Page 6 of Rosie and the Beast Next Door

I understood how Mr. Darcy must have felt for Elizabeth Bennet. Both the first time he saw what a disaster her family was and after he fell so hard for her. It was naked-cat magic, and I was bewitched.

I was going to have to add this to the growing pile of secrets I was keeping from my brothers, because I didn’t need a lecture on how I could hardly take care of myself, let alone another living being.

The cat let me pick it up, and I held its shaking body against my chest. It was freezing. It curled into me, and I swept my shirt up over it. I rubbed my fingers lightly across her ears as it meowed out all its grievances. “You’re safe with me,” I whispered. The trembling lessened, and my heart melted completely.

Really, what was one more secret among so many?

Chapter 4

Dylan

May 17

DYLAN “THE BEAST” SAVAGE IS OUT OF CONTROL, AND IT COULD COST THE PEAKS THE CHAMPIONSHIP.

After three turnovers at last night’s game against the Grizzlies, Savage was ejected from the game for excessive penalties. “He’s always been an assertive player. And we all like some aggression on the ice,” stated retired Grizzlies forward and two-time cup winner, Briggs Rigdon, “but Beast is veering toward dangerous.”

We reached out to Coach Perkins, but he has declined to comment at this time.

–Hot Goss Magazine

I adjusted my tieas the elevator ascended to the third floor of the arena to the athletic offices.

Coach Perkins’ phone call had been as terse as his expression last night when I’d been ejected from the game.Meeting at three. Don’t be late.

At 2:55 p.m., I stepped off the elevator, my shoes squeaking on the cream-colored tile hallway toward Coach’s office. No one worked Sundays, unless we had a game, leaving the Peaks office feeling like a ghost town. Normally humming with the sound of voices, phones, and electronics, today, open doors led to empty offices with lights turned off. The silence was unnerving.

Except for my uncomfortable leather dress shoes, loudly announcing my arrival.

My gut churned. I knew I’d gone too far the second Bret and Gage pulled me away from the fight. A little skirmish on the ice might get me a penalty, but it got the crowd riled up in a way that fed into our energy. I hadn’t realized this had veered past skirmish into all-out fight until I came out of whatever haze I’d been in when the Grizzly player had mentioned Shiloh.

My jaw tightened. Maybe I hadn’t gone far enough.

I knocked, my knuckles raw and stinging against the hardwood door.

I’d take their anger like an adult—it wasn’t the first time I’d been chewed out by a coach, and it wouldn’t be the last—and then we could both go about our day. Coach, to his huge happy family, and me avoiding mine.

“Over here,” Coach called out.

I glanced around the corner to the lit-up conference room. Coach stood in the doorway, an unreadable expression on his face as he ushered me inside. Every seat was taken with someone who had a title to their name. Mike Jacoby, the team’s GM, sat at the head of the table, and to his left sat the team’s lawyer and the Peaks’ media specialist. My agent, Harry, was on video chat.

I frowned at Harry. A heads up about this ambush would have been nice.

“All of this for a game ejection?” I asked mildly as I took a seat beside Coach. My fingers drummed against the table with the rage that simmered just below the surface lately.

“We need to talk.” Coach clasped his hands in front of him, his face as serious as I’d ever seen it. Not theangryserious I was used to. More like,tragicserious. My leg bounced as wildly as my fingers.

“Ms. Lincoln?” Coach motioned for the Peaks media specialist, Chrissy Lincoln, to speak. Ms. Lincoln, as she insisted we call her, was in her mid-twenties and with her buttoned-up cardigan and tight bun, she looked like she’d be much more at home in a library than anywhere near an ice rink.

She turned to me with a nervous expression behind her huge glasses. “Sports Media Company is threatening to sue the Peaks.”

I blinked. “Why?”

Gretta, the team lawyer, answered in her no-nonsense way. “Because you assaulted one of their photographers after our game against the Grizzlies.” She glanced down at her tablet. “It was not only destruction of expensive property but a breach of contract.”

Wait. This had nothing to do with the game ejection, but was because of the camera? He’d stuck it in my face aggressively, and after his question about Shiloh, he was lucky I hadn’t done something worse. “I didn’t lay a finger on him.”

Gretta met my angry stare without blinking. “You ripped the camera from his neck, and the strap gave him a leather burn.”

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