Chapter 28
Twenty Eight
Taylor
I’m shaking in my boots. My knees are ready to give out, my hands are sweaty, and no amount of wiping them is doing anything for me.
Mindy and Annalise are chatting softly behind us as they follow Eloise and I into the meeting with HR, Lawson and the GM.
My heart is thudding, and I’m sure I’m about to pass out at any moment.
Eloise squeezes my hand, a soft smile gracing her lips like she’s coaxing a feral kitten into a cage. “Everything is going to be fine.”
I sigh. “I know, I’m just… what if it isn’t?”
Her brown eyes go soft, gooey and almost like caramel with the way the sunlight catches through the glass windows of the conference room.
“Oh, ye of little faith. There are rules in place for women in sports who get into relationships. It’s a fact of life as a pro athlete.
We’re always dating each other.” She gives a little chuckle.
It doesn’t assuage my fears. She takes both of my hands in hers and rubs them comfortingly.
“I’m serious, Taylor. Everything is going to be fine.
This is us dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s.
Do you need more time? Because I’m sure that Annalise and Mindy would be able to—” She stops, watching something behind me, and if I were a betting woman, it would be the two of them emphatically shaking their heads at her.
“No, it’s not. It feels really real, but at the same time, this feels like a dream, you know? And when I wake up, nothing will have happened.” My breath is coming out in short bursts, like my lungs can’t hold anything more than a thimble of air.
Eloise pulls me into her arms, holding me tightly as I start to level out. Her strong arms wrap around me like tentacles, applying the right amount of pressure to stabilize my train of thought.
She pulls back once I’ve breathed deeply a few times, and forces me to look into her eyes. “This is real; there is no dream. I’m here with you, and you are here with me.”
I nod, breathing in through my nose.
“I can pinch you if you’d like?” she asks and I nod again, forcing myself to look at her as she does.
“Ow,” I snap, slapping her hand away. “You didn’t have to pinch with your nails!”
She smiles, shrugging. “Now you know you aren’t dreaming.” I rub at the spot on my wrist where she pinched, glowering at her. “Ready to go into the meeting?”
“Yeah, I can do this,” I say.
“I know you can. If you can live with Brynn mocking you for making out against her door, then we can live through a meeting where we tell our employers that we’re dating,” she says.
I roll my eyes. “Brynn will never let me live it down, especially how you scurried away with your tail between your legs.”
Her jaw drops, but before she can argue further, Annalise and Mindy open the doors to the conference room, pulling us both in. Eloise clamps her mouth shut, leaving a tense smile in its place. She’s going to bring this up later to argue it more, and I can’t wait.
Lawson looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here, the HR department rep looks uncomfortable, and the GM seems to be busy on their phone instead of looking up to see us.
“Thanks for coming to this meeting,” Mindy says, pulling out her notebook and sitting down. Eloise and I sit beside each other, with our Agents on either side of us. “We’re here because our clients wanted to draft a relationship disclosure agreement.”
Lawson’s eyebrows shoot up, his blue eyes staring at the two of us. He mutters something under his breath before he gets up and walks out. We watch him walk past us, clapping both of our shoulders before he leaves. “Maybe he didn’t need to be here,” I mutter.
“You think?” Eloise whispers, watching him walk away before anyone could call him back. “He’s going to be making us skate for years.”
I place my hand on hers under the table, enjoying the feel of it in mine. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
There’s a clearing of a throat, and the GM and HR rep are both staring at us. “This is unusual, especially with the recent developments this year.” The HR rep says. She’s a redheaded woman who looks particularly exhausted. “We’ve had to quash that interview with Silas.”
“He shouldn’t even be interviewing us,” Eloise snaps. “He’s biased and a dick, and he was completely out of line with the questions he was asking us.”
“That being said, you both just got out of long-term relationships. This could have some blowback,” she says.
“My ex-fiancé cheated on me. I am well within my right to start a new relationship with someone who knows what I’m worth,” I say. “We’re only telling you out of professional courtesy. We’re still going to be together at the end of the day.”
She sighs. “Right. Are you going to be posting about it immediately, or is it going to be a soft launch later on in the year?”
I look to Eloise, who catches my eye and nods. “A soft launch,” I say. “We’re taking things slow and want privacy as we explore our relationship.”
The HR rep nods, turning to the GM. “It would be a very good decision for you to keep both of them. Fans would be fuming if they discovered we broke up a new relationship by trading someone.”
He nods, looking at his phone for a minute. “I’m not concerned about that. I’m concerned about the hostility that you two have shown each other over the last month and throughout the last few seasons. Are we going to have to intervene if there’s a break-up?” He pins both of us to our seats.
“Taylor is happy to set up a trade agreement if there’s ever an issue post relationship, but our clients are willing to work together to make sure that won’t be necessary,” Mindy looks at me from her seat.
The way her brow is raised makes me wonder if she knew about everything that I put Eloise through before we got together.
Nah, there’s no way.
“There’s definitely no concern there,” Annalise says, “but Eloise is also willing to put a trade clause into the contract in case there’s an issue should they break up.”
“So, we could lose both of our starting defenders instead of just one?” the GM says. “Is that really wise?”
“Negotiations will be held to determine the best course of action. But this is a break glass in case of emergency clause; Eloise and Taylor are both open to exploring the relationship as long as possible. They are,” Annalise says, eyeing the two of us warily, “committed to each other.”
The HR rep shrugs. “Legally, we can’t do anything, and with the trade clause in place, it would be protecting us as much as it protects them,” she says.
The GM scowls. “I just don’t like this. Our hands are tied.”
“Regretfully, sir, if this is such a big issue, I’ll look at other teams for next year,” I say, suddenly emboldened by his lack of tact.
“My contract is up soon, and there’s several teams close to Vancouver that would make it easy to fly back and forth on bye-weeks and international breaks.
There have been several couples in the advent of this league who have been on different teams. I imagine that we will also have that longevity if that’s the case.
” Eloise’s hand on mine is a steadying force, the warmth something to focus on instead of the panic crawling up my throat.
He scowls. “Fine. We accept; just don’t do anything unbecoming of the team.”
I nod, trying to keep the smile off my face. Eloise doesn’t do much better as the hints of a smile are curling her lips upward as well. He gets up, walks away, and the HR lady is talking with Mindy and Annalise about the changes to our contracts with the trade agreement.
“We did it,” I whisper just loud enough for Eloise to hear. “We actually did it.”
“Of course we did.” She leans in, her lips brushing my ear. The gentle tickle has a shudder rolling through my body, and I wonder how else I can expect my body to react to her in the future.
The possibilities seem endless.
“We should let the team know sooner rather than later. Winnie’s probably bursting at the seams to tell someone,” I say. “She’s going to gloat about how she got us together.”
Eloise’s sigh says enough. “She knew I was crushing on you since college. She’s going to be insufferable.”
I still, the nervous energy transformed into lightning, zapping me where we’re touching. “You were crushing on me?” I ask, teasing. “Since college?”
She groans, “Don’t do this. You’re too pretty to be smug.”
I snort. “You like it when I’m smug.” Her flushed cheeks are all I need to know. “If you don’t want me to know what you’re thinking, you’re going to have to get that blush under control.”
She leans in to kiss my temple, and the simple act has heat simmering through me.
I’ve been wanting to make out with her since last night, but then Brynn had to go and ruin it for me.
Sending her away before I got to enjoy myself like I was a tween again.
“I don’t think you’ll be able to figure out what I’m thinking ever, considering it took you this long to realize that I was crushing on you. ”
“That would mean that I was paying attention to you, and I wasn’t, because I was too busy trying to figure out me.”
Her lips curl into a smile against my skin. “You hated me because I was good; you were paying attention to me.”
I scoff, trying to ignore the way the heat crawls up my neck. She’s right, but if I don’t dignify it with a response, then I think she’ll pretend that she didn’t hit the nail on the head. She’s so competitive, and there’s the potential that she’ll lord this over me for the rest of time.
“Should we go?” Annalise asks, breaking the little bubble that we were ensconced in. I jolt and pull away from Eloise. Annalise looks down on us with a bemused smile while Mindy is starting to walk away exasperated. I mouth ‘thank you’ to her as she waves.
“I’d love that,” Eloise says sharply, responding to Annalise. I don’t think that my cheeks are going to calm down anytime soon. They’re burning hot after being interrupted.