Page 82 of Playing to Win

My stomach dropped. Was this it? Were they going to let me go? What the hell would I do? I couldn’t afford to be unemployed.

Wait, it didn’t have to be that. Last time it was the fake dating scheme. Maybe they wanted to evaluate that.Maybe.

I stood up, glad to be done with the cane, and stuffed my laptop in my bag. My hands trembled as the worst-case scenarios played in my mind. “Okay, then. Guess we’ll find out.”

We used the elevators, since management offices were on the top floor. I did my best to look unaffected, but I mustn’t have pulled it off very well.

Kira gave me a reassuring smile. “They haven’t said anything to me about HR. No getting forms ready or looking for someone new. This must be something else.”

“Yeah, probably.” Dragging me into a top floor office to tell me I was fired would be cruel.

There was a woman sitting at a desk outside Radner’s office. She gave us a polite smile. “You can go on in.”

Kira led the way. The office was big, with windows, a view, and a desk designed to intimidate. It worked. There were two empty chairs in front of Radner’s desk.

He was behind it, laptop open, but he looked up when we entered and pushed it aside. “Kira, Jayna, please have a seat.”

Kira took the farthest chair. I dropped my bag beside the near one and sat down. He didn’t look pissed, but maybe he enjoyed firing people.

He leaned on his desk, hands clasped together, and smiled at us. “I have to commend you both on an excellent job with Mitchell. Jaydon has proved very popular.”

My muscles eased. This was about the dating rehab, not my job.

Though fuck if I wanted to hear people talking about Jaydon.

“Between your work with him”—he nodded at me—“and his play on the ice, he has a great reputation with the fans. Some think he should be our starter.”

Radner wasn’t going to push Braydon into starting, was he? He had talent, but there was a lot of pressure starting in the NHL. And with the playoffs coming? I didn’t know how Braydon would react to that.

Radner shrugged. “Decisions on the ice fall to the coach, so that’s not my problem to deal with.”

That was good, but I still had no idea why we were here.

“With the Bonfire season over, and fans now supporting Braydon, I don’t think we need to maintain this dating story.”

My hands twisted together in my lap. I hadn’t even considered that management might want to stop our ‘fake’ relationship. What harm was it doing? With my connection to the Bonfire, and the extra attention the Blaze were getting for the playoffs, it was giving the Bonfire more exposure—wasn’t that good?

Since I wasn’t able to make words, Kira spoke up. “Is this really the right time? We’ve only been showing them together for about a month, and we don’t want anyone to think this isn’t real.”

Radner leaned back in his chair, hands moving to the armrests. “We as an organization take the nonfraternization clause in our employment contracts very seriously. We were willing to flex a bit on this when Ms. Templin was a player, not just an employee. Now that she’s officially retired, we don’t have that loophole.”

Shit. I hadn’t considered that my change in status would affect our dating. I knew why they were so cagey about employees and players—JJ had married a former employee at his previous team and she’d cheated on him. There had been at least two stalking incidents with the Blaze—employees using their access to get close to the players. The organization should tighten up their HR practices, but yeah, they needed the players to know they were protected.

Kira gave me a sympathetic look. “But that doesn’t change Jayna’s status working for me, does it?”

He shook his head slowly. “No, we’re quite happy to continue the contract through the end of Mrs. Jones’s maternity leave.”

I had a job, at least. I just…didn’t have a boyfriend?

“Do you have a script for how we’re going to wrap this up?” Kira asked.

“We need it done before the playoffs. Ms. Templin will be traveling with the team, and we want to be sure that there is no confusion or distraction.”

Traveling with the Blaze, with Braydon, and not being with him? I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that.

“Would it really be problematic if we waited till the season was over?” I forced myself to ask, though Radner didn’t look like he would have much sympathy. I had to make it all about the job. If we had till the summer, maybe we could work something out, something where we could stay together. Braydon might go back to the Inferno, and that would be okay, wouldn’t it? I didn’t work for them. “Just to make sure speculation about the breakup doesn’t distract anyone from the playoffs.”

Radner met my gaze, his cold and unyielding. One hand took his laptop, twisting it toward me. The movement woke up the machine, and a couple of grainy photos were on the screen. Both were of me and Braydon. One from the night outside the arena, when Braydon kissed me before sending me to be with the Bonfire. The other outside his townhouse. The timestamp showed it was before this last road trip, early in the morning. Not a time when a fake girlfriend would be at her fake boyfriend’s house, kissing him.

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