Chapter 5
Reese
The conference room is silent as I sit at the head of the table and wait.
Four of the five members of the advisory board take up each side of the rectangular table with Emmett sitting opposite me.
Scott is late and something about that feels personal. Like he’s taking control by making me wait for him. Similarly to how him inviting the team’s field manager to the meeting I called felt like a power move.
The tick of the clock on the wall is the only sound in the otherwise silent space. I’ve tried my best not to look up and across from me. I’ve tried my best to avoid Emmett at all costs.
Don’t think about me being naked.
Don’t tell me what to do.
Tentatively, I let my eyes drift to him.
Thankfully, he’s not looking in my direction, instead focused on the clock on the wall, telling us all that the meeting was supposed to start seven minutes ago.
I never let myself realize it before, but Emmett Montgomery is hot.
Like sinfully hot.
I thought I’d turned that part of my brain off, the part that could even be attracted to another person again.
But then something about that reporter practically asking him on a date during our press conference and our conversation while I was in the bath reminded me that I’m still a woman and that man is fine as hell.
Apparently the “older guy thing” is doing it for me these days.
My eyes trail over his jawline. To the way it moves as he chews a piece of gum, and even that part of him is attractive.
It’s hard and sharp, covered in a perfectly trimmed beard that’s peppered with just a bit of salt.
His ball cap is pulled low and his Warriors’ long-sleeve is tight against his wide shoulders and chest, bunched up at the sleeves where I’m then graced with those cut forearms covered in black ink that extends down the back of his hands.
My attention follows up the center of his chest where our team’s logo lives, to the pair of sunglasses resting on the collar, then up to his face again.
Only to find him watching me.
Those brown eyes are hard to see under his hat, yet I can still see the glint that shines in them.
His lips lift on one side, this all-too-knowing look plastered on his handsome face before he leans back in chair, folds his hands over his stomach, and doesn’t break eye contact with me as he continues to chew his gum.
I simply scowl at him, and Emmett’s low chuckle is covered by the sound of the door opening.
“You’re late,” Ed reminds Scott as he strolls into the conference room, one hand tucked into a pant pocket, the other holding a coffee from my favorite coffee shop a few blocks over from the stadium.
“Am I?” He slaps a hand on Emmett’s shoulder before taking the last empty seat at the table. “Good to see you, Monty. Glad you could make it.”
I can sense Emmett hesitating. “Reese asked me to join.”
Scott takes a sip of his coffee, turning his chair to face me. “Reese, you called this meeting. Go ahead.”
Most of the advisory board seem completely uninterested that they’re back here so soon after our last meeting. And as the owner of the franchise, I don’t technically have to run a single decision by anyone else first.
But even though I feel knowledgeable and qualified, I’m still new in this position. And this group of people has decades of experience in advising my grandfather. It seems like a waste not to use them. It’s what I pay them for, after all.
“I want to look into trading Harrison Kaiser,” I say simply.
The room goes eerily silent.
Until finally, each and every man on the advisory board bursts into laughter.
Well, everyone but Ed. He offers me an apologetic smile, but nothing about that expression tells me he agrees with me either.
“That’s a good one, Reese,” Phil chuckles. “What are we really doing here?”
I don’t let their reactions deter me. “I want to look into trading Harrison Kaiser.”
The laughter slowly dies down as the room begins to realize that I’m completely serious. I watch as they look around at one another, watch as they silently ask each other if I’ve lost it.
Scott is the first to speak up. “No.”
“He’s here on a two-year contract and getting paid way too much for it,” I explain. “We could use those funds elsewhere.”
“Absolutely not. I’m the one who got him here last season. We aren’t trading him.”
“And you offered him more money than he’s worth.”
“He was the biggest pickup of the season!” Scott raises his voice at me. “Every playoff-bound team wanted him and I got him.”
“Reese,” Phil cuts in. “Your first act as president cannot be to trade one of the most sought-after players just months after we worked so hard to get him here. You’ll be the laughingstock of the league.”
Ed puts his hand over mine in a move that reminds me so much of my grandfather. “Don’t you think you’ll need him for a long playoff run if we make it that far?”
“Yes,” Scott answers for me.
“No,” I quickly argue. “I have someone else in mind to fill his role. Someone in our minor league system.”
Scott scoffs. “Who?”
I pause, unsure if I want to tell him about my long-term plans or about the player I haven’t been able to stop watching film of. Really not the best sign that I’m not sure if I can trust someone from the advisory board.
“That’s what I thought,” Scott says when I stay silent. “There’s no one in our minor league system that could even be considered a possible replacement for Harrison Kaiser. Are you out of your goddamn mind?”
“Hey,” Emmett cuts in sharply. “Do not speak to her like that.”
I let my eyes drift to him to find him already staring back my way.
And he’s pissed.
At Scott, I’d like to think. But you never know with Emmett and his players. He’s too attached to them.
My hope with inviting him to this meeting was to have another voice on my side. I know I’ll get Ed to understand my point of view and having three of us against four are better odds than only having two.
“Let’s have a vote,” Scott says.
“What?” We don’t vote here. I’m in charge. These meetings are simply to advise me, not to force my hand in a certain direction. “No, that’s not how this wor—”
“Everyone against trading Harrison Kaiser, raise your hand.”
Four hands shoot up instantly. Every member of the advisory board.
All but Ed.
Four against three as I knew it would be, but again, this vote doesn’t mean anything. I have the field manager on my side. I have my grandfather’s longest trusted advisor.
Those four hands are still lifted in the air when, cautiously, my attention drifts back to Emmett. He’s watching me from across the table, jaw hard, hands gripping the armrests of his chair, white knuckles and all.
Until he slowly raises his hand too.
And that single hand in the air is the only one that bothers me.
I don’t know how to explain it, but everything in me deflates. I really let myself believe we could be on the same side.
So much for a truce.
We hold eye contact from across the table and I feel my own expression morph to mirror his. Hard. Angry. Disappointed.
No, we aren’t allies, and we sure as hell aren’t friends.
“There we have it.” Scott is far too chipper for my mood right now. “We’re not trading Kaiser.”
“Great.” Standing abruptly, I grab the handles from my bag, slinging them over my shoulder. “Thanks for the meeting.”
I’m pushing open the conference room when I hear someone at the table mutter behind me, “She’s not cut out for this position.”
Just make it to your office. Just hold it together until you can get to your office.
I’m used to being undermined and brushed off, so that’s not what has me upset.
I thought, I really thought that after that press conference, Emmett and I could get on the same page. Maybe not privately—I know we’re going to disagree on things along the way—but publicly, I hoped he’d have my back.
I pride myself on rarely getting rattled when it comes to work, but I feel it right now.
I move with quick strides, thankful as ever that I’m a pro in heels, when I hear someone jogging behind me.
“Reese!” Emmett calls out, anger clear in his tone.
No. Hell no, I’m not talking to him. And he doesn’t get to be the angry one right now.
I turn into the open doorway, pass the empty receptionist desk and dart into my office, slamming the door behind me.
Only for that door to fly open a second later.
“What the hell was that about?”
I turn on him. “You can’t just barge in here!”
“What would you have me do? Make an appointment with your receptionist?”
He gestures that way, showcasing the empty desk.
I really need to find a replacement for Denise.
Emmett closes my office door, harder than necessary, leaving us alone inside.
I slip behind my desk, standing while he takes the other side, looming over me.
Ready for battle.
“What are you thinking? Harrison Kaiser. Really, Reese?”
“You already voted against my decision. You didn’t have a word to say while we were in the meeting, but now you want to argue with me about it?”
“Yes, I want to argue with you!” He lifts his hat, running an aggravated hand through his hair before replacing it. “And no, I’m not going to argue with you in front of them. But privately, if I think you’re making a huge fucking mistake, then yes, I’m going to tell you.”
“Have you ever chased after my grandfather to tell him he’s making a mistake?”
Emmett pauses for a moment, his voice a bit more even. “I don’t have to tell you that you have way more eyes on you than your grandfather ever did. Every decision you make is going to be plastered across headlines, Reese. Every mistake you make is going to be put under a microscope.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s a mistake. I think it’s the right decision.”
He laughs in disbelief. “Of course you do. And let me guess, you’re going to do it, regardless that no one agrees with that decision. History already tells me that you don’t give a shit about what I want anyway. Why even have me in that meeting?”
It feels a touch too vulnerable to admit that I thought maybe, just maybe, he’d see my vision. That he’d have my back. That we could make a good team together.
So instead, I go with, “Harrison doesn’t even mesh well with the other players.”
“And how would you know?”
“I just . . . I can tell.”
He scoffs. “I spend all day every day with those guys. You’re grasping at straws here.”
I can sense him hoping that I’ll back down now, that I’ll maybe take a seat so we could have a civil discussion about this. But I don’t. I stay standing, facing off with him.
“Goddammit, Reese.” Emmett begins pacing my office. “Did something else happen with Kaiser that you’re not telling me about?”
“No. No, nothing else happened. But he’s expensive and I have a plan.”
Sure, Harrison tends to talk to me like I’m a silly girl who has no idea what they’re doing around a baseball field, but I can handle that. I’m not so sensitive that I’d make a business decision of this magnitude just because the guy calls me “sweetie.”
Emmett stops in the middle of my office, brows cinched and trying to read me. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you coming in here and trying to change everything?”
Is that what he thinks I’m doing? Because I’m not. There’s so much history of this franchise that I want to protect.
“I have a vision for this club and some decisions that my grandfather made need to be undone in order for that to happen.”
Emmett stays silent, watching me. And he looks utterly heartbroken as he does.
“Like me,” he finally says.
“What?”
“I don’t know why I’m always so surprised by your decisions. It’s so easy for you to drop people, like they mean nothing. And we all know I’m next.” Emmett shakes his head, headed for my door. “Thanks for the reminder, Reese. I won’t be surprised when it’s my turn.”