Page 106 of Slash & Burn

Viatron Studios

NHL Partner

I clicked on the form first, huge blocks of legal-ese made my eyes cross before I clicked it closed again. But then I clicked on the video file, my computer opening it in a separate window. I had to turn my volume up, but as soon as I did I heard Grady’s voice. Chills went down my spine, the sound of it shaking through me and making my breath catch. It was him at the podium, the first time he’d asked me to use his silly camera. But then the clip ended and another began, only this one was of me. I was playing with the kids, showing them books and laughing as they told me about their favorite stories.

One clip after another played. Even some of the rolling hills and river banks I’d filmed from the car as we drove all over Maine together. We looked so at ease. The crowds loved Grady and he loved them back. I was mesmerized watching our summer play out in these tiny moments, that at the time had felt so huge.

When the last clip ended, I was out of breath. How had they gotten these? Grady must have sent them in, but he’d never mentioned anything to me. What was this network feature? I considered calling him, but it had been weeks and I didn’t want the reason I reached out to him to be because he’d tricked me into something. So, I called Mallory instead.

“Hello, this is Mallory.”

“Hi, Mallory, this is Jill Jordan, I received an email from you about some footage of me you’d like permission to use in some sort of NHL special?”

“Yes! Ms. Jordan, thank you so much for calling me back. We’re getting down to the wire here. Are you all right with us using the footage?”

“For what? I don’t understand how you even got this?”

“Ah. Okay. Let me look through my notes. We were working with each of the NHL teams individually, and the Brawlers sent us this along with some other press coverage. But your behind-the-scenes clips were by far the most compelling. Let’s see, it says…”

She trailed off and I waited with my chest feeling tight because this suddenly seemed like a much bigger deal than anything I’d have signed on for. Which was probably why Grady hadn’t told me about it.

“Ms. Jordan, I’m not one to pussy foot around, so I’m just going to tell you what’s in my email, okay? It looks like the Brawlers marketing team wanted to use these clips at Mr. Holloway’s request. There were some concerns about how well a formal interview would go, so this was the compromise. If you don’t want us to use these, please tell me now, so we can recut the special.”

My heart was in my throat, beating so hard it was hard to swallow. If I said no, then Grady and his team wouldn’t get any credit for their program. But if I said yes, then all these images of me would end up on TV. What kind of choice was that?

There never would have been any concerns about Grady doing a formal interview—he did them all the time. Which meant this had been about me. He’d done this for me.

“I’ll sign the form.”

“Fantastic. That’s great. Please email me that back as soon as you can. And I’ll be sending out another email about this shortly, but will you be joining us in New York for the gala?”

“The gala?”

“The league is holding a gala to highlight the players and teams that participated and we’ll be showing some clips from the feature that will air the following week.”

My head was spinning. Every time this woman spoke things got worse.

“We’re happy to provide transportation via our travel agent, so please don’t worry about that. We’ll have a hotel block for those staying overnight. You’re coming from Maine, right? I love it up there. So beautiful.”

“Can I let you know?”

“Of course. Of course. You’ll get an email with all the details before the end of the day, and you can just click right on the link provided to RSVP.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Thank you, Ms. Jordan. Your clips really are the highlight of the show. It looked like you two made a hell of a team.”

“Thank you.”

We hung up and I dropped my phone onto the desk, laying my head down on the cool surface.What had Grady done?

“Boss?” Ashlee’s voice jolted me upright.

“Yeah?”

“I think you need to see this one.”

I shook my head. “Ash, I don’t think I can handle social media right now.”

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