The Has-Been and the Hot Mess - Isabel Jordan Page 0,19
is. Dog catcher in Jasper picked him up and he was deemed un-adoptable, so he was on the kill list. We keep tabs on all the shelters in the state and automatically pick up the ones on the kill lists, so he was only there for a day or so before we got him. But based on his behavior, we’re guessing he was abused.”
Kendall could practically feel her blood pressure rising with her outrage. “What the fuck is wrong with people? Who could hurt a dog this bad? It’s not right. People like that should be locked in kill shelters, not dogs.”
It occurred to Kendall that there were several parallels between this sad, lonely dog’s life and her own at the moment. Homeless, abandoned, and betrayed, only to be taken in by a kind stranger.
How pathetic was that?
For her, of course. Not the dog. Because best she could tell, this place was dog heaven. Howard Hughes might not realize it, but he’d hit the doggy lotto when Jackson got ahold of him.
“No, it isn’t,” he agreed. “But that’s why we do this. There’s no such thing as a bad dog. They all deserve a second chance, and we’re going to give it to them.”
The conviction in his voice was inspiring. He was inspiring. And hot. His chest was doing things to that light blue Henley that should be illegal.
But that was beside the point.
She fanned her face with her hand. “Is it OK if I come back and visit Howard some time? Bring him his food or a toy or something?”
He looked surprised, but nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine. He hasn’t shown any signs of aggression. He’s just apprehensive, mostly. And maybe a little depressed. Some company might do him good. We’ve tried to give him some extra attention, but it’s kind of crazy around here sometimes.”
It totally was. By her count, they had at least twenty employees milling around, caring for the dogs and cleaning up their pens and common areas. “Do you guys do any fund- raising events, or anything to raise awareness of your cause?”
“Not much. We have adoption events every other week. Sometimes one of the guys makes up flyers and puts them up around town, or out on their Facebook pages. That’s about it. Word-of-mouth is good around here, though. Everyone within a few hundred miles of here knows this is the place to come if you want to rescue a dog.”
His rescue was a social media blank, just like Jackson, she realized. If she played her cards right, she could land Jackson the soundtrack gig he wanted, and get every dog in this place adopted within a month.
He frowned at her. “There’s something about your smile that makes me nervous.”
She laughed. “Why would a smile make you nervous?”
“Because yours looks like the Grinch’s right about the time he said he had a plan to steal Christmas.”
Her smile widened. “Well, we’re not going to steal Christmas, but we’re probably going to steal a few million hearts.”
He went a little pale. “A few million? Now I’m really nervous.”
Jackson had no idea how right he was to feel that way. “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”
Chapter 11
Kendall hadn’t seen a celebrity frown this much since she’d told Lindsay Lohan that seeking attention by flashing her boobs and vagina at the paparazzi was a cry for help.
Jackson sat across from her at the kitchen table, arms crossed over his chest, looking down at the copy of her plan to get him back into the limelight. He looked unimpressed and borderline pissed off.
Maybe she should’ve done a PowerPoint. For some reason, clients just loved PowerPoints.
“It’s a good plan, Jack,” Ray said from his position at Jackson’s side. “You should trust her. She knows what she’s doing.”
“I just don’t see why all of this,” he said, pausing to gesture at the timeline she’d sketched out on pieces of graph paper she’d found in his study, “is necessary. I’m not looking to get my face back on MTV, for fuck’s sake. I want one job—one specific job. That’s it. Can’t you just, I don’t know, call some people? Get me an interview and tell me what to say to get an agent?”
This was so freaking weird. Usually clients adored her social media plans. But then again, they wanted to get their faces all over MTV. Jackson, it would seem, wanted to do everything possible to stay out of the public eye—which made getting him noticed by studio execs really challenging.
“Look,” she began, striving