Page 13 of Gross Misconduct

“I’m sure the two of you can clear it all up,” Clay said, rising. “Why don’t I leave you two lovebirds alone so you can get to know each other.”

He patted me on the shoulder as he walked past me, and I wanted to throw up.

“I think I’m done here too. We’ll talk later,” Taylor said.

Everyone was leaving! I was alone with this siren. Her beautiful face and “song” was going to lead me to my end. I just knew it. She seemed quite pleased with herself, once Taylor and Clay were gone, I couldn’t resist asking, “What did he promise you?”

“What makes you think he promised me anything?”

I chuckled sarcastically. “Seriously? You’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart?”

Her blues eyes lit up, and she laughed, a laugh that I thought might be genuine. “All right, you have me. He offered enough to motivate me to make this work. You and I don’t have to be friends, but we do need to convince people. I’ve already got some ideas in my head for how to do that.”

“I’m sure you do,” I said. “I’m assuming we can’t tell anyone?”

“I think we may have to tell Tangi and Ethan. I’m not sure we can fool them. I’ve asked for a clause in my NDA to allow for advisors, andTangi will be mine. But they can’t blow this for us. I know she won’t blow it for me, but can you trust Ethan not to say something stupid? He does have a history of making terrible decisions.”

She had me there. The guy was king of terrible decisions. “He won’t spill.”

“Then I guess we have a deal.”

Chapter Eight

Jill

The next few weeks were a whirlwind of activity. First, I had to relocate to my new office two doors down from Clay’s, and this office had a gorgeous window looking out at the Rockies on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. A girl could get used to that. Second, I had to sign off on the NDA Clay had insisted on, but only after I’d had a former colleague from Richardson’s look it over. Cam oversaw the legal department during the Richardson’s failed Canadian expansion, so we’d gotten to know each other, and he happily looked over the NDA and emailed it back with a few changes which Clay’s legal team accepted.

Then Lex got traded and took the Orla problem with him. He’d been traded to Las Vegas and about as far away as the Kodiaks could get him. That meant that Jeremy’s mystery injury had healed, and he was preparing to rejoin the team. It also meant that we were going to soon go public with our very fake relationship and claim that we’d had instant chemistry the first time we’d met. I still hadn’t told Tangi, my “advisor” about this plan, but once I’d finished moving into my new office, I’d planned to take off what little of the afternoon was left to meet her at her place for drinks.

I was unpacking boxes again in such a short time, but every time I looked out the window, I knew it was worth it.

Dave passed by my office and stopped after glancing in. He backtracked and came in, a perplexed look on his face. “When did you get a new office?”

“Just the other day.”

He seemed to understand, and instead of giving me some kind of disgusted look, similar to ones I’d gotten from a few of the marketing staff—specifically Mark Lanark, head of the department, who liked to pick fights with the PR team for reasons that escaped me—Dave laughed and shook his head.

“I hope you took him for bundle. While I’m not sure I agree with what Clay is up to, if it works, then this whole scandal will be a distant memory.”

“So he told you all the details?”

“Some of them. I’m the only one who knows. He wants to keep it to a small circle. Imagine if that came out on top of it all. I’m not sure that’s something Jeremy could recover from.”

I liked that Dave and I got along even though we saw little of each other. He treated me like an equal, which I couldn’t always say for my time at Richardson’s, and it was too soon with the Kodiaks to know how relationships would shake out. “About Vaughn. Anything I need to know? You seemed to be frustrated with him.”

Dave shrugged. “I’m disappointed. The guy has done so much in the community, and then he goes and screws it up by getting involved with Lex’s wife. Now we’ve lost our best defenseman and have the stink of this incident hanging around the dressing room. The guys love Jeremy, but they liked Lex too. My concern is that the guys will take sides, but Coach Anthony has assured me that won’t happen. We’ll have to waitand see. He has great control of the dressing room, so I have hope.”

“Jeremy doesn’t seem like he’d be much of a community guy,” I said, a little surprised to learn that, although how much did I really know about him? I had to admit that I hadn’t bothered to learn anything about him, and even in the last two weeks, I’d been too busy with Kodiaks business to do my research on Jeremy. But now was the time, I guess.

“He’s huge in the community, and he makes sure the other guys are too. He always signs up for the children’s hospital visits, runs a few hockey clinics in the summer, visits schools all throughout the season. He rarely misses a community event, so now you see why I’m so angry with him. It’s not just about the team. He’s gone and ruined his own reputation.”

He’d given me a lot to think about, and now I felt bad being so critical of Jeremy. He was still a doofus, though. “I appreciate the info. It does help.”

“Good luck with the move and with him.”

Dave left, and I finished my unpacking. By the time I was done, I was starving, so on the way to Tangi’s, I picked up some Greek food and told her to get the wine ready. As we sat around her dining room table, Maddy asleep in her swing after a boob full of milk, we dug into our souvlaki, spanakopita, and salad. I passed my green peppers to Tangi, and she gave me her olives. That’s how we compromised with a Greek salad.

“I’ve been sitting on something,” I said as Tangi grabbed some pita.

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