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“Ok, I got it,” she clipped, interrupting her cameraman before plastering on her fakest smile, but not before she rolled her eyes, still glaring at Valencia.

Her attitude was getting on my nerves, and I was so close to saying fuck it if she was going to keep disrespecting Valencia.

“You ready?” she asked sweetly.

“Ready whenever you are,” I said, hoping to speed this along.

She asked the basic questions of, how was I liking Denver? Did I like being back in my home state, how did I like my coaches and then the question I knew was coming, but dreading.

“How is it working with a completely new team?” She put the mic before me.

“It’s been great meeting new guys, making friendships and working hard together,” I said, keeping it short and to the point.

“You and Gomez on the ice don’t seem like you’re friends,” she said, and I really hated that I had put myself in this position.

The click of a camera gave me a little comfort that Valencia was here with me.

“As teammates, we can’t ever get along a hundred percent and as most people know, we are sometimes hot-headed,” I said, hoping I wasn’t shooting myself in the foot. “And losing a game is never great, but each loss shows us what we need to work on and come next practice, I will work on being better.”

“Would you consider you and Gomez to be friends? You are the seasoned player and he is the rookie, don’t you think your job would be to help him instead of berating him?” She put the mic in front of me when I felt Valencia move.

“That's seven questions, either ask one question from those two or come up with an entirely new question,” Valencia said.

“Oh, come it’s just one more question, you don’t have to get your panties in a wad.” Rhonda rolled her eyes.

“I’m not wearing any to get into a wad and that is what your network and our PR team agreed on,” she said, looking at Rhonda with a cool expression. “If you keep pushing, we can end it now and you can use your five questions for your interview.”

I clenched my jaw to keep myself from laughing, but damn, Valencia was sexy as hell when she was bossy. The fire in her eyes made me wonder what she might look like restrained on her knees.

“I don’t need to know about your underwear,” Rhonda stuttered.

“Well, you brought them up,” Valencia said, checking her watch. “You have thirty seconds to decide what you want to ask before I take Mr. Riggs back to the locker room. He’s had a long game. I’m sure he is exhausted and would like to eat and get home as soon as possible.”

Rhonda glared at Valencia, who still looked unbothered.

“So, since you are the seasoned player and Gomez is the rookie, shouldn’t you be easier on him?” Rhonda asked with a smile.

“He plays opposite of me and while I would like to be easy on him, we are at the start of the season and we are long past being easy,” I said, running my hand through my hair. “If we want to win, we gotta keep pushing ourselves so we can work out the kinks and get better.”

In my head it sounded good, but god knows what the fuck I really sounded like.

“Thank you for your time, Hunter.” Rhonda smiled, biting her lip a little bit.

“Anytime, thank you,” I said, giving my best smile at the camera before turning away to Valencia who was on her phone.

“Come on, big guy, let's get you to the locker room and you can go home,” she said, handing my stick back to me.

“Thanks for sticking up for me,” I said, trying to slow down because I was walking too fast.

“I really wasn’t, just being petty,” she said, smirking at me.

“Well, your pettiness was great, but thanks for standing by,” I said, as we rounded the corner to the hallway close to our locker rooms.

“You’re welcome, but it wasn’t just for you,” she said, looking up at me. “I did it for both of you. I can’t say I know what you're going through or tell you how you should behave, but I do know if you guys don’t get your shit together the media is going to have a field day with you. While any press is good press, I know the coaches won’t be happy and it will make everyone's job twice as hard.”

“He just?—”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Hunter,” she said quickly, as we stopped outside of the locker room. “Just at least don't argue on the ice with reporters and TV cameras around.”

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