Page 22 of Blindsided

By work, she actually meant studying Easton’s career from start to finish. Stats, accomplishments, and awards to date. She rattled off numbers like I knew what they meant, salary figures that were impressive, even to me, and finished by telling me that Columbus was anxious to get him to sign his contract offer.

What she didn’t say was that we had time. In fact, we were out of time in so many ways.

Easton’s contract deadline with Columbus was fast approaching. The announcement of the coaching staff for the Parliament was approaching just as quickly. And the meeting I’d worked myself into a near meltdown over was about to begin.

Looking at the pad in front of me where I’d jotted notes down as Daisy spoke left me questioning if any of it had been English. Numbers, abbreviations, and terms about hockey coaching qualifications like IS Master, AAA, and Junior were scrawled at various points on the page, none of it making any logical sense in my brain. None of this was finance, none of this was like any business I’d ever conducted.

I opened my mouth to ask her to start over again, this time in layman’s terms, but the phone on my desk buzzed and a cheery voice announced that Tom Cernak and Easton Lafferty were there to see me.

Swallowing hard, I reached for the button to tell the receptionist to let them in. Before the door could open, Daisy looked over at me. “Sit there and look pretty. I’ll do the talking.”

Fine by me.

Of course, when the door opened to reveal my new coach coughing and Easton standing beside him looking guilty, I had no idea how the meeting was going to go.

CHAPTER 10

EASTON

“So you slept with him,” Tom said as we walked toward the building. “That’s in the past.”

Right. “Last night.”

“Last night, the two of you talked it out and today we can sign this contract.”

I scoffed. “I slept with him last night.”

My words made Tom’s feet stop dead on the sidewalk and the person behind us had to quickly sidestep to avoid running into us while complaining about idiots not paying attention. “Last night?” Thankfully, he kept his voice to a low hiss, but it didn’t hide his shock at what I’d told him.

“It’s not like it was intentional!”

Tom’s eyes widened and he ran a hand over his face as he muttered. “Fuck. I need Leo here. He’d know what to say.” Dropping his hands to his sides, he leaned in close, his voice still a frantic hiss. “Unintentionally? What, did your clothes fall off and the Force shoved you two together?”

My clothes weren’t technically off. Not all the way at least. Thankfully, the statement stayed in my head. “You know what I mean. One thing led to another, and that led to another, and that led to us having sex.”

“You were supposed to work out your shit, not make more!”

“Hey, this was your idea in the first place.”

Tom began walking toward the building again. “No. My idea was for the two of you to have a drink, maybe dinner, talk about your past, and find a way forward. Nowhere in those plans were orgasms!”

Probably should have spelled that out then. Once again, the comment stayed in my head. As did the one about us trying to get drinks and dinner but getting… err, distracted. “We got in a bit of a fight. Well, our voices rose,” I said, jogging slightly to catch up with him. “We went to his room to talk so we didn’t disturb the rest of the restaurant. We got there, we argued, we kissed, things moved fast from there.”

Tom stopped just outside the building we were going to, bouncing his head lightly off the concrete pillar by the doors. “Great, not only did you have sex, you had angry sex. With the man who is going to be your boss.”

“Technically, if I still get the job as assistant coach, you’ll be my boss.”

Tom groaned. “Easton, I swear to you, for being one of the most thoughtful and intelligent men I’ve ever met, you are an absolute pain in the ass.”

I grinned. “I’m going to take that as a compliment. Now, we really should go in or we’re going to be late. I’m curious to see where this goes.” My words were filled with cocky confidence bordering on arrogance, but inside I was far from confident. I was a nervous wreck and worried about what the next few minutes would hold for me.

To say that Lincoln had looked like shit this morning was an understatement and once I’d seen myself in the mirror, I could honestly say I hadn’t looked much better. This meeting had likely had disaster written all over it from the start, and there was every chance in the world I’d already killed any and all possibility of becoming the assistant coach of the Nashville Parliament.

Tom was still shaking his head at me when we stepped into the elevator. “Maybe let me do the talking today? So far, you’ve seen each other, he freaked out, then you freaked out, then you two had sex. I don’t want to know what will happen if the two of you start talking in this meeting.”

“It’s not a sex club! It’s not like I’m going to strip him naked and have my way with him in the middle of the meeting.” Though in the right place at the right time… No, I wasn’t going to let myself go there. Especially not as the elevator doors opened.

“Easton.” Tom’s voice came out low and warning. “I have no idea what just went through your head, but promise me whatever it was will stay inside your head and not be voiced.”

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