Noah
Ted Hawkins was the stupid kind of rich—and maybe just stupid in general.
He came from old money, and the only reason he was still a billionaire was because he had trustworthy people who invested for him.
Except for the Titans. That, he handled himself, and since the team’s inception, he’d been making piss-poor choices.
I was going to cure him of that.
After the staffing changes, and cutting out the toxicity, we were already showing improvements and the preseason hadn’t even started yet. Forcing the team to attend the gala wasn’t the worst idea Ted had had, but as the night wore on, I realized it probably wasn’t his best one either.
From the moment I stepped onto the red carpet with Bliss at my side, the cameras hadn’t stopped flashing once.
Many of the photographers knew who she was and called her by name, yelling for her to look their way for a shot.
She kept a soft smile on her face, posing like she’d been walking red-carpet events her entire life, which she most likely had.
I stayed glued to her side, answering questions that were thrown at me on autopilot. How did I feel about the approaching season? What did I foresee as the team’s biggest hurdles? The one that got shouted at me the most was, were Bliss and I romantically involved?
Every question, I answered with full honesty.
I was confident about the team’s chances for getting through to the finals, something they’d never done in any previous year.
Not once. We were already ironing out the wrinkles that would get in our way of starting the season stronger than ever.
And yes, Bliss Stevenson was my entire world.
That last answer got me a side-eye from the angel beside me, but she didn’t rebuke my response. Instead, she’d melted against me a little and gave me that smile that had the power to make my stomach flip.
We kept moving, the red carpet feeling like it was miles long with the volume of media covering the event.
There were backdrops up for at least a hundred sponsors, some of them who supported the team as a whole, others that had individual contracts with my players.
Red carpets were all about performing. Smile, pose, interview. Rinse and repeat.
Through it all, I didn’t let Bliss get more than a few inches from me. If my hand wasn’t holding hers, then it was at the small of her back or on her hip, never once giving anyone the chance to speculate that she was there with anyone but me. Especially when some of the players caught up to us.
Xaden was the first to approach us. Dressed in a gray-on-black tux and a pair of burgundy athletic shoes because the brand was one of his sponsors, he had his daughter Shaya with him.
Shaya wore a strapless mini dress in the same shade as her father’s shoes.
She was taller than average, given that her father was six-eleven, and she’d opted for a pair of white athletic shoes instead of heels.
She hugged Bliss as soon as she reached her, the two of them laughing and talking animatedly while the cameras continued to flash. Xaden gave me a fist bump, lifting his head in Bliss’s direction with approval on his face. “Excellent choice. She’s good people.”
Before I could tell him I’d known that a hell of a lot longer than he had, Evan joined us. He was alone, the blonde who had made a nuisance of herself at my welcoming party nowhere in sight. “Trying to start the party without me, I see.”
“Does this mean Caprice won’t be joining us?” Xaden asked, trying to keep his tone neutral.
“Didn’t feel like dealing with her bullshit tonight,” Evan said with a shrug.
“You two on a break or something, kid?” his captain asked, cutting straight to the point.
“We’re just friends,” he said firmly, his gaze traveling to the two women at my side. I didn’t miss the way those aquamarine eyes zeroed straight in on Shaya.
And then Bliss turned, saw her cousin, and muttered a curse. “Great. This night just turned into a total drag.”
“Please tell me she’s not with you, man,” Evan complained to his teammate. “I mean, seriously, do you know what you’re getting yourself into with this chick? Maybe check her for knives, just to be safe.”
“Bliss is my date,” I informed him, my tone going hard. “And I know exactly how lucky I am to be here with her.”
His eyes widened comically until they were practically popping out of his head. “You’re joking.”
Lifting Bliss’s hand that was still in mine, I kissed it. “This is our first official date.”
“Interesting. But like I said, you should probably check her for knives. With Bliss, you never know when she might feel stabby.”
“Why are you being such a dick, Cutter?” Shaya snipped. “Bliss is hot, brilliant, kind, and, overall, one of my favorite people in the universe.”
Evan gagged. “That’s my cousin you’re calling hot, Shaya.”
A coordinator asked us to move up the line to the next logo-filled backdrop.
We were positioned for a group picture, with Bliss and Shaya in the middle and me beside Bliss.
Evan ended up beside Shaya with Xaden on the outside, his hand on Evan’s shoulder.
Someone yelled for us to squeeze in closer, and Evan draped his arm around Shaya, who pressed into him.
I watched the two of them look at each other as they moved, and I witnessed something passing over Evan’s face.
Quickly, I glanced at Xaden, who was studying them closely without speaking.
His eyes narrowed at whatever he saw on his daughter’s face, and his hand flexed on Evan’s shoulder hard enough that the younger player winced.
A few more players and their plus-ones joined us, and an attendant asked the women to move out of the photo so it was just me and the players. When Bliss started to shift away, I kept my arm around her waist. “She stays,” I barked at the man.
Bliss put her hand on my chest and patted it twice. “I’ll just be right over there with Shaya.”
“You’ll be right here. Shaya can stay too.”
Her eyes darkened, her body arching into mine when I pulled her tighter against me once again.
More pictures were taken without anyone asking the women to leave the group, and then we moved on to the next stopping point.
In total, we spent over ninety minutes on the red carpet alone.
When we finally reached the banquet room, the cameras didn’t magically disappear.
If anything, there were double the number of photographers.
Three hundred round tables had been placed around the room, each seating ten people.
A live orchestra took up one corner of the space, along with an area large enough for people to dance comfortably.
Armed guards protected the section containing the silent auction items that had been donated for the charity event.
Catering staff dressed all in black walked around with trays loaded down with flutes of champagne and canapés.
An entire line of attendants waited to show people to their assigned seats.
Xaden, Evan, and I ended up at the same table with Ted Hawkins and the new general manager, Harlem Smith.
Neither Evan nor Harlem had brought a plus-one, and since Ted was still socializing with his date, four seats were still empty.
I wished all four of those seats had remained vacant.