Page 25 of My Lucky Charm

I don’t mean to be a jerk. It just happens.

“This doesn’t have to be a big deal,” Dallas says to me.

“And it won’t be,” Coach Turnrose says, with the finality to indicate the conversation is over. “Because this is how it is. Now, Eloise, I think you’ve proven to me—and everyone else here—that you’re perfect for this position. I’ll walk you down to HR. I already gave Beverly a heads-up that you were coming.”

Eloise stands. I make a point not to look at her. As she walks around to the other side of the table, she says, “See ya later,” to Dallas. Then, she turns and looks at me. “I’m really excited about this. I know we don’t know each other yet, but I can already tell that your life needs a little fun in it.” A pause. “And I am the queen of fun.” I can hear the smile in her voice when she says it, but I don’t respond.

Once she’s gone, I lean back in my chair with a sigh and find Dallas looking at me. “What?” I let my head fall against the headrest and close my eyes.

“You really want people to hate you, don’t you?” he asks.

“You shouldn’t be surprised,” I say. “I made it clear how I felt about this whole thing.”

“I stuck my neck out for you, Hawke,” he says. “So do me a favor and don’t screw it up.”

He stands and walks out of the room, leaving me sitting there, staring at a giant canvas of the last great team to play for the Comets.

Burke has more natural talent than just about anyone playing the game, but what he didn’t have was a center to match his skill.

Now, he does.

And Eloise’s last words to me play like a record in my head.

Fun, I think as I shake my head.

This game—and my life—haven’t been fun in a long, long time.

Chapter Seven

Eloise

“You’ve got your work cut out for you,” Coach Turnrose says.

I draw in a breath and stare straight ahead at the closing elevator doors. “That’s an understatement.”

He hits a button, and then turns to me. “Listen, Miss Hart, Gray may not be excited about any of this, but the fact is you don’t technically work for Gray. Not really. Your job isn’t to keep him happy, or to make sure he has fun. It’s to take on the daily tasks to make things run more smoothly and to help him stay out of trouble.”

“Like you said, I’ve got my work cut out for me.” The elevator doors open to another floor of the Chicago Comets administrative offices, located in the brand new training facility the team recently built. I pause for a brief moment to note how ridiculously cool this is. Even a non-hockey lover can admit that.

“I don’t want to mess this up,” I say. “And I don’t plan on it. But I’m not sure how to do my job if Gray is, well, the way he is.”

“Beverly has a list of duties for you,” he says, leading me down a long hallway, the black, turquoise, and silver Comets logo painted on the wall. “He'll probably fight you on all of it.”

He glances over at me as he stops in front of a closed door. “He is not your boss.”

I give a definitive nod, aware that Gray is going to hate this. It’s one thing to be assigned an assistant, but something else entirely to have that assistant answer to someone else. It almost seems unfair, like we’re going behind his back. “But part of the job will be making him happy, right?”

“I’m not sure it would be fair to give you that particular task,” the coach says. “Something tells me Grayson Hawke is determined to be miserable. He’s been here three weeks already, and he’s just . . . off.”

I frown. What a horrible way to live. But also, it would be really hard to walk into work one day and find out your job had moved hundreds of miles away with a whole new group of people and no warning.

“He really didn’t want to leave his old team that much?”

“There’s more to that story than I’ve got time for, but we’ll get him on board,” Coach Turnrose says. “He and Burke are a dream team. You just need to sell him on the rest of the package. Chicago is a great city. He just doesn’t know it yet.” He opens the door and a middle-aged woman with cropped dark hair and bright red lips looks up with a smile.

“Good morning, Coach,” she says.

“Morning, Bev,” he says. “This is Eloise Hart, the new employee I told you about.”

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