Read Online Calling All the Shots by Katherine Garbera - Free Book Online

it?”
    “No. If I was interested in that type of thing I wouldn’t try
to pursue you while I’m taping two shows and flying between coasts each week.
The timing isn’t right.”
    “Then why are you pursuing me?”
    “Because you finally said yes,” Jack said. “That’s all I really
know, Willow.”
    “Things like that make it hard to keep doubting you,” she said
at last. “And I don’t want to like you.”
    “Why is that?” he asked.
    “It has to do with high school,” she said. “But I don’t want to
talk about it on the phone.”
    “Okay. We can chat about the past on Saturday. Did I do
something wrong back then?”
    “Don’t you remember?” she asked.
    He didn’t. He’d always made it a policy to not look back. He
was sure part of it had to do with losing his father at a very young age and
then always having to move around with his single mother as she tried to keep a
job. “Not really. I try to keep facing forward.”
    “I can’t do that,” she said. “Everything in our pasts defines
where we are today.”
    “But you have to let go of that to move on,” Jack said. “Is
that why you didn’t want to go out with me?”
    “Yes,” she said. “The boy you were—never mind. We can talk
about that later.”
    He didn’t want to let it go but he also wanted to see her face
when they discussed the past. What had he done? He honestly didn’t remember
anything upsetting happening during those years. He’d spent so much time on the
football field, focused on getting a full-ride scholarship so his mom wouldn’t
have to worry about putting him through college.
    “Okay. I was really just calling to make sure you’d gotten my
gifts.”
    “I did. Thank you again.”
    “You’re very welcome,” he said. “Have a good day.”
    “You, too,” she said.
    He hung up the phone and lay back on his bed. Though he’d known
that the path to Willow was going to be complicated he hadn’t expected this.
What had he done to her in the past? Was it something that he could make right
now?
    * * *
    It was colder than normal for November, even though it
was Southern California. But the surf at Malibu was good this time of year, and
championship surfer PJ Montaine was in one of his gregarious moods, talking to
the crew as the cameraman mounted the camera to a surf board so they could tape
every second while they were out in the Pacific Ocean.
    PJ’s job as a professional surfer was the subject of this
episode of Extreme Careers, which was the show Jack
liked best of all the ones he hosted.
    Jack had surfed for the first time when he’d come to L.A. to
start working in TV, and PJ had been the one to teach him. The same sports
agent, Gary Horowitz, had represented them both back then.
    “I hear you’re working on a matchmaking show…thinking of
settling down?” PJ asked as they took a break from filming and got into their
wet suits.
    He thought about Willow and how much he wanted her in his bed,
but that was sex and not love. Jack wasn’t sure marriage was for him. After all,
someone had to believe in forever to make that kind of commitment. And he had
lost that belief a long time ago.
    “Nah, it’s just a way to make a living.”
    “Do you like it?” PJ asked.
    “I do. It’s fun to talk to the couples as they try to figure
out if what they wanted when they went to the matchmaker is actually coming true
or if they’ve made a huge mistake. It’s wicked complicated,” Jack said.
    “Understatement of the year, man. I remember when Rhia and I
first started dating. Hell, I didn’t think I’d ever feel confident that she was
my woman. Dating is so tumultuous. I bet it makes for some great episodes on the
show.”
    “Yes, it does,” Jack said. But his mind was on Willow.
Tumultuous pretty much summed her up and how he felt about her. She had been
stonewalling him since May when he’d first been brought to Sexy & Single and started asking her out.
    For his part, he wanted her. She was slim and