Chapter 36
ADRIAN
April
“Hey! I brought your favorite coffee. Have you been going through withdrawals when I’m out of town?”
I startle a little at the sound of Beck’s voice. I guess I’ve gotten pretty used to being alone here with how often he’s been gone. Even with the Werewolves in the playoffs now, this is the first I’ve seen him in the office in over a month.
“I am perfectly capable of buying my own coffee.” I gesture to the almost empty cup sitting on my desk. Beck doesn’t need to know that Hudson bought it for me, or that he’s been showing up earlier than he needs to for his morning weight sessions so we can leave and get here at the same time.
One of the boundaries we did agree on was not carpooling to work, even if our schedules happened to match up.
It seemed like a good idea to not have people seeing us driving together.
I certainly wasn’t expecting Hudson to rearrange his schedule to match mine as much as possible anyway, or for him to always buy my favorite coffee for me when he is here.
Beck laughs. “See, why am I even here? You don’t need me.”
I roll my eyes, smiling as I assure him, “I always like to see you though.”
“Thanks, A. Are you free now? I wanted to talk to you about something, and I thought it would be better to do it in person.”
I glance at my computer screen and save the email I’d been typing as a draft, since it isn’t urgent, then I log out and follow him into his office, sitting in one of the chairs across from him at his desk. “So, what’s up?”
He looks at me seriously, takes a deep breath, and for the first time, maybe ever since I started working with Beck, I’m nervous.
“You’re overqualified to be my assistant.”
I laugh nervously. “That’s been true for years.”
He nods. “None of my siblings’ assistants have master’s degrees. I have one. You somehow earned two while working full time.”
“You know I like to stay busy, and they’ve both been useful.
” I shrug, trying not to let my nerves show and failing miserably.
“I’m sorry, but what is happening right now?
Are you about to fire me? Because honestly, that would just be stupid unless you’re planning to come back full time.
No one else is going to be able to cover for you like I have. ”
Beck laughs, and I relax a little. “I’m not trying to fire you. I’m trying to give you my job. You’ve basically been doing it this season anyway.”
“Your job?” I repeat back in shock. His job has never even been on my vision board with how unattainable I considered it to be.
For one thing, Beck is my best friend, and I would never want to take it away from him.
But for another, the Werewolves are very much a family-owned team.
Beck’s dad ran it before him, and his father before that.
I had assumed Beck planned to run the team until he and Cody eventually had a child to pass it down to.
And if they don’t end up having kids, certainly one of his brothers would.
But me? I am not a Caldwell, and as far as I know, all the brothers who are interested in men, have no interest in me.
Not that I’d want to be with any of them anyway. I am perfectly content with my situationship with a very attractive hockey captain. Thank you very much.
Oh fuck.
I’m sleeping with the team captain. I can’t be the team’s president.
“It’s not like I’d be stepping away entirely, this team is a huge part of my life, but I’d like to transition to more of the ownership role and give up my current position as president,” he continues, completely unaware of the internal spiral I’ve fallen into.
“Things are going really well in Montana. We’ve found investors for all the individual businesses that temporarily had to shut down after the government seized Kyla’s assets for their investigation.
So the banks, healthcare, fitness, childcare centers, all of those are operational again.
And that documentary that some of the ex-members have been filming was picked up by the major streaming companies.
A lot of people have wanted to participate, share their story, so that’s helped people stay positive.
Some of them have been able to find jobs in whatever they were doing before joining Kyla, but I’m really hoping this deal will go through with that startup I was telling you about, so that they can take over the old headquarters and hire more people. ”
“Look at you, all excited about helping others.” I can’t help but tease him.
“Shut up,” he says with absolutely no heat. “So you’ll do it? My dad obviously agrees that you’re the best person to take over, and he’s happy to have me assume the owner role. That was always the plan eventually, so it shouldn’t be a problem to get everyone’s approval.”
“I would love to take over in July!” I say confidently, hoping that maybe he intended for the transition to happen between seasons anyway.
“July? What? No, I was hoping we could start everything as soon as possible. It shouldn’t take long to get the approvals.”
I laugh nervously again. “Um, yeah, it’s just that, well, there might be a conflict of interest if I was promoted this season,” I finally blurt out.
With Beck out of town so much recently, we haven’t been as in tune with each other’s day-to-day life.
Even Jordan has been so busy with everything that he isn’t telling me about the men in his life, and Oakley and Parker have been so busy after their big surprise a few weeks ago that I haven’t actually told any of my friends that I’ve been sleeping with Hudson for the last month.
Both meanings of the word. He hasn’t spent a single night in the guest room since that first night together.
I know they’ll be shocked to find out I’ve kept literally anything from them, especially something so important, but what Hudson and I have right now feels fragile.
We aren’t really together, we agreed that it made sense to wait to see how we were both feeling after he moved out, which I’m really trying not to think about as that date quickly approaches.
Anything I do to change the status quo feels like it could make what we do have all fall apart.
And telling my best friend, who happens to be both of our bosses, feels like it could definitely disrupt things.
“A conflict of interest?” he repeats slowly.
I nod, a falsely confident smile plastered to my face as I nod. “But I think that should be cleared up after the season so I would love to take over then. Plus, you should officially finish out the season! We could go all the way, and you should get the credit.”
“I don’t deserve the credit,” he insists. “I haven’t been here. You have. Now what the fuck conflict of interest exists that would affect my title and not yours? And why the hell don’t I already know about it?”
Right. Okay, I guess we’re doing this.
“So funny story,” I start with a cheery tone that Beck obviously isn’t buying as he glares at me. “At the beginning of the season, when I filled out the HR forms saying I was living with Hudson, they specifically said that your role couldn’t date a player.”
“You’re dating a player?” he whisper-yells, obviously not wanting anyone outside of his office to hear us.
“No! I’m not dating one,” I assure him. “But I am sleeping—”
“Shut up,” Beck interrupts, no room to argue in his tone this time. He stands. “We are not talking about this here. Let’s go.”
He walks out of the office, leaving the door open. “Where are we going?” I ask as I trail after him, and he doesn’t respond as we ride the elevator down to the main lobby and out onto the street. It isn’t busy. Tonight’s game isn’t for almost nine hours.
Beck storms across the street, leading us away from the Caldwell Center. “Seriously, Beck, where the hell are we going?”
“Somewhere that I’m not your boss. We need to have this conversation as best friends.”
Okay. That doesn’t sound so bad.
After a few more blocks he turns, holding open the door to a tiny pub. “Why here?” I can’t help but ask.
“I feel like I’m going to need a drink for this conversation, and I didn’t want to pick a sports bar. This place doesn’t even have any TVs,” he points out as we approach the bar.
“I’ll have a pint of Guiness, and do you have an espresso martini?” Beck asks, and the bartender snorts a laugh.
“I’ll take a cider,” I try instead.
Drinks in hand, Beck leads us to the booth in the back corner, not that there are many people here to begin with. One table was full near the front window, and there’s a man seated at the bar, but I don’t think anyone is going to overhear us.
Beck takes a large sip from his drink. Actually, I don’t know if “sip” is the right word when he finishes half of the glass in one go.
“Okay, we’re going to pretend like we don’t work together for this conversation, and I’m officially drinking so I can reasonably claim I forget anything you tell me, anyway. Who are you sleeping with?”
My jaw falls open, partially at his theatrics dragging me here, because honestly, I appreciate the effort, but also because the answer should be obvious.
“Hudson! Who the fuck else would I be sleeping with?”
“Oh thank god,” Beck says on a heavy exhale. “That makes way more sense. For a moment, I panicked with Ollie’s whole coming out campaign—”
“Oliver is, like, ten years younger than me, and not at all my type. Honestly, Beck, you claim to be my best friend! Have you forgotten the player I’ve been drooling over for years?”
He shakes his head laughing. “Not at all. I just didn’t know that player wasn’t straight.”
“I honestly don’t know if he’s claimed a different orientation label,” I admit, realizing that we haven’t actually talked about it. Maybe he doesn’t need a label. He was so confident when we first hooked up that he wasn’t straight that I haven’t questioned it again.
“But I have been fucking him for about a month now, so the conflict of interest is there,” I mutter before taking a big sip of my cider.
Beck looks even more surprised than I’d anticipated. “A whole month? Are we in a fight I didn’t know about? Are you mad at me? How did I not know about this?”
“No fight!” I quickly promise. “I just—I don’t know. Talking about it felt like I was going to jinx the situation, and it’s already complicated enough as it is.”
“Complicated how?”
“Well, for one, he said he wanted to date me, but I don’t believe him. I think he’s just excited about being with a man for the first time, and while we’re living together, everything feels so easy that he thinks he wants to be with me.”
Beck is squinting at me like he’s having a hard time understanding what I said. “Things feel too easy living together and sleeping together, so you think he doesn’t actually want to date you?” he repeats as a question. I nod. “A, relationships are supposed to feel easy. That’s a good thing.”
I roll my eyes. “That’s not the point. I meant that, right now, I’m the convenient option, but when he has space and his own place, he’ll remember that other options exist, and he won’t actually want to be with me.”
Beck continues to stare at me incredulously. “Do you know why Hudson has been the captain for as long as he has?” he finally asks.
“Because he’s a great player and a good example for the young guys.” I shrug, keeping my answer short so I don’t break out into a monologue about how amazing Hudson is.
“Both on and off the ice,” Beck emphasizes. “He has never been a PR concern before this season. He has never ended up on a puckbunny site or a gossip blog.”
“He was married.”
“Even before then. And he’s been on the team longer than anyone. He’s turned down higher paying contracts to stay with the team who believed in him when he was first coming up in the AHL. That man is loyal. If he says he wants to date you, I don’t think he’s going to suddenly change his mind.”
I blink at him, unsure how to respond.
“What was the other thing?” he asks.
“What?” I blink at him, mind still reeling after Beck’s little Hudson speech.
“You said ‘for one,’ what’s the other thing?”
“Oh. Well, he’s about to become a father. Emily is in her final trimester. If we started dating, I’d basically be signing up to be a dad.”
Beck nods. “You’ve always talked about wanting kids. Is that a bad thing?”
“Well, no,” I splutter. “I just don’t know that I’m ready, and that baby deserves the absolute world.”
“Is anyone ever ready to become a parent? You went to all those classes with Hudson, though, right?” I nod. “So you’re probably more ready than a lot of people. And thinking that the baby deserves the world seems like a pretty good starting point.”
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my grumpy best friend?” I demand. “When did you turn into this?” I flail my hand around in front of him. “You’re all wise and calm and shit. It’s weird.”
He laughs, taking another sip of his beer. “Being in love does weird things to you.”
“Apparently,” I agree. “You’re over here, trying to save a whole city, giving sage advice.”
He shrugs. “And you would be an excellent parent. You didn’t need to have good ones to be a good one, Adrian.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I go back to his previous statement wanting to clarify. “And who said anything about love?” I scoff, chugging the rest of my drink.
Beck smirks knowingly before finishing his as well. “We should get back to work. I’ll miss working with you when I officially resign in July.”
I smile, my excitement growing as I realize what he’s saying. I had almost forgotten what started this whole whirlwind of a conversation. “Thank you.”
“No need to thank me when you’ve earned it. You deserve it, A. You deserve all of the good things. Don’t let your head get in the way.”
If only it was that simple.