Trace of Innocence | Sweet and Sour (Book 4)

Chapter 65

(No Control | Holding Me Ransom - 65 - All Our Friends, You and Me) 

We have an hour or so to kill before our flight is due to leave, so I take the opportunity to give Jeff a call and catch up. He answers after only a couple of rings, and sounds excited.

"Hey man, I was gonna call you today."

"Ah, well I've saved you the trouble," I smile. "How are things? You good?"

"Yeah great, really great. How about you, are you enjoying your time off with Jess?"

"We've just said goodbye," I tell him. "Her flight's just left and I'm waiting to board mine to Mexico."

"You missing her already?" he teases, and I can't help smiling.

"Yeah, I am," I admit. "Go ahead, tell me I'm a loser."

"You're a loser," Louis supplies immediately from across the room, without even looking up from his phone. I stick my finger up at him pointlessly.

"Nah, you're not a loser, you're just loved up," Jeff responds, and I can hear the grin in his voice. "I'm happy for you, man. You deserve it after everything that's happened this year."

"Thanks," I mutter.

"So, I was going to call you later and see if you wanna catch up soon with me and my dad," Jeff continues. "Obviously you know we wanna talk about your future management once your Modest contract ends. We were thinking of maybe taking some time out to relax, somewhere warm, where we can chill out, throw some ideas around, discuss details... what do you think?"

"I think that sounds great," I beam. "You know my schedule is pretty full right up until Christmas though..."

"Yeah I know, that's what I told Dad. So he suggested a New Year break on the yacht in the Caribbean. He has some free time anyway and thought a holiday would do you good. And it would give us time to talk at leisure about everything. Bring the family - your mum, Robin, Gemma... Jess too. So what do you say? Are you in?"

"Of course I'm in," I breathe. "Wow, thank you. I can't wait."

"Awesome, me neither. I was thinking about inviting Kendall and Jordan, too. And of course Kris, and anyone else from that clan that wants to come."

Jordan is Kendall's new boyfriend, although they're under the radar at the moment, and Kris is Kris Jenner - Kendall's mum and manager. Kris is good friends with Shelli, Jeff's mum and Irving's wife. I don't like to speak badly of people, but I'm not a huge fan of Kris, simply because she lives her life for every scrap of attention she can get from the media. I prefer to keep as much of my life private as possible.

"The more the merrier," I say out loud. 

"Great. What dates are you free?" he asks.

"I have no plans over Christmas or New Year," I tell him. "I don't think Mum has anything planned either, but I'll speak to her and ask her to ring Shelli."

"Already in hand," Jeff replies. "My mom's calling your mom later today."

"Perfect," I grin. "I'll speak to Jess when she's home. Just work the dates out between you and let me know."

"What's the crack, H?" Louis asks as I say goodbye to Jeff. He still hasn't looked up from his phone.

"Just planning to catch up with Jeff and Irving over New Year," I tell him, and Louis and Liam look up with interest. "I'm hoping they're going to represent me once we're out of contract with Modest."

Niall gives a low whistle, while Liam beams. "That's really great, I'm really chuffed for you mate," Liam says enthusiastically. "You're going to smash this break, it's obvious."