I smiled. “Yeah, it is.”
“Well, let’s do the same, okay? For now, Harris is safe with us. And aside from the hard nights, he seems happy here, so that’s good. I think it’s just that the demons come out at night, you know?”
“Kind of like you,” I said gently.
“Hey, I’ve been sleeping better since you got here.”
I leaned in to kiss him. “I know, and I’m glad.”
Jake tossed the blanket over both of us before propping his feet on the coffee table next to mine.
“What were you looking at?” he asked, gesturing to my tablet.
“Oh, just some housing companies. Figured I better start looking at my options if I’m staying in Reedsport.”
Jake frowned. It looked like he was going to say something but without warning, the annoying Skype ringtone blared from the tablet screen. Max’s picture popped up, making me smile.
“Who is that?” Jake asked.
“Max.”
“Ooh! Wow, he looks like you.”
“Want to meet him?”
“Sure.”
It took a few seconds for us to connect, and then I saw my cousin’s tanned face on the screen.“Buenos dias, primo!”
He opened his mouth to reply, then noticed Jake and stopped. “Is this a bad time?”
I laughed. “No. You’re fine. This is my boyfriend, Jake. Say hi.”
“Boyfriend?” Max’s camera shifted, and he said something in Spanish, too muffled for me to make out. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing someone!”
“I haven’t had a chance yet. Things were still kinda new last time I talked to you.”
Jake wasn’t sure what to say, so he settled for an awkward little wave.
“Wait, does your family know? Mia hasn’t been bothering me as much lately. Have you talked to them?”
I frowned. “No, but I’ll call them soon,” I managed, glancing at Jake who just gave me a reassuring smile. I didn’t want to tell anyone in my family until I knew for certain Jake was in this completely. Once they accepted I wasn’t returning to Mexico, they’d see Jake as my only reason for not trying harder to find another team, and right now, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. They’d either be happy for me, or they’d accuse Jake of distracting me from my career. So until I knew for certain Jake was committed, I was doing my best to avoid more Reyes family drama.
“How’s Venezuela?” I asked, trying to steer Max away from family.
We talked for about a half hour, and I updated him about my decision to stay in Reedsport. He was thrilled to hear I’d bought into the business, asking about a thousand questions. Max loved having the chance to get to know Jake too, wanting to know about his career and how long he’d been in Reedsport. But I was glad Jake hadn’t brought Harrison into the conversation. Not because I didn’t want Max to know, but because I didn’t think Harrison’s business needed to be shared more than necessary right now. We’d figure out what was going on with him first, and if anyone else needed to be introduced, we’d cross those bridges as they came. Just as Jake had said.
Slowly, the conversation drifted back to Max. He was upset that one of his sponsors had dropped him as a photographer for their travel blog, saying his style no longer matched the direction their blog was heading. Because it was owned by the same company as one of the other blogs he worked for, it meant he could potentially lose that contract as well. Max was stressed out and more than a little furious, since he was supposed to have another two months with them, and they just decided to buy out his contract rather than see it through.
“Well, maybe this is that break you needed,” I encouraged. “Weren’t you just saying how burned out you are? You could always come here for a while, I’d love to see you.”
Max considered that for a moment, “Yeah, maybe.”
Jake suddenly turned to me. “Hey, didn’t you say you needed a photographer for spring lessons?” Without waiting for a reply, he said to Max, “HotShots will need some updated promotional stuff once their new building is done, and then they’ll want someone to take individual and team photos this spring. Do you think you could do that? Some of the traveling teams will want someone to go out of the area with them too.”
My cousin looked somewhere offscreen as he considered it. “Yeah, actually. That might work. I really am sick of traveling. I got sick twice last week on the food here. I just don’t trust other people cooking for me anymore.”
Jake laughed, but I knew Max wasn’t kidding around. He’d always had a picky stomach and had to be careful with certain foods, which was hard to do while traveling. All in all though, I was thrilled with the idea of Max coming to work for HotShots, even if it was temporary, and wanted to kiss Jake for being so quick to think of it. Rome was going to be happy about it too. They’d met on a few occasions and had gotten along well, so I knew he would be on board with the idea.
