7. Noah
7
NOAH
I already felt like I’d been talking nonstop since the minute we’d sat down at the table in the posh steakhouse. June Garrison was sipping a glass of white wine with her eyes on her son, and Matthew seemed to be doing his best to appear disinterested, even though I kept seeing excitement flash in his eyes as I outlined his potential future.
June looked like someone who’d dealt with too many broken promises. Even when she attempted a smile, it was tight and quick before her mouth settled back into a perma-frown. She was the kind of woman used to doing things for herself. She’d beaten me to the door of the restaurant and held it open for the rest of us, and then told all of us where to sit at the table. Physically, Matthew was a giant, but he was relegated to puppy dog status around his mom. I’d seen him at his most ferocious on the field, but in the restaurant, he was content to let her take the lead.
Every time I started reeling him in, June would lean forward and give her son a pointed look, causing him to fall back while she took over the conversation and asked an endless string of shrewd, hard-hitting questions. I didn’t mind difficult questions, from June or Matthew. But at a certain point, you had to take a risk and believe. As June’s doubt infected Matthew, I could feel my hopes dimming.
“I think the most important part of the PSM package I’m offering is the knowledge that whenever you need me, Matthew, I’ll be there for you. Always,” I said. “This relationship isn’t a business-hours-only situation. You want to go over a potential endorsement deal at two in the morning? All you have to do is call.”
It was the final piece of the package. The knowledge that my clients were my priority. I wasn’t going to hand them off to some lackey once the deal was signed, and I wasn’t going to screen their calls. If they needed to talk to me, I’d always be there for them. That usually sealed it for me.
That didn’t seem to be the case with the Garrisons. Or at least with June Garrison. She was fiddling with the stem of her wineglass. Like she was bored .
Matthew glanced at his mom. “Thanks for explaining what you offer. We’ll, uh, think about it.”
Fuck. I was losing them.
My phone vibrated with a text from…I glanced at the screen…Maddy?
She glanced meaningfully at the phone.
I frowned at her, then turned back to Matthew. Maybe if I gave him my undivided attention, and stopped worrying about June…
Maddy spoke up. “Mrs. Garrison, I have a question for you.”
Oh no.
Up until that point Maddy had been a nearly invisible presence at the table, taking quiet notes and looking appropriately rapt as I spoke. Clearly, she’d reached her limit on holding back.
I spoke quietly. “Maddy, let’s not–”
“No, no, I want to hear what she has to say,” June said.
I sat in tense anticipation as I waited for her to go on. So far, Maddy’d shown good instincts—but she’d also shown herself to be too impulsive. There was no way for me to tell if her speaking up would be a good thing or not.
Under the table, I clenched and unclenched my hand, preparing myself to jump in and redirect if necessary.
“You’ve heard what Parker Sports Management is all about, but what’s important to you and Matthew?” she continued.
To my surprise, June finally stopped fiddling and started speaking.
“You’re not the first to make us a pile of promises, Noah Parker,” she said, glancing over at me. “That’s to be expected. But we’re looking for something more from this partnership.”
I opened my mouth, but before I could speak, Maddy urged her to go on.
“The endorsements and promo deals are going to come no matter who we sign with. Yeah, they’re a big part of the package, but they’re not what’s most important to me.” June glanced at her son. “Matthew’s young. A little impetuous. I need someone who knows the business but also knows how to deal with someone who can be a pigheaded about things. Talk some sense into him when needed, you know? We don’t want business partners, we want…” she broke off, looked at Matthew then locked onto me. “We want family .”
The sincerity of her request caught me off guard. She was asking for something both bigger and simpler than everything I’d already promised her.
The fact that Matthew’s father wasn’t in the picture wasn’t lost on me. It couldn’t have been easy, dealing with the stresses and responsibilities of raising a gifted son, making sure he had all the resources and support he needed along the way. It stood to reason now that he was at this stage of his career, she wanted him in the hands of someone she could trust.
Keeping clients from making dumb decisions might have been a big part of my job, but it wasn’t normally part of my sales pitch. No young man wanted to hear how much growing up he still had to do. But maybe this time, that was the thing they needed to hear—that I was there to be a mentor, not an enabler.
And it had taken Maddy’s simple question to get June to open up and remind me what made PSM different from every other firm out there. But before I did that, I needed Matthew to open up a little too.
“Matthew, I hear what your mom is saying. You feel the same, correct?”
He glanced at June before he spoke. For a second I could see the kid inside him, overwhelmed by a life changing decision, and looking to the person he trusted most for guidance. “Um, yeah. We’ve talked to a bunch of guys like you and the truth is, they’re all sort of blurring together in my head at this point. One is promising Nike, one swears they’ve got Gatorade in their back pocket, and that’s great. But I sorta need someone who doesn’t just tell me where to sign but will also tell me why . I might look like a dumb jock, but I pay attention to how stuff reads to fans. And I have my own ideas, so I want to work with someone who’ll listen to what I have to say. You know?”
“I can absolutely do that,” I said. “Listening is always a priority for me.”
“You didn’t listen to her,” Matthew said, nodding to Maddy.
I fought the urge to grind my teeth. The annoying thing was, he was right.
“That’s true, but I’m new and we’re still working out some of our communication kinks,” Maddy said. “Noah really will listen to you. I promise.”
I glanced at her with grudging respect. She’d handled that problem well.
Of course, she’d also caused it in the first place by speaking up.
“But we also need someone who knows how to pump the brakes on this boy.” June glanced at Maddy, and I fought to let the conversation unfold without jumping in to immediately suggest solutions. It went against the grain for me, but I could see that waiting and listening was what was finally reaching past June’s distrust. Maddy and I were going to have a firm talk about following my damn instructions—but I couldn’t deny she’d gotten results. “What we want most is an open and honest connection,” June concluded.
Maddy looked over at me as if she knew she’d just served them up on a silver platter. For a moment our eyes locked, a thrum of connection buzzing between us, as I finally realized the thing that would persuade Matthew.
I leaned forward, my face neutral as I shifted my focus back to June and Matthew. “I understand completely. To give you an idea of my approach… does the name D’Shawn Collins mean anything to you?”
Matthew threw his head back and laughed. “Uh, yeah. I had his poster on my wall growing up.”
Of course I already knew that—he’d mentioned it in an interview once. “Let me tell you a story about the time D’Shawn had me come to his annual family reunion. He wanted me to get his grandfather’s seal of approval—and doing that meant battling it out with his uncles, brothers, and cousins on the basketball court.”
I launched into the story knowing that it would tick all of the boxes for them, about how I’d gotten my ass handed to me by one of D’Shawn’s cousins, a twenty-two-year-old girl. D’Shawn’s grandpa had expected me to walk off in a huff. Instead, I asked if the cousin had a sports agent yet. By the end of that family reunion, I’d walked away representing not one, but two members of the Collins family. I’d chosen the story to highlight everything I could offer—accessibility, honesty, transparency, and yes, support that felt more familial than businesslike. By the time I finished, both Matthew and June were exactly where I wanted them.
Trusting me.
I finished with the punch line. “And hey, how many people can say they scored two baskets against a future WNBA star?”
Matthew laughed, right on cue.
The tension ratcheted down and the rest of the meal went well enough that I felt hopeful as we said our goodbyes in the parking lot. Matthew promised to get back to me soon with his final thoughts, which I took as a positive sign. He’d stepped up to talk about our potential future before June had a chance to say anything. I liked her, but I also wanted Matthew to have some agency in his career.
Maddy was quiet as we got into the rental car, which gave me a chance to collect my thoughts. I needed to address what had just happened in the right way. She’d taken an enormous risk by inserting herself into the negotiations for the second time. Lucky for both of us it had paid off, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to make a habit of stepping in without clearing it with me.
I eased the car onto the highway and glanced at her. She looked pale, possibly from the stress of the past twenty-four hours, or perhaps because she was mulling over what she’d just done.
I decided I could afford to be manganous when she apologized. Her heart had been in the right place after all. I’d rather have an assistant who cared too much than one who didn’t care enough.
She cleared her throat. “Why didn’t you look at the text message I sent?”
That caught me off guard. “Maddy?—”
“I’m not going to apologize for a gamble that paid off,” she blurted out. “I could tell that she needed to be heard, and I wanted to give her the chance. And if you’d read my text message, you could have been the one to give her that chance, not me.”
I frowned.
Maddy kept talking. “A long time ago, I read that if you’re talking, you’re not selling, and it stuck with me.”
My lips thinned. “Are you suggesting that I was talking too much during the meeting?”
“No, but we were getting to a tipping point,” she said. “We needed to give them both a chance to be heard. Like, the deep-down stuff that they might not tell everyone. You had to lay out the plan. But…”
“But what?” I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
I glanced at Maddy out of the corner of my eye and saw her shrug. “Matthew might look like a man to you but to June, he’s still her baby. Always will be. And she wants to protect him. I just gave her the chance to say that out loud so you could give her the reassurance she needed to hear. You see him as a fully formed adult, June doesn’t. And in order to gain her trust, we—uh, I mean you —needed to show her we also see the side of him that needs some looking after.” She frowned and shook her head. “ You also see that side of him.”
As frustrated as I was with her I had to admit that I liked how invested she was in the negotiation. She wanted to do everything she could to sign on a valuable client, even if it meant risking my displeasure. As a boss, I liked that kind of passion.
I liked it in distinctly non-boss ways too. I squashed those feelings.
“I appreciate that you were able to pick up on that. You’re right, I hadn’t thought about that aspect. But Maddy…”
“I know, I know.”
“No, you don’t know,” I said. “In this circumstance it worked out, but inserting yourself into negotiations like that is an incredibly foolhardy move. You’re brand new to this business, and there will probably be aspects to most negotiations you won’t be privy to prior to the meeting. One wrong word and the entire scaffolding I’m building with them can come crashing down. Plus, you’re not licensed to be an agent. There are legal implications to all of this that not only could impact the negotiations but also the company as a whole.”
“Legal?” she asked, shrinking a bit in her seat.
“You got lucky tonight, but it can’t happen again. Understand?”
I glanced over at her to see how my lecture had landed. She nodded silently, staring at her hands clasped in her lap. There was something about her defeated posture that triggered me to keep talking.
Because deep down, beneath all of the tough talk and frustration, I loved the way she’d figured out how to get to June.
I sighed. “Look, next time, if you get an idea mid-meeting write it on your notepad. Then discretely show it to me. I avoid checking my phone during meetings if I can help it.”
She perked up, eyes bright with hope.
I cleared my throat gruffly. “So. What do you think about our chances with Garrison? What’s your gut saying?”
“Oh.” She straightened up. “I think they’re excellent . He really seemed to like you.”
“Yeah?” I glanced at her and caught her smile under the light of a streetlamp.
“Of course. What’s not to like? I think Matthew should be begging you to work with him. You’re amazing.”
The sincerity in her voice was enough to pull my eyes from the road again, and when I glanced over our eyes caught for a moment. She meant it.
I coughed and refocused ahead of me. “Well, thank you. I appreciate that.”
“If you want to strategize tonight, I’m game. I’m wide awake and ready to go. I’ve got ideas that you might?—”
Christ, she really was young. “Maddy, it’s getting late. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I don’t want you to burn out.” And the last thing I needed was Maddy in my hotel room late at night. “Write everything down in that trusty notebook of yours and we can go over it on the flight home tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, sure.”
It almost sounded like she was sad that we weren’t going to keep going. And even though I’d never admit it, I actually was disappointed to have to call an end to the night.
Because spending time with Maddy Malone didn’t feel like work.