Page 33 of Rainbow Kisses

“I don’t have a fucking clue,” he said.

Tressy and Brian both chuckled, which made me roll my eyes and mock-glare at them.

“You two are not helping.”

“I’m just here for moral support.” Tressy waved a hand at Brian. “He’s the one with the hockey experience.”

“And honestly, I just came for the food.”

Brian’s grin widened when Rowdy threw his pen at his chest, which Brian caught with amazing ease.

“Well, now it’s time to pay for your supper.” Rowdy caught the pen Brian threw back at him then pointed it at me. “Okay, Rain. You’re up.”

Forcing my brain to focus on something that wasn’t Brian, I looked at my six pages of notes.

“Do we want to start with pros or cons?”

“Which do you have more of?”

Trust Rowdy to think of the one question that made my brain stumble around for a second.

I flipped through the pages. “Pros.” By a lot, actually. But… “I think the cons are more important.”

“Then you start with the pros,” Brian said. “Get them out there first.”

I smiled at him, and when he smiled back, I had to remind myself we had interested observers. Especially a nosy older brother who was looking at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

And he probably did.

Focus.

“Pro number one.” I gave Rowdy the finger, just because I could. And it was totally worth it to hear Brian’s low, raspy laughter. “Increased visibility for the team.”

“We’re filling seats now.” Rowdy tapped his pen against his pad. “But, yeah, we’d probably be able to pull in another thousand a game. But do we want to?”

“We won’t ever be sold out every night, but more butts in seats means more money coming in.”

“And more money going out,” Brian chimed in. “More employees, more cleaning people, more food.”

I nodded, giving Brian a quick smile before continuing. “Not to mention wear and tear on seats and the parking lot andthe restrooms. The arena holds eight thousand. If we get five thousand for a game, it gets dicey with the concession lines.”

Rowdy nodded. “Those aren’t necessarily cons, but something to think about. Okay, pro number two?”

I didn’t have to check my notes, I pretty much had them memorized. “It’s a step up so it’s a selling point. Not that we’re not a professional league, but there’s more name recognition with the ECHL. Plus, we’d presumably be affiliated with an AHL team, which could mean some financial and promotional aid with them.

“It also means we may get more players down from the AHL, if they’re rehabbing or just need more playing time than they’re getting in the AHL.”

“And that could bring in more people.”

“And bump our guys off the roster.”

Rowdy went quiet, his attention inward for several seconds before he narrowed in on me again.

“And that’s one of your cons, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Of course. Our team has always been a safe haven for our guys. Dad’s made sure of that. The guys know they can come here to get their shit together.”

“And when they need help keeping their shit together.”

---