Chapter 48
JORDAN
“So, I’m guessing there’s no actual internal development in this meeting,” I say later that week at lunch as Georgia steals the wasabi from my plate.
“This is the internal development.” Hazel nudges her chin at the plate in front of me. “Are you going for that last piece of avocado roll or can I have it?”
“It’s yours.” I hand her the plate. “Why did Tate say this meeting was mandatory?”
Tate, who turned out to be just as warm as I thought he’d be when I woke up tucked against his firm chest.
“So he’s Tate now,” Darcy murmurs. Her eyes sparkle but she keeps her gaze on her plate, avoiding mine.
“I’ve noticed that, too,” Pippa says with a smile.
Tate, who told me I did a great job after we met with Colworth and signed him to the team.
“Excuse me.” I raise my eyebrows at Pippa while my face goes warm. “Why are you in this meeting? You don’t even work with the team anymore.”
She takes a sip of her miso soup, unfazed by me. “I still want the office gossip.”
“We do this every few weeks,” Hazel says. “We were waiting until you had some free time over lunch to do the next one.”
A flutter of something warm and happy goes off in my stomach.
Tate, who knew this meeting wasn’t work-related and told me I had to go anyway.
“Thanks.” I give her a tiny smile. “It feels good, to be actually doing something for the team and not just following Tate around like some useless nepo baby.”
“Speaking of you doing something for the team,” Georgia says, pulling her phone out, “can we please talk about this?”
She tilts the phone to me and a video plays on social media of me pouring drinks at that game the other week.
I shrug. “I might as well get to know the organization—” While I’m here, I was about to say but cut myself off. “It was fun, getting to know the people behind the bar and interacting with the fans.”
Georgia scrolls down the post, through the comments. This is what an owner looks like! one comment reads. Maybe I’ll finally get my ass to a game if Jordan’s pouring beers, another says. One of us! One of us! another reads.
A warm flush of pleasure grows inside me. “It was nothing. I’m a bartender. I can pull a few drinks. Might as well make myself useful instead of just hovering around.”
The food and beverage manager and I have a meeting with the distributor next week to discuss a better quality of beer cups, and when I saw one of the other bartenders I worked with entering the building the other evening, she gave me a friendly wave.
“They sure like you,” Georgia says with a smile, pulling up a different video.
It’s me walking down the arena concourse before a game, in one of the outfits the stylist put together. Tan trousers, a mulberry-colored cashmere sweater, and matching heels. I didn’t even realize the Storm’s social media person was filming.
“I look good,” I say, watching as the video loops and plays again. I look like I’m on a mission, comfortable but focused.
Like I belong there.
“What happened with the scouting team?” Georgia asks.
“Ward fired Gary and then they all followed him,” Darcy says.
Georgia’s jaw drops. “He fired someone?”
Darcy’s gaze shifts to me. “Gary was rude to Jordan. Thus, Ward fired him.”
“Okay.” Heat crawls up my neck. “That’s not why he fired him. Between this and that PowerPoint the guys did—”
“Oh my god,” Hazel gasps, “I heard about that! Does someone have a copy?”
I give her an alarmed look. “No.”
“Yes,” Georgia says at the same time. “It’s on my laptop.” Off my shocked and betrayed expression, she gives me an innocent smile. “Alexei isn’t great at technology. They needed my help.”
“Traitor,” I tell her without heat. “Dirty, rotten traitor.”
“I think this is the part where I should tell you that I also helped,” Darcy says, wincing with guilt. “I’m sorry.”
I press my hands together, trying to stay patient. “If any of you hear rumors, I need you to squash them.”
“That’s not going to be easy,” Darcy says. “As soon as you left the meeting with the scouts, he basically yelled at the guys. I’ve never seen him so angry.”
Hazel’s eyes widen with surprise. “I’ve never seen Ward pissed.”
I give Darcy an alarmed look. “What are you talking about?”
“Gary was making those comments about you only getting the job because of your dad, and—”
“Fucking asshole,” Hazel says, mouth dropping open. “I didn’t know about that. I’ll kill him.”
“He’s already gone,” I tell her, and she narrows her eyes at me. I can’t help but smile.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Georgia asks me with concern.
“It doesn’t matter.” I gesture to Darcy to keep going.
“He pointed out that all those guys got their jobs because of their connections and that it wasn’t any different.”
I’m struck speechless. He stuck up for me?
“He saw me crying,” I blurt out. “After that meeting.” I don’t know why I’m telling them this.
Georgia looks like I’ve slapped her, she’s so surprised.
She’s never seen me cry. “He, um.” I swallow.
“He knew I felt bad about what Gary said and told me Gary was the stupidest person he’d ever met.
” I take a deep breath, replaying the way his eyes went kind and soft and how everything inside me had settled.
“And he told me I belonged at the Storm and that he believed in me. That I was smart and talented and hardworking.”
In that moment, I felt like if I fell, he’d catch me. Pippa grabs Hazel’s hand but I barely notice.
He’s my boss, not my—I don’t know. But what about that stuff after I babysat Bea?
“He, um.” I clench my eyes closed. “Told me he was attracted to me.”
The table is very, very silent.
“This was after I babysat Bea,” I add.
Hazel’s jaw drops. “He let you babysit Bea?”
Darcy stares. “Wow.”
“Is that . . . bad?” I look between them. “What are you not saying?”
Bea’s been reading in the guesthouse almost every weekend morning that she’s staying with Tate. The other day, a drawing was tucked under my door—us listening to music on the record player.
“He doesn’t trust anyone with Bea,” Georgia tells me with a small smile. “He’s extremely protective over her.”
“Oh.” I blink, once again at a loss for what to say. “Oh,” I say again.
Well, then. He doesn’t trust anyone, but he trusts me.
He fired Gary the Fuckhead for me.
He told me he was jealous over me and that he was attracted to me.
I had a good sleep, he said the day after we slept in the same bed.
I definitely can’t tell them about that. Georgia’s head will fall off.
“He said he didn’t want it.” I don’t know why I’m telling them this. “He said he didn’t want to be attracted to me. He said it was never going to happen.”
He gave my panties back. I don’t know why that’s so disappointing.
Georgia presses her lips together like she has something to say but is holding it back.
“Spit it out,” I prompt.
“Nah.” She smirks. “I had to figure it out on my own, so you have to, too.”
I blanch. “What does that mean?”
“Enough embarrassing Jordan.” Darcy gives Georgia a firm look.
The conversation moves on to actual work-related topics, and when Hazel brings up Darcy and Hayden’s upcoming wedding, Darcy lets out a deep sigh.
“We’ve got so much going on right now. Okay, me. I’ve got so much going on right now. Randeep is on paternity leave this season, and I thought we’d be fine without him but it’s actually quite a bit of work.”
Now that I look closer, Darcy looks tired. And when I’ve stayed late, she’s there about half the time, working in her own office.
“Do you need to hire more analysts?” I ask.
She nods. “What I would really love is to hire one analyst and one co-op student. I like the idea of mentoring and training someone.”
Instead of unpaid internships, many Canadian companies hire university students for a semester.
I think about those beer cups, and how relieved the bartenders were when I told them they needed better ones. How enthusiastically they agreed with me.
“Done,” I say without thinking. “I’ll talk to my dad.”
“You will?”
I will? I guess I will. “Sure. You said it yourselves. I have the owner’s ear. Might as well make good use of it.”
She gives me a surprised but pleased smile. “Thank you, Jordan.”
“Don’t mention it.”
We spend the rest of lunch talking and laughing, and before we head back to the arena, Georgia puts a new meeting invite in our calendars for next month.