Chapter 7
MADDIE
Iglared at Matt. “You’re giving me an ‘I don’t want to be here’ look.”
He rubbed a hand across his clean-shaven jaw. I made him shave when I got here because he had too much stubble, and I wanted him to look the part. His image was clean-cut, with that luscious thick hair styled impeccably. He didn’t rock the flow like my brother, but it was the kind of hair you wanted to sink your hands into.
Dammit. I couldn”t think about that. Despite our kiss the other night, he made it clear where we stood. Unfortunately.
“I don’t want to do this, but my agent made me,” he growled.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
He gave me a pained look. “Sorry.”
I pulled my camera away from my face and peered at him. I had him sitting on the staircase at my brother’s house. Noah and Dinah had a gorgeous modern townhome, and the open staircase looked like a perfect place for photos, but Matt was being difficult.
“How about we do this outside?” I suggested.
He furrowed his brow. “Why?”
“I think it would be better. The exterior has the brick-yet-modern look. It would make the photos come out great.”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
For me doing him a favor, he sure was grumpy about it.
“Listen to her!” Dinah called down from her office on the second floor.
A grin spread across my face at D coming to my aid, but then I frowned. “Get back to your edits!”
I smirked when I was met with silence.
When I got here, I told Dinah to get working on her word count, and once I was done with Matt, we’d talk marketing. Someone had to crack the whip. My brother gave in to her demands too much, despite him trying to get her to work, too.
Once outside, I instructed Matt to sit on the steps; he obliged but still looked irritable. I set down my camera and repositioned him, angling his head down a little and having him show off the logo on his hoodie. When he said an athleisure company wanted to work with him, he neglected to mention it was one of the most popular brands. His agent should have a professional from the brand working with him, not me.
I pushed his hair behind his ear, and he flinched at my touch. “Sorry, just trying to make it look good.”
“Sorry. I’m grumpy.”
“What’s wrong? I promise this won’t take long. I’ll snap a bunch of shots, and you pick the best. Then I can help you schedule this.”
I didn’t have class until late, so I had all the time to help Matt with this before he had to get to the arena. But it was like he got up on the wrong side of the bed today.
“Nothing,” he muttered.
“Okay…” I trailed off but didn’t believe him.
I stepped back, put my camera up to my face, and took some shots. He was still a grumpasaurus.
“Matt, look like you enjoy my company,” I said.
The crease in his brow deepened. “Why would you say that?”
“Because you’re not smiling in any of these. Like you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, sweet pea.”
I gave him an annoyed look, especially with that cheesy nickname again. “Doesn’t look like it.”
“I’m a healthy scratch today.”
Oooh. Well, that made sense. Definitely sucked being on the bench for no reason. Sometimes, it was just to shake up the lines. Other times, you pissed off the coach, and he was teaching you a lesson. Or Coach needed to give someone else minutes.
I looked at Matt’s stats this morning, and he was doing well. He played two seasons at the minor league affiliate before he got the call up last year when the old captain got injured. He made the team this year, but he was still on a two-way contract. He put up points in his last game, so it didn’t make sense for Coach to bench him.
“Maybe Coach needed to shake things up.”
“I want to prove myself. I belong on the team,” he grumbled.
I put my camera down. “Okay…I get that.”
“No, you don’t.”
I tilted my head down in a nod. “Yes, I do. Do you know what it’s like being Noah Kennedy’s baby sister? Every coach in pee wee assumed I’d be just as good. I love hockey, but people think I should live and breathe it and want to join one of those women’s leagues. People put a lot of pressure on you when they learn your brother’s a legit hockey superstar.”
He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”
“Geez, now you sound like my brother.”
The corner of his lips upturned into a smile, and I quickly snapped a photo of him. Right at that moment, as the afternoon sun glinted across his chestnut-colored hair, he looked like a God. The kind I’d want to worship on my knees.
Fuck, I was horny.
“That’s perfect. Don’t move,” I told him, and I snapped a few more shots. These were going to be awesome.
After taking a couple more, I pulled my camera away from my face and checked my watch. “I got it.”
“Really?”
“Let’s go inside, and you can pick one. Then I’ll do edits on it and send it over to you so you can post with all the ad copy and such.”
His gaze clouded over.
Okay…I might have gone into work mode on him. “Help me pick, and I’ll do the rest.”
We went inside the house and sat on the couch together while I scrolled through my camera and asked him his opinion. Matt’s thigh pressed against mine as he leaned over to look at my camera. I had to tell myself to breathe because his big body pressed against mine had my libido thinking naughty thoughts. God, I wanted to be naughty with him so bad.
He pointed at the screen. “Go back.”
In the photo, he was smiling like I wasn’t taking these to help with this sponsorship. As if that flirty smile was all for me and he was happy to see me.
He put a hand on my thigh, and I hitched in a breath. “This one?” I asked to quell the nerves.
He squeezed my thigh. “You’re amazing. This is great.”
I slid away from him and grabbed my laptop. I loaded the photo and opened my editing software.
“Thanks,” Matt said.
“Sure,” I told him brightly.
Matt stretched his arm over the back of the couch, silently watching me work. This was exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I hoped I could find work with a PR firm after I graduated.
An alarm blared upstairs, and I slid further down the couch. If Noah woke up from his pregame nap and saw Matt and me cozy on the couch, he’d blow a gasket.
“Can you email me that?” Matt asked. “I gotta get dressed for the game.”
I waved him off. I sat crossed-legged on the couch and touched up the photo until it was perfect. I then emailed it to Matt and gave him the copy to include with hashtags.
My brother came down the steps wearing a suit, and his face lit up when he saw me. “Hey, I want to talk to you about something.”
I closed my laptop and steeled myself for yet another argument. I told him last night I didn’t want to move here, but Dinah already warned me he’d ask again.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I want to pay you for the work you’re doing for Dinah.”
Oh. I hadn’t expected him to say that. I hadn’t thought about working this semester due to having a bigger course load since some of my credits didn’t transfer over.
He frowned. “But…I’m confused about whether you can do that with your visa.”
“I’m not on a visa,” I reminded him. “I was born here, and Mom made me apply for dual citizenship, remember?”
He glared at me. “That’s right. You ruined our family vacation to Disney World by coming early.”
I laughed. “Aren’t you over that already? You were five!”
He shook his head with a laugh. “So rude.”
“Get over it!”
“So, anyway, send me an email with your rates, and we’ll figure it out.”
“Sounds good to me.”
First, I had to figure out what those rates should be. I should reach out to one of my blogger friends and ask for their advice. Maybe look at what some of the publishing PR companies charged.
“You’ve been here for a while helping her,” Noah said.
“I was helping Matt, too.”
A scowl formed across his face. “With what?”
“Sponsored content. Like when I helped you with that beard wash ad we did last year. Am I not allowed to be friends with your teammate?”
“He’s older than you.”
“Noah, he’s one year older than me. We ran into each other last night, and I agreed to help him. Don’t read into it.”
As if on cue, Matt came up from the basement, and I tried not to stare. Even if he was a healthy scratch, he had to dress the part for the game. The sight of him in that blue pin-striped suit from the wedding had the memories of our night together rearing to the surface of my brain.
Noah got up from the couch, brushed off non-existent lint from his pants, and walked back upstairs to say goodbye to Dinah.
I checked my phone and saw a notification on my lock screen. I opened it and saw I was tagged in something. I beamed that Matt had tagged me as the photo credit for the sponsored ad. I checked his hashtags and then scrolled through all the comments. Jealousy reared its ugly head at all the women commenting on how hot he looked.
“Good?” Matt asked.
“Perfect!” I said with a cheery smile. “Hopefully, the brand likes it. Let me know. I’d love the feedback.”
A sly grin spread across his face. “You really like this stuff, huh?”
“It’s my calling.”
He shuffled his feet but glanced away when Noah and Dinah descended the steps. I watched with a pang of envy in my chest as Dinah stood on the steps and kissed my brother goodbye. He adored his wife so much; I could only hope to find that one day.
“Ready, bud?” Noah asked Matt.
Matt nodded to me, and then he and my brother walked out the door. As soon as the door slammed shut, Dinah crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a ‘spill’ look.
I grabbed my laptop and followed her up to her office.
“How did everything go with Matt?” she asked.
“Okay. But he was grumpy.”
She cringed. “He’s pissed he got benched. He thinks he’s going to be put on waivers.”
“What does Noah think?”
She tilted her head to one side. “Why does it matter to you?”
“Just curious if he’s sticking around,” I lied.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Uh-huh.”
“You didn’t tell Noah, right?”
She shook her head. “I’m not opening that can of worms. Are you interested in Matt like that?”
I put a finger on my lips as I thought about it.
I was pissed yesterday, but when he kissed me, it reminded me of how good he was at it. The fact he didn’t want to piss off my brother made me like him more. I may have ulterior motives for asking him to be my wingman. His kiss reminded me of how good we fit together, and I hoped we could hook up again. As long as we kept it quiet and never, ever told my brother.
“Yes,” I muttered. “But he’s afraid of Noah and breaking the code. He’s pretty firm on it.”
Her eyes twinkled. “We can warm Noah up to the idea. I’m in your corner, so let me know. I can work my magic on your brother.”
I blanched. I didn’t want to know what that meant, but I had a feeling it was something sexual. Dinah said what she was thinking. Which I loved, but ew, I didn’t want to know about her sex life.
“Anyway…” I drawled out, changing the subject. “Let’s talk about you getting your word count done. Noah talked about me doing more work for you.”
She let out an agitated breath. “I need a PA. I took off today at the day job because I need to meet this deadline, but I ended up doing all the admin tasks you told me to do.”
“DINAH!” I scolded. “Let me do that for you. How many words did you write today?”
“Two thousand.”
“Okay, good. I have practice today, so I only have a little while to talk, and then I got to hop back to Franklin.”
She frowned. “You’re not coming to the game?”
I shook my head. “Like I said, I have practice, and then I have a night class.”
“Okay, well, let’s talk about it. I need the help.”
“Noah wants you to quit your day job.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not there yet.”
“That secret project could really help you.”
Her face colored. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable publishing it. It was fun to write, but…”
“It’s not your brand,” I finished her thought. “That’s what having a secret pen name’s for.”
She chewed on her lip. “That’s what Fi said.”
“She’s right. Let’s brainstorm a name.”
“You’re annoying.”
“Persistent!”
I stayed at the house for another hour, brainstorming and helping her talk through plot struggles with her book. Then, I had to jet for practice.
Before I walked into the locker room, I saw a text from Matt.
MATT: Thanks for the help today. You’re amazing. I’m grumpy.
ME: Wow. I had NO idea.
MATT: Don’t be sassy, sweet pea.
ME: You love it! Sorry you can’t play tonight. Let me know if you need help with another sponsored ad. I’m your girl.
“Ooh, does new girl have a secret lover?” Kiira, our goaltender, crooned as we walked in together.
I belted out a laugh at the blonde goofball. “No! Just a friend. Ready for me to fire shots at your head today?”
“Oh, bring it, Kennedy!”
I grinned. “Oh, I will. You’re gonna be eating my pucks!”
The goaltender was always the weirdest one on the team, but I loved Kiira. She was fun and, so far, one of the few players I bonded with. That was okay. It took time to get used to a new team dynamic. At least one thing in my life was sorting itself out. I’d figure out the rest this year at Franklin.