Page 172 of Pucking Sweet

“I’m fine.”

“You have a face full of stitches—”

“Proof that I’m fine,” he says over her. “Besides, you’re not my emergency contact. Cole is. He’s the one legally obligated to bring me ice chips and a change of underwear and help me hobble out to the car—”

“Oh—underwear,” she cries. “I came straight from the game, and I didn’t even stop to get you anything you might need. But I was already making a list and—”

“Poppy.” He grabs her hands in both of his. “I am fine. I’m happy you’re here, but I don’tneedyou here. You have your own life with your own job to do. In my job, injuries happen. This isn’t my first, and it won’t be my last. I’m doing my job. You can go do yours without any hard feelings.”

She blinks back her tears. “Yeah, but we really need to talk. There’s so much to say…”

I glance over to Lukas, waiting. Is he going to say the only thing she needs to hear? The asshole covers his silence by reaching out a pathetic, pulse monitor-clad hand for his cup of water, taking a sip.

“We have time,” I say, covering for him. “We’re not going anywhere, baby. And Lukas is right. If you have a job to do, you go do it.”

She looks between us again as we all hear her phone buzzingin her bag. Leaning down, she gives Lukas a kiss, just a quick press. Stepping around his bed, she comes to me. Hand on my shoulder she leans down, kissing first my forehead, then my lips. I can’t help but skate my hands up her thighs. I take in a deep breath, filling my senses with her—her warmth, her scent, her closeness.

She pulls away, her hand still on my shoulder, looking down at me with watery eyes.

“I’ll stay with him tonight,” I say.

“Thank you.”

I smile, tucking her hair back behind her ear. “No thanks needed. This is family, yeah?”

She sniffs back her tears. “Yeah, it is.”

Turning away, she collects her stuff off the floor, pausing by the door to give us both one last look, like she’s trying to commit us to her memory. I can’t help but realize I’m doing the same thing, watching as my future smiles and walks away.

63

Ithought coordinating a benefit for a children’s hospital was stressful. But that has nothing on coordinating the international media storm that is a four-way coming out press tour. I have never juggled so many PR balls in my life. And not one of these balls can be dropped or mishandled.

First there’s navigating Jake Compton coming out as queer and in a relationship with his longtime best friend—former NHL player, and Rays equipment manager—Caleb Sanford. Yeah, that’s a big flaming ball of fire. The hockey world has been taking most of that heat. I helped the boys coordinate a few public dates to show them together and happy—at the beach, getting coffee, walking the dog. We had trusted people take pictures and post them to the right sites, doing our best to control headlines and keep all the gross trolls away.

Then there’s the delicate glass ball that is Ilmari Kinnunen’s Olympic news. At least I’ve had help there, with his agent and my new contacts at the Finnish Ice Hockey Association handing press on their end.

But then there’s Rachel Price. She’s not so much a ball as she is one of those medieval things that hangs on the chain with all the spikes. She’s heavy and she’s prickly, and she’s swinging around making a freaking mess. I’ve been doing damage control in three different directions. First, there’s dealing with the news of her suspension for ethical misconduct.

Some of this has been out of my hands as the Rays stage their own internal coup against Todd Avery, our current head of Physical Therapy. As his own misconduct has come to light, the team has rallied around Rachel, demanding that Mark lift her suspension andgive her Todd’s job. I’ve been coordinating press releases, and helping the guys write letters of support for Rachel. Ryan Langley left me a seven-minute soliloquy on my now-working voicemail, asking if someone in my office would type it up for him to sign.

Second, has been dealing with the reveal itself. Rachel Price is consensually dating and living with, not one, butthreemen…and two of those men are also dating. That news has blown up most widely on all the celebrity gossip sites. Every rag at the grocery store checkout has pictures of her face on them.

Most of the gossip is trying to paint her as some kind of sexual deviant…or a sinister mastermind, playing three men, and pitting them against each other. Whore. Slut. Floozy. Tease. Trash. The cruel names are endless. People don’t believe three men could everchooseto share one woman. No, they must be bamboozled. They’re under her spell. It must all be a lie.

There’s little I can do to control that narrative for now, as she’s currently in hiding at her family’s media-proof compound in LA. I can’t leak photos of her happy with all three of her guys because she’s not currentlywithher guys.

I know the feeling well. I’ve been so busy this week, I’ve hardly had the chance to see or speak to Lukas and Colton.

I step through Jake’s kitchen, pausing at the open lanai door, watching as my friend Janine from ESPN interviews the guys on the couch. I was careful to craft the perfect image for this, wholesome and family friendly. Jake, Caleb, and Ilmari are seated on the couch, Jake and Caleb holding hands. There’s just enough beach touch with the natural light and the woodgrain furniture. A pitcher of iced tea and glasses sit staged on the table in front of them, complete with lemon curls.

This was actually their idea. It’s the third prong of our public relations strategy: rehabilitating Rachel’s image. I’ve done my best to silence the trolls, but there’s no denying there’s a lot of nastiness out there. I can’t imagine being her guys and having to sit back and watch the world say heinous things about the woman they love. Of course they want to protect her. Now that they’re not trying to hide, it’s clear they’re crazy about her.

And she’s a good person. She’s kind and she’s funny. She’sa talented doctor. I think she just got caught up in the chaos. Everything moved so fast with Ilmari and the injury. She was in the middle before she even knew she’d begun.

I brush a hand over my belly. This morning in the shower was the first time I noticed a change. I now have the smallest little sign of a bump. In truth, Rachel and I are no different. We were both in the middle before we realized we’d begun. I’m in love with two men I met at work. I fought it, and I lost. Sometimes the world just brings people together.

Will this be us soon? Will my boys have to beg the world to see me for who I am, a good person with a strong heart, who they’re proud to know and love?

---