seriously, please, give me a shot. I’ll pay double, hell, triple what Winston was paying you. I know you ran interference with Winston and I when I was on sabbatical.”
She started to protest, and he grinned. “Don’t give me that, I know it was you. The kind emails about me taking as long as I needed, that was all you.”
Sailor was bright-red now. “I know what it’s like to have personal stuff going on. Sometimes, you just need to get away.”
Bodhi picked up the bottle of wine and dumped the rest in her glass. “Amen to that, sister. So…yes?” He raised his glass and Sailor picked hers up.
“Yes,” she said simply and tapped her glass against his.
He drove her home before he went to pick up Tim from school. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow just after nine a.m.,” he said, “and we’ll lease you a car as soon as we can. How does that sound?”
She smiled at him. “Sounds great, thank you, Bodhi. And thank you for lunch, for the job…for saving me this morning. I hope I can repay your kindness.”
Bodhi touched his finger to her cheek. “You just stay safe, little one. Maurice doesn’t know where you live, does he?”
She shook her head. “No, thank god. I’ll be fine. See you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Sailor.”
He watched her walk up the stairs to her apartment and wave at him as she opened the door. He smiled and waved back before pulling the car back into traffic. Sailor King. When he’d opened the door to Maurice’s office that morning and saw her being attacked, his anger had known no bounds. She was so tiny, so fragile, of course, his instincts had kicked in. In a way, he was relieved to be free of Maurice Winston. He’d never liked the man, but he was the best agent in Hollywood.Screw it.Why did he even need an agent? He was amusician, for crissakes. He had a contact in San Francisco, Emily Moore, who had given him her card at a concert the year before and told him to call if he needed representation. Emily was gorgeous too, but completely in love with her boyfriend, Dash Hamilton, one of the partners in the Quartet record company. Quartet had been pursuing him too, knowing his contract with Sony was almost up.
Maybe it’s time for a complete change, he thought.Maybe things should slow down.It wasn’t as if he didn’t have enough money, just three months ago, Forbes had placed his net worth just shy of a billion dollars.
