Chapter 2 #2
“You’re not the first to make that observation,” he said. “Blake Mills and I tried the roommate thing when he was transferred to the Rays. It didn’t last long.”
She was sure it didn’t. Since the holidays, she’d been invited to Blake’s apartment a couple times for game nights, and his place always looked immaculate.
McKenna had recently been adopted into what she called the “Girlfriends Club” by Blake’s significant other, Erika.
The other women included in the group were goalie Coulton’s girlfriend, Ainsley, and Chelsea, who was co-parenting the most adorable little boy with left winger, Preston.
Chelsea’s best friend, Allyson, was also part of the newly formed social group, and like McKenna, she wasn’t dating a player.
McKenna had been delighted to be included in the occasional happy hour and shopping excursions, because all the women were super nice and a lot of fun.
She hadn’t had a lot of girlfriends in her life.
She was the type of girl who only seemed to manage one friend at a time.
She’d had a high school bestie, and then a college one, but both those friendships faded after they graduated and moved on with their lives, taking jobs in different cities.
Tank picked up the sweatshirt she’d just moved, as well as several other articles of clothing, tucking them under his arm. The man was seriously built and no stranger to the gym. McKenna had never seen honest-to-God six-pack abs in real life. Then she counted again…
Tank had an eight-pack.
“Well, I guess I should go get dressed. Unless you prefer me in the towel.”
McKenna quickly averted her eyes, aware she’d been staring. “You should get dressed. We have a lot to go over.” She reached into her bag to pull out the schedule she’d just finished finalizing this morning. “It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks.”
Tank growled low in his throat, but that was the only sign he gave that he wasn’t looking forward to his penance.
She watched as he walked down the hall to his bedroom, admiring his bare back. McKenna was a big fan of a muscular back, finding it just as sexy as a man’s chest, and damn if Tank didn’t look as good going as he did coming.
She quickly erased the word “coming” from her mind because it sent her thoughts down very inappropriate paths.
Tank turned, catching her in the act of ogling his ass. He gestured to the towel. “You sure?”
She shot him a dirty look and flipped open her notebook, pretending to read something, breathing a sigh of relief when he entered his bedroom and shut the door.
She really needed to keep her wits about her.
She refused to let Tank get the upper hand on anything.
Benny had reiterated this morning that he wanted her to take the lead on everything concerning Tank.
She wasn’t sure if her boss had stressed that point because he wasn’t sure she could manage the guy, or because he wanted to make sure she understood she really did have carte blanche. She hoped it was the second.
She’d been successful in her new job thus far, so she didn’t want to fail now, given this was the first time Benny had trusted her with something other than making posts on social media.
McKenna had only been working with the Stingrays since June, so she knew she had a long way to go as far as proving herself, but this still felt like a good indication that Benny would be open to expanding her role within the department at some point down the road.
Tank returned after only a few minutes, dropping down on the couch next to her. “Want something to drink?”
She shook her head, holding up her tumbler of coffee. “I’m all set.”
He leaned back, resting his arm along the back of the couch. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“Community outreach, family-friendly content about your personal life, and zero scandals.”
Tank grimaced. “Sounds boring as shit.”
“Exactly.”
He’d pulled on a pair of jeans that looked new and an army-green button-down. She had no idea how he managed to make such a conservative outfit look so freaking sexy.
Concentrate, Mac. Stop looking at the hot man.
“We thought it best to let the dust settle on the video and your apology for a couple of days. The hotel’s statement this morning didn’t help.”
Tank scowled. “I told them about the bed when we were checking out, and I paid to replace it right then. I can’t help but notice they didn’t manage to mention that, or the fact that was the only thing damaged in the room.”
McKenna shrugged. “That makes for a less-interesting story, and right now, people seem determined to paint you as the bad boy. Hence, our plan. Today and tomorrow, we’re going to focus on generating wholesome, positive content about you for Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.”
“Not sure what the hell I can offer that’s wholesome,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
She drew in a deep breath, refusing to be baited. “What did you do for the holidays?”
“What, or who?” he joked.
Yep. This was going to be a long damn day. She didn’t take the bait; rather, she attempted to pin him with an annoyed look.
“You’re taking this way too seriously, Mouse.”
She narrowed her eyes. “McKenna. And you’re not taking it seriously enough.”
For a moment, she thought Tank was going to argue. But in the end, he relented. “I spent Christmas Day at Victor’s house.”
Victor Reed was a defenseman for the Stingrays, as well as a native of Baltimore. As such, each Christmas, he opened his home to players who didn’t have time to travel to their hometowns for the holidays.
“Oh,” she said. “That’s nice. I tried to get Victor to share a few pictures from the day, but he’s overly private about his personal life.
” Which was putting it lightly. While most of the other Rays were happy with the publicity, Victor went the opposite direction, offering her nothing because, as he’d told her on more than one—or five hundred—occasions, his personal life was “nobody’s fucking business. ”
“Yeah, he’s super private. He probably didn’t want to share any pictures because his niece, Pip, was in a lot of them. And he’s protective as fuck over that girl.”
McKenna was grateful to Tank for explaining.
Victor had simply said “fuck no” to her request and walked away, which honestly had been no surprise, but, given her job, she felt like she had to keep trying.
She’d learned not to take offense over Victor’s gruff nature and language very early on.
Mainly because she’d gotten a few glimpses of him with young Stingrays fans, and the man was an absolute softie when it came to kids.
So, she no longer jumped at his sharp tone and constant use of the F word. “That makes sense.”
Tank opened his phone. “I have a few pictures without her.” He scrolled through his photos, then showed her a shot of himself standing next to two of his teammates, Andrew Thomas and Lucas Wilson, whom everyone called Rook.
They were all three holding brightly colored Nerf guns, Tank dressed in full camo and Rook wearing a beanie and protective eyewear.
“We had an epic Nerf gun battle. It was Rook’s idea.”
“That sounds awesome.”
Tank grinned. “It was, even though we got creamed. We divided up into teams. Andrew, Rook, and Vic’s sister, Vivian, were on my team. Victor, Kostya, Anatoli, and Pip were on the other.”
“It’s nice that Victor opened his home to so many of you. I’m wondering how your Nerf team lost, though. You, Rook, and Andrew are seriously competitive.”
“Victor failed to mention that Pip had gotten an Elite Blaster for Christmas.”
When McKenna tilted her head, confused, he explained. “A Nerf machine gun. Plus, Pip is still pretty young, so we were careful with her. Even though she was pummeling us.”
She laughed. “That sounds like so much fun.”
“It really was. We’ve already planned to do a rematch next Christmas, and we’ve talked about it so much, I swear some of the other guys on the team are ready to bail on their own family celebrations, just so they can come too. I’ve already started shopping for my gun for next year.”
He scrolled through his pictures, showing her a screenshot of a bright blue Nerf gun he’d saved. “Check this out. Mega barrel, seventy-two darts. I’m not going down without a fight next time.”
McKenna was suddenly jealous and wishing she could go.
“I love this. Would you mind sharing that picture of you with Andrew and Rook, as well as the Nerf gun you want to buy? Even though it’s well past Christmas, I can still write a fun post telling that story, building on your camaraderie with the team, the strong friendships. ”
She heard the swoop of his phone, hers pinging a second later as the photos hit her messages.
“Thanks. So I’m assuming since you were at Victor’s, you didn’t get to spend any time with your family?”
“I didn’t.”
“Not even around Thanksgiving?”
Tank shook his head. “Nope.”
For a man who never seemed at a loss for words, he was definitely giving her short answers regarding his family.
McKenna tried to remember what she’d read of Tank’s bio yesterday, but it didn’t say much.
His mother died of a stroke when he was twenty, right at the end of his first year playing professionally.
His dad currently lived in Buffalo and had been a hockey player as well, though he’d never made it out of the AHL.
She decided to give it one more try. “Your dad was a former hockey player as well, wasn’t he?”
Tank nodded. “Yep. And all of that’s been discussed and covered before. Nothing new to share.”
Okay. Well, that was clearly a dead end for some reason.
McKenna wanted to press but decided to change the subject for now, covering more superficial topics in the hopes Tank would eventually become comfortable sharing personal stuff with her.
“Fine. Then what about your climb to the NHL?” she asked. “Tell me about the first time you strapped on a pair of skates.”