Penalty Play (Boston Rebels #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

MORGAN

“If there’s one thing in life I excel at, it’s attracting assholes,” I say with a sigh.

Across from me, Alessandra Jones lifts one of her perfectly arched dark eyebrows, her full lips tilting up into a soft smile. “Please don’t tell me this is about Carter.”

I groan, leaning back in my seat as I cover my face with both hands and shake my head.

“You didn’t give him another chance, did you?” she asks. I can hear the well-deserved judgment in her voice. AJ is the general manager of the Boston Rebels, the first female GM in the NHL, and an all-around badass who would never let anyone treat her the way I somehow keep letting guys treat me.

My hands fall from my face. “He was so apologetic and insisted that he really wanted to make things work this time.” I hear how ridiculous this time sounds as it rolls off my tongue. How many times do I need to let him walk all over me before I finally learn my lesson?

I probably shouldn’t be gossiping about my love life with my boss, but she’s become a good friend over the past few months and I need someone to talk to about the text I just received.

She rests her elbows on her desk and folds her arms over each other as she leans in. “All right, what happened this time?”

“He’s been texting me about how much he misses me, how he was wrong to let me go, and how he now knows we were so good together .

. .” I pause, swallowing through the thick lump in my throat as I think about how honest his lies sounded.

He told me exactly what I wanted to hear, and I was so desperately gullible that I believed him.

“So last week I went to dinner with him, and I ended up spending the night at his place. He left for a weeklong business trip and just got back today. And about two minutes ago, I got a text from him saying that he thinks we’re better off keeping things casual. ”

“Morgan.” Her voice is sympathetic but chiding. It’s the tone you’d use when you’re telling someone they should have known better. Which is fair, because I absolutely should have.

“I know. It’s like a repeat of June all over again.

” I met Carter earlier this summer, and he’d love-bombed me to the extreme.

He wanted to see me almost every night, flew me to Miami while he was there on business because he couldn’t be apart from me, bought me gifts—and then, with no warning and no provocation, he ended things.

This time he didn’t end it, he just doesn’t want a relationship. I’m good enough to sleep with, but not good enough to be his girlfriend, I guess.

“You deserve so much better than to be some guy’s booty call,” AJ says.

“How am I supposed to know when a guy doesn’t mean any of the things he says, though? There were no red flags. He just came off as this really great guy, who was really into me . . .”

“Until he wasn’t?” AJ offers up the truth I don’t want to admit.

“Yeah. But then his apology was so sincere and his interest seemed so genuine.”

“Sometimes it can be really hard to tell,” AJ says with a small shake of her head. I know her first marriage wasn’t a good one, and her ex-husband ended up being the douchiest of douches. “But when someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

“Yeah, maybe my issue is that I’m too willing to give people second chances.” I shake my head, a little sad about the thought of people being unable to redeem themselves. “I can’t help but want to see the good in people.”

“I’m not saying you should never give someone a second chance. Look at me and McCabe. If we hadn’t given each other a second chance, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

I smile as I think about our team captain and our general manager, who last season seemed to hate each other over something that had happened years before when they were both with a different team. Now AJ, McCabe, and his baby girl, Abby, are the perfect little family.

“What I am saying, though, is that if someone repeatedly shows you they’re not trustworthy, you need to let them go.

No matter how good it seems when you’re together.

No matter how good it could be.” She pauses, shakes her head as she looks at me, and says, “You are so good at giving other people excellent advice in similar situations. Maybe you just need to stop and ask yourself, ‘What would I tell a friend in this instance?’”

I huff out a laugh. “None of my friends are single anymore, so I wouldn’t need to give that kind of advice.

But I know what you mean, and I’ll try that next time.

” I push down any lingering emotions I have about what I thought Carter and I could have together, determined not to be some guy’s doormat again.

From now on, I’m going to embrace my inner badass like AJ.

“Okay, sorry. We’re not meeting to discuss my love life. What’s up, Boss?”

AJ cringes a tad at my use of the term, as if she doesn’t like thinking of herself as everyone’s boss.

That might be part of why she excels in her role.

She never tries to throw her weight around—she just leads quietly and confidently, and everyone from the team’s owner to the players respect the hell out of her for it.

“I’ll wait until Patrick gets here to jump into the nitty gritty of it, but before that, I wanted to say how thankful I am you’re stepping into this role.

I know you have your own clients and your own PR company, and that this is just temporary, but I really appreciate you stepping in for Tatum while she’s on medical leave. ”

“Well, the Rebels just officially became my biggest client.”

I’d helped AJ and the Boston Rebels with a PR situation toward the end of last season. Then I’d agreed to come on part time to help revamp their social media vision and put a plan into place for executing it.

When their social media manager, Tatum, found out she needed to have back surgery and would have a long recovery, I agreed to fit this into my already busy schedule.

Behind me, there’s a knock on the door and I turn as Patrick Patrona, the VP of Marketing and Public Relations, walks in. On his heels is a young woman with pale blonde hair and big brown eyes.

“Morgan, this is Natalie. She’s doing one of her co-ops for Northeastern and will be our social media intern for the rest of this year.”

“So nice to meet you,” Natalie says, extending her hand to shake mine. “I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Oh, I’m just filling in for Tatum for a few months,” I say, glancing at Patrick. No one mentioned needing to manage an intern as part of my job responsibilities.

“Natalie will be reporting to me,” Patrick says, clearly noting the question in my expression, “but she’ll be looking to you for guidance about our social media vision.

We’ll also need to talk a bit about some of the upcoming press releases we’ve got scheduled, and figure out how we want our socials to build excitement around our announcements. ”

I glance between Patrick and Natalie, where they stand to my right, and AJ on the other side of her desk, to my left.

“I just want to reiterate the expectation that I’m coming on part time.

It sounds like you’re asking me to do Tatum’s full-time job, including training an intern, while also working on PR that was beyond the scope of her responsibilities . . . in fifteen hours a week?”

If there’s one thing I learned in the course of earning my MBA and starting my own company, it’s to set clear expectations.

“Morgan’s right,” AJ says before Patrick can respond. “We need to make sure we’re clear about what we need her to do, so she can delegate the rest.”

I glance at Natalie, who looks like she’s caught in the crossfire and in over her head, even though this is a perfectly civil conversation about boundaries. Oh boy.

“We’ll make sure to keep it manageable,” Patrick says to AJ. “And ensure you are free to manage the players, not the PR staff.”

AJ huffs out a laugh. “Patrick, how long have we worked together? Is there any part of this organization I don’t have my fingers in?”

He shakes his head with a soft laugh. He doesn’t seem to think she’s overstepping, it’s more like he’s thankful she found me and brought me on in this role.

Even though I know I don’t have enough time in the day for this project, when you get the opportunity to work with someone truly amazing, someone you want to learn from and emulate, it’s hard to say no.

AJ is that person for me. Plus, having the Boston Rebels on my roster of clients is certainly not going to hurt my future business growth. It’s only for a few months, after all.

“Great,” AJ says, then turns to me. “So once you’re back from Bermuda, we can start?”

I press my lips between my teeth and give her a sharp nod. Bermuda is the trip that’s been looming on my calendar all summer, ever since my mom announced her plans to marry a man I’ve never even met and insisted that I be her maid of honor. Again.

“Yeah, next week should be fine. I fly back on Monday.”

“Great, we’ll see you here on Tuesday, then.

In the meantime, we’ll get Natalie all caught up on the social media vision you created and the strategy we’re using to execute it.

You should go relax and have a great trip.

” AJ must notice my grimace because she says, “C’mon, it’s Bermuda. How bad can it be?”

And my god, I wish she hadn’t asked that question, because now all I can think about is how much I don’t want to go.

I say my goodbyes and, as I head out of AJ’s office, my phone buzzes in my purse. I pull it out to see that my mom has texted.

At least AJ isn’t here to see this grimace, because the article my mom has shared with me makes me dread this trip even more.

Mom:

Not the weather report we were hoping for!

Staring back at me, under the headline Bermuda Preparing for Tropical Storm This Weekend, is an aerial map of the Atlantic showing the potential path of the tropical storm, with Bermuda right smack in the middle of it.