6. Maddy
6
MADDY
I glanced over my shoulder at Noah as the front desk manager checked us into our rooms. He had his phone clutched to his ear and was pacing around the lobby frowning at the floor. People walking by gave him a wide berth, as if his anger were rolling off of him in waves, and they were afraid they’d get swept away in it.
“There you are, Miss Malone,” the front desk manager said with a smile as she slid the key cards across the counter. “A king suite with a junior room across the hall. Anything else?”
I shook my head at her as I took the key cards. “We should be fine, thanks.”
I said it but I didn’t believe it, because it looked like our meeting was imploding at that very moment.
Noah stormed over to join me at the elevator. “He’s not picking up.”
“But the meeting was confirmed, right? He knows where it is, so maybe he’s busy and just planning to show up.”
Noah’s mouth went tight. “One would assume the meeting time and location was confirmed but?—”
“Zoe,” I finished the thought for him. “Got it.”
“I wanted to get him on the phone to make sure he knows where we’re meeting. The fact that he’s not picking up has me concerned.”
I didn’t blame Noah for worrying. I remembered my dad complaining about players who were geniuses on the field, and then flaked and forgot to show up for an interview. I’d never seen it from this side of the table, though.
We got off the elevator, and I pointed us in the direction of our rooms as he dialed again. We were nearly there when he came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the hallway.
“Mrs. Garrison! Hello . I was trying to reach Matthew—” He went silent and bowed his head to listen.
I could tell by the way his hand clenched the phone and his face went hard that things were not going according to plan.
“No, no, that’s not the case at all. She was mistaken. I’m in Fargo right now. Mrs. Garrison, I sincerely—” he went quiet again. I could feel how frustrated he was from three feet away.
“Are you sure that I can’t speak with him?” Noah asked in a measured voice. He paused. “Fine. But I think that—” He pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. “She hung up on me!”
My stomach turned somersaults as I tried to come up with the right response without knowing for sure what had just happened.
Noah looked at me and his expression was stony. “She said that Zoe called and canceled our meeting—and that she was very rude. Said that if I would work with someone so disrespectful, her son clearly wasn’t the right fit for PSM.”
My mouth dropped open before I could help it. I was beginning to understand why Noah was so paranoid about Zoe ruining things. I tried to recover. “Maybe we can go to their house, and you can apologize? You’re hard to say no to in person.”
I thought of Noah in my room that morning, passionate, gorgeous, and devastatingly confident as he set about convincing me to work for him after I’d already turned him down once. The full force of Noah Parker’s attention on you…well, it was intense.
Wait, why was I blushing?
Noah frowned and shook his head at my suggestion. “I’m sure she would see that as an intrusion, especially after telling me off like that. I need to work through some stuff. I’m going to my room.” He turned on his heel and started storming down the hall, leaving me to chase after him in my heels.
“Noah.”
He spun back to me.
“Your key?” I said in a quiet voice as I held it out to him. “And please let me know if I can do anything?—”
“Stop, Maddy. You’ve done enough.” Noah gave me a curt nod then walked into his room, slamming the door behind him. I stood in the hallway for a moment feeling a little lost. I was halfway across the country with a man I barely knew on a business trip that apparently was going to amount to nothing. Not exactly a stellar start to our working partnership.
Still, the meeting snafu wasn’t my fault. I entered my room and stared unpacking, telling myself to let it go. I could relax. Take a bath. Enjoy not sharing a hotel room with the most arrogant man in the world.
But my take-charge-and-fix-it nature couldn’t be silenced, insisting that there had to be a way to make this right. By the time I finished unpacking, the solution had unfolded in my brain.
I hesitated.
Then I grabbed my phone, energy coursing through me. I took this job because I wanted to help. I didn’t want another job where I bit my tongue and waited for someone to hear me.
There was no room for doubt about what I was going to do. It was a Hail Mary pass that could fail spectacularly , or it could win the game for both me and Noah.
I threw my bag down and headed for the table by the window. Noah had given me access to his calendar and his contacts during our flight, and my fingers shook as I scrolled to the phone number in question. I was too excited to sit down, so I leaned against the window and watched the ant-sized people in the parking lot below as the phone rang.
“Hello?”
I breathed a sigh of relief that she’d picked up despite my unfamiliar number. “Mrs. Garrison, my name is Maddy Malone and I’m hoping I can talk with you for a few minutes.”
“Is this a sales call?” she demanded suspiciously.
I smiled at her suspicious tone. A woman after my own heart. “Not at all. I’m calling to talk to you about Matthew, on behalf of Noah Parker.”
“Oh, no, no, no. Uh-uh. We want nothing to do with Parker Sports Management. Not after the way that woman spoke to me.”
I could hear her fiddling with the phone, clearly about to hang up. “Mrs. Garrison, wait ! I’m Zoe’s replacement! Mr. Parker fired her.”
I held my breath during the long pause that followed. “Is that a fact?”
“Yes,” I continued quickly. “I’ve taken over all of her responsibilities. Zoe called you after she’d been let go, out of spite. Mr. Parker and I are both so upset with the way she left things with you and Matthew. We really want to make it right.” I paused. “ I want to make it right. I only started working with Mr. Parker today, and if I’m being completely honest with you, I was really looking forward to the chance to meet with you both and learn more about your son. I mean, I already know a ton since I’ve been following his career, but… I don’t know, I guess I wanted the first meeting I sat in on to be with someone as special as Matthew. He’s an incredible athlete, and I know how important Mr. Parker considers him.” I smiled, remembering. “He wouldn’t stop talking about him during the flight here. I think I know all of his stats now, and wow, is he impressive!”
“Well, you’ve got that part right.”
I could hear the hint of a smile in her voice. Choosing to take it as a hopeful sign, I pushed on, going in for the kill. “And Mrs. Garrison, I hope you’ll forgive me if I admit that part of the reason why I’m calling is selfish. Like I told you, I just started today, and I really, really want to do a good job. If I can help get the three of you around a table, well, that would be quite a start to my new role, you know?”
I wasn’t lying, but I knew it was hard to resist a rookie story.
When Mrs. Garrison spoke again, she sounded thoughtful, as if she was genuinely considering the matter. “Tell me why we should. If you started today then how do you know it’s the right fit for Matthew?”
I didn’t even need to think twice for this part of the negotiation. “I might not know the ins and outs of Parker Sports Management yet, but I do how Noah Parker operates, even after a day. He’s honest, a straight shooter. And the man works hard.” He also held my hand when I was scared on an airplane, even though he was about as soft and cuddly as a porcupine. I crossed my fingers. “I wish you’d hear him out. Please. For me.”
The pause seemed to go on forever.
“Okay. We’ll do it. One hour, that’s it.”
“Fantastic, thank you so much!” I sounded like an overexcited dork—and probably looked even sillier, bouncing around my room like a toddler on a sugar high—but I couldn’t help it. “The meeting is scheduled for Callaghan’s at seven. We’d love to buy you two a nice steak dinner. Up to you.”
I swallowed down the butterflies at my presumptive “we.”
“Matthew does love a steak. Fine, we’ll see how it goes.”
“Wonderful! I really appreciate this.”
I felt like my heart was about to jump out of my chest after I hung up. I’d done the impossible, and now it was time to let my new boss know. I debated texting him, but I wanted to watch his expression when I told him I’d pulled off another miracle.
I pounded on his door, and it swung open like he’d been standing right beside it. “Yes?”
Clipped, angry, but struggling to keep it hidden from me. And despite his expression, he looked amazing. He’d taken off his blazer and tie, and I had to fight to keep from staring too long at the open top two buttons of his shirt exposing a strip of tanned skin while his sleeves were rolled up like he was getting down to business. His hair was slightly out of place, and I envisioned him raking his hand through it in frustration.
I took a deep breath. This time I wasn’t going to play around. “I have news. The meeting with Matthew is back on.”
Noah’s expression remained unchanged. “Excuse me?”
I was still standing in the hallway holding my phone up awkwardly like it was a shield between us. “Can I come in and explain?”
He stepped aside and I stepped into his room, which looked to be about an acre bigger than mine.
As I started explaining, the insanity of what I’d just done began to dawn on me. I rushed to keep talking. “I had a feeling that if I could explain the Zoe situation, then maybe Mrs. Garrison would be willing to have a conversation. And I was right. She and Matthew will be there tonight.” I gulped and waited to see how he’d respond.
“You called her. You called a potential client’s mother without clearing it with me first?”
I stalled. “Well. When you put it like that…”
“Maddy…” his expression was unreadable. “I don’t know whether I should thank you or fire you.”
He turned away.
My heart was now in my toes.
“Well, fuck, Maddy.” When he turned back, his hard expression finally cracked into something like incredulous respect.
“You just performed a miracle. A non-sanctioned, highly inappropriate, above-your-paygrade miracle. And as much as I don’t support this kind of behavior, I appreciate what you managed to pull off. So, thank you. Never do it again.”
I bit my tongue to keep from pointing out that if it worked so well, maybe I should do it again.
“Right,” Noah said briskly. “Go grab your notebook. Now that the meeting’s back on, I’ve got more work for you to do.”
I spared one longing thought for the relaxing bath I wasn’t going to have.
At least working for Noah wasn’t boring.
As I gathered my things, I realized that even though our working relationship was just getting started, we complemented each other. Maybe my tendency to go rogue wasn’t his style, but he’d liked my way of doing things enough to hire me, so it wasn’t all bad.
I smiled to myself. If day one was any indication of how things were going to go with Parker Sports Management and its slightly grumpy founder, I was in for a wild ride.