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I probably should have studied up on my terminology before showing up for my first day of work as in-house legal counsel for the Appies.
Since most of the players don’t have agents—at least not yet—there isn’t anyone but the team to help them navigate everything.
The Appies have a pretty big support staff. Legal, Accounting, Public Relations. It could be anyone arriving to work for the day.
Felix Jamison, the team goalie, is my best friend Gracie’s boyfriend, so he’s the one I know best. Then there’s Parker. She’s the social media manager and is good friends with Gracie. We’ve met a few times, and she was the one who connected me with Grant, the lead attorney who hired me, making him person number three. Which brings me to the fourth and final Appie I know—the one who just climbed out of his car and made my stomach flip over. Nathan Sanders.
But my head is chief executive, and it makes every decision with careful precision. Which is why it was so irritating when, the first time I saw Nathan signing autographs with a few of his teammates at the Harvest Hollow Farmer’s Market, I basically lost my ability to speak. My body flushed with heat, my skin prickled, my heart started pounding. As stupid as it sounds, it almost seemed like I’d met him before.
I quickly retreated and gave my brain full veto powers on the heart feelings that were clearly leading me astray.
But no. Summer Callahan is not a quitter. And Nathan Sanders does not get to put me in a bad mood on what’s supposed to be a very good first day.
If I’m trying to keep my cool, that was a very bad move, because Nathan smells heavenly. Like clean laundry and fresh cedar.
You stole my parking space. I’m face-to-face with a beautiful woman—one I’ve thought about more than once since I first met her a few months ago—and that’s the first thing that comes out of my mouth. You. stole. my. parking. space.
She even invented a dad who was a former NHL star—the only piece of my life she actually guessed correctly. Except, in her version, my father was doting and proud instead of bitter and dead.
Thanks to her, we’re getting a lot more attention than your typical minor league team. Attention means endorsements and deals and licensing agreements, not to mention sold-out games, whether we’re home or away.
Coach Davis, the Appies’ head coach, is already sitting in the front row next to Malik, the team’s general manager.
Her blue eyes blaze, and her lips lift into a smirk that sends a bolt of heat coursing through me. There’s something about her confidence, about the way she doesn’t cower.
I’ve been dealing with some family stuff the past couple of weeks, and it’s making me particularly grumpy, but still. This might be a new
It’s stupid, and I don’t know why people care or want pictures of me frowning at stuff, but if it means no dancing in videos—I’m fine with it.
“Alec and Nathan. There’s a new athleisure clothing company called Flex that’s looking for an endorsement. They’ve requested the two of you specifically.
If the trainwreck ending to my dad’s life taught me anything, it’s how easily people can become collateral damage.
It’s honestly nothing like the work I did with the DA, and I half-wonder why Grant hired me.
It’s also possible I noticed the Agent Twelve movie poster hanging behind his desk and casually mentioned that my sister is married to Flint Hawthorne—the actor who plays the lead.
“Never been to a hockey game?” “Once,” I say through another bite of food. “But it was the game when Felix and Gracie finally got together, and I spent a lot more time watching Gracie than I did the actual game.”
“Um, that was Nathan bodychecking Dominik,” Parker says, “then pinning him against the boards.” “Is that legal?” “The bodychecking was fine. That’s just a move to knock someone away from the puck, though it’s definitely designed to intimidate. But that last part—he’d be in the penalty box for that.” She shoots me a knowing look. “Something tells me Nathan really didn’t like Dominik’s comment about you in our meeting earlier this week.”
The guys on the team call him Bruiser.” “So basically, he fights a lot?” “That’s just it,” Parker says. “Only if he has to. He doesn’t instigate, he responds. And he’s more level-headed than a lot of guys who fill the same role.”
Down on the ice, the player I’m ninety-nine percent sure is Nathan slows the tiniest bit and…looks at me. But that’s dumb. Why would he look at me? He doesn’t even know I’m up here. Still, I can’t keep myself from asking, “Um, did he just look up here?” I glance at Parker who looks like she’s fighting an enormous grin. “He totally just looked up here. Also significant: Nathan is a defender. That kind of hotshot scoring move isn’t exactly his M.O.” “Which means what?” She gives me a pointed look. “Which means I think he was trying to impress someone.”
“How long have you known Logan?” I ask as we continue down the hallway. “Known him? Practically forever. He was my brother’s best friend when we were growing up.” Parker smiles, and I can practically see heart-eye emojis forming over her head. “But the relationship part is still relatively new.” I think back over the player roster I was studying just before lunch. “He came to the Appies from the NHL, right?” She nods. “He played for the Hurricanes, then came here after recovering from an injury. But his contract with the NHL means he’ll likely go back, no matter how much I’d like him to stay
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“And just in case it becomes useful information, there is exactly zero policy against dating anyone at work, which means you’re free to date any of the single players. You just have to file something with HR.”
Malik said the company checks out, and on the surface, they do. But I’d like to see what’s under the surface before I let anyone sign anything.
Bare minimum, the district attorney I worked under for two years should have lost his job for the way he spoke to me. But he was good—crafty. His words were always just veiled enough to seem innocent. The man was completely spineless, and I knew it, so I never felt threatened, but it was still more than I should have had to deal with. Finally, I snapped. I made the phone call. Filed the complaint. Made all the reports I needed to make. Then I accepted the job to work with the Appies and waited for Jason P. Roscoe to get his comeuppance. What he got was a slap on the hand. A stern talking to
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Felix’s place is big but not quite big enough for the entire team, so we have to be particular about who finds out just how much our goalie loves to cook. Tonight, it’s me, Van, Alec, Logan, Camden, and Wyatt, which is making for a pretty serious crowd. We need Eli here to crack some jokes, but now that he’s married, we’re seeing him less and less when we’re off the ice.
But once I saw Summer up in the stands, something came over me, and I stopped thinking about anything but wanting to impress her. I laid into him too hard, then acted like some kind of hotshot center, leaving my zone and scoring just to show her that I could.
I sink back in my chair, hating that I’m so far away from my family. I don’t fully understand the trouble my sixteen-year-old brother has gotten himself into, but I know he’s a solid kid. He’s playing hockey at a prep school in Boston, on scholarship—we are definitely not a prep school kind of family—and I thought he was doing pretty well. But then a few weeks ago, Mom called and was completely beside herself, saying Blake had been arrested and she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
My mom lives with my sister, Cassie, who is also trying to help, but she has two young daughters, one with special needs, and a husband who travels for work.
Even if she was, she’s two hours away from Boston in Portland, Maine. She’s barely better off than I am.
But Summer is neither of those things. She’s not pretending to know everything, but she also isn’t faking an interest. She doesn’t seem even a little bit starstruck, even though collectively, the guys around the table have millions of followers on social media.
So this guy is the center, which puts him here.” He drops the glass in the middle of the table. “He’s usually the guy with the puck.”
The wings can do pretty much anything, offense or defense, depending on what the game needs.”
“Back here is where you have your defensemen,” Alec continues. “That’s where you’ll find Nathan and me. Our primary job is to cover Felix—the goalie—and keep the puck away from the net.”
“Hear, hear,” Felix says. “Defenders who stick to their positions make my job a lot easier.”
She doesn’t make me uncomfortable, just…hyperaware. Her gaze is more like a touch, sending a wave of sensation skating across my skin.
Wait. If Summer worked for the DA, she might have some insight into how I could help Blake.
Summer Callahan does not find me the least bit intimidating. Instead, she seems to find joy in sparring with me, even provoking me. I like it way too much. Pretty sure that means I’m in serious trouble.
She lives there on her own now—which is the strangest thought. A year ago, she and Audrey and I all lived in Silver Creek together. Now Audrey is married to a movie star, and I’m living ninety minutes away in Harvest Hollow, leaving Lucy all alone.
I’ve never liked guys with long hair, but on him, it just works, and…oh man.” I sigh. “I really do have a crush, don’t I?”
“But okay. It’s nice having Mom and Dad back in town.” Our parents spent the last two years of their retirement traversing the country in an RV, but they’ve finally returned home, something that made it that much easier for me to leave Lucy and move here.
I don’t know why I like needling this man—maybe because he’s so hard to needle, and Lucy’s right about me seeing him as a challenge.
“Actually, I was just reading over the deferred compensation section of the AHL’s collective bargaining agreement, and I was wondering if you could explain the finer points of how that works.”
This one doesn’t have anything to do with hockey, but it’s still loosely related to the law, so I stumble my way through as best I can.
“It’s not technically legal,” I say. “But usually, things like this are hard to stop and rarely worth the cost of adjudication. I’ll mention it to Grant, but if it doesn’t bother you, and they aren’t selling them at actual games, it’s probably something he’ll want to ignore.”
“It was Dominik’s turn,” he says simply. He holds my gaze, his look saying so much more than his words. Nathan is here so Dominik won’t be.
“I could have handled Dominik,” I say, though I’m anything but disappointed Nathan is here instead. “I don’t doubt it,” he responds. “But just because you can doesn’t mean you should have to.”
Am I a strong, independent woman? Absolutely. Does it feel amazing to know this man has made an effort to protect me? To demand better behavior from his teammate? Hell, yes.
