Chapter 5
Talk about trial by fire. I’d been on the job barely two months, and I was already facing a scandal thanks to our team captain, the same doofus who’d tried to impress me at Tangi and Ethan’s. I knew he was a longtime friend of Ethan’s, but really, how dense could a guy be? Screwing around with a teammate’s wife? Our best defenseman at that? The same one who now wanted a one-way ticket out of town? Jeremy Vaughn was leaving me and my new team with this mess.
The moment the news broke, I’d texted Tangi. We compared what few notes we had, and while I’d wanted to spend the evening talking to her about it, I was instead in meeting after meeting with Clay, our general manager Dave, Coach Anthony, the rest of my PR team, legal, reps for Lex and Doofus, and all our assistants. By the time those meetings were done, my head was pounding, and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed.
First thing the next morning, there were dozens of texts and emails that I had to scroll through. When I was all caught up, I had a meeting planned with Clay, Dave, and Doofus. Clay and Dave didn’t want anyone else there. I found it odd, but Clay was the boss. As I showered and got ready for work, I sent Tangi a text and we agreed to meet for an early breakfast. She had the morning off, and since Maddy liked to be up early, that meant Tangi was up early too. The idea of breakfast also appealed to me. I hadn’t eaten a decent meal in twenty-four hours. Who had time with all the damn meetings?
Tangi was already at the small diner-like restaurant that we’d gone to a few times. The place opened for breakfast and lunch only, and I’d barely sat down when the server brought a coffee and a menu. I wasted no time and ordered the mega breakfast. I needed a lot of carbohydrates and extra bacon to get through this day.
“He slept with her, didn’t he?” I asked as I put a sugar packet and two creamers into my coffee.
Tangi shrugged. “He finally talked to Ethan last night. He claims he hasn’t. But if I had to put money on it …”
Right. He slept with her.
“Didn’t you tell me he liked to screw around? Not be tied down? This sounds like something a guy like him would do. He has no idea how much damage he’s caused. If I were Clay, I’d be trading him and not Lex.”
Tangi fidgeted in her seat, grimacing just a bit. “You make him sound like the devil.”
She’d known him for years, but I didn’t care. His behavior was inexcusable and reckless. She wasn’t going to change my mind about that. “Well, he’s close. Who does something this stupid? It’s the equivalent of gross misconduct.”
“I see you’re picking up the hockey lingo,” Tangi said, sipping her coffee. “Here’s the thing,” she said, setting it down, “yes, he did a very silly thing. But he’s really not that bad. He’s someone I’ve always liked. He’s a great community guy, and when a charity asks for his help, he never says no. He just happened to use really poor judgment.”
I shook my head and wanted to scream. How had he bamboozled Tangi. She was one of the smartest people I knew. “Tang, he is the captain of our team. He’s our leader. Leaders don’t sleep around with their teammates’ wives.”
“I think if you look back in history, many leaders slept?—”
“Cut it out!”
She held up a hand in surrender. “You’re right. I know. I do like the guy, and I feel bad for him even though he’s totally to blame for this. Like all things, this will eventually pass and some other scandal will come along.”
“Great. And until then, I’ve got to deal with it and wish for another scandal.”
We ate our breakfasts and went our separate ways. She was the physiotherapist for the Kodiaks farm team, the Ravens, and while training camp was on for both teams, they couldn’t use the same facility. I looked forward to when the season started, and my friend would be sharing the same building with me.
Before my ten o’clock meeting with Clay, Dave, Doofus, and his agent, I checked my email, looked at the promotional material the marketing department had sent me, then got myself a cup of coffee. I needed caffeine to counteract all the carbs I’d scarfed down at breakfast. As ten approached, I slowly made my way to the boardroom. Clay was there, his trademark disheveled blond hair looking as messy as ever, and yet, he was in his expensive tailored suit. I didn’t get it.
I took my seat next to Clay as we waited. Clay had taken a liking to me, claiming he reminded him of his no-nonsense ex-wife. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing, but he’d assured me it was and that he’d been an idiot for letting Beth get away. That statement put me on edge, and he realized his faux pas and told me he was happily married to his fourth wife, and that I needn’t worry. Something about his fourth wife killing him if he fooled around again. AGAIN? If he’d been any other man, I would’ve been concerned, but Clay was all over the place, and he didn’t appear to have any real interest in me even though he said so many questionable things.
“You never talk about your husband,” Clay said as we waited.
“I don’t have one,” I said, pulling out all the prepared statements we planned to make once Doofus and his agent looked them over.
Clay’s faded-blue eyes narrowed. “I thought you had a husband. I could have sworn you mentioned one.”
“No. No husband, no boyfriend, no nothing.”
“Then a wife?”
Again, Clay sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, but Clay didn’t see any of the lines he crossed. “No wife. No girlfriend, no nothing.”
“You’re such a lovely woman. How has no man … or woman snapped you up?”
“How about I put you out of your misery? I’m heterosexual.”
“Of course it’s not my business.”
“Right. It’s not,” I said as pleasantly as possible.
“I’d suggest my son, but he’s too silly for a woman like you. You need a real man.”
No, he wasn’t implying himself, that much I could tell, but his wheels were turning. I had to get him off the subject before he arranged a marriage for me and crossed a few more lines. “About today. The statements are prepared. You didn’t have any changes?”
“They were fine. Such a shame we are losing Lex. If I didn’t like Jeremy so much, he’d be playing in a rec league at the North Pole.”
I tapped my fingers on the boardroom table. “Have you thought that Lex might be the bigger asset?”
Clay wagged his finger at me. “No, It’s decided. Dave and I have already spoken about it, and our depth at defense is deeper, and we can afford to lose Lex in the long term.”
Who was I to argue, but something wasn’t sitting right. Why chose Jeremy over Lex?
Dave came in with a deep frown. Within minutes, Doofus arrived with his agent, Taylor Ridley. Taylor looked pained being there, and how could I blame the guy? His client was a liability. Between Dave and Taylor Ridley, I felt as if I was at a funeral.
The men took their seats, and Dave began. Dave had a way of looking unbothered by all this despite the fact he’d raged about it when the whole thing went down. He’d replaced his frown with no expression at all. He adjusted his tie and set his unimpressed gaze on Doofus. After a heavy sigh, he cleared his throat and spoke. “I’m not going to lie. I’m really disappointed. As captain of our team, you are expected to be a leader both on and off the ice. You’ve worked hard in the community, and we haven’t forgotten about that, but your behavior has been unacceptable, and if we wanted, we could boot you off the team or send you down to the Ravens.”
Doofus watched Dave intently while I fought hard not to roll my eyes. In no discussion was that ever considered, but I guess Dave had some kind of endgame. Regardless, Doofus seemed to be concerned. If anyone had asked me, I would have traded him, but my job was to put a positive spin on this, not kick Doofus to the curb.
“But you’ve proven to be a valuable member of the team, but we are going to have to remove the captaincy from you. We will reevaluate at the end of the season, but for now, Grant and Warde will be the alternate captains for the season.”
Doofus flinched at that. I hadn’t told Tangi about this because I couldn’t risk it getting back to anyone, but I’d sort of broached it with her over breakfast, and she’d made it clear that Doofus would be devastated if he was no longer captain. And from what I knew about everyone’s relationship with Brandan Warde, a further knife to the heart would come from his promotion to alternate captain. But Doofus had played stupid games and won the ultimate stupid prize. Such was life.
“Is this necessary?” Taylor asked. Even he didn’t sound convincing.
Dave narrowed his light brown eyes. “Is that a serious question? How do you think it would look if we kept Jeremy as our captain? What example would that set?”
Taylor had nothing to reply with.
“For the next week or two, you will have a lower body injury that will keep you out of the lineup. You won’t be training with the team either. You will be rehabilitating with the Ravens. You will also be keeping a very low profile. In fact, you’ll be invisible. No partying, no drinking, no hanging out with friends, and no women. Absolutely nothing!”
“Dave, aren’t you taking this to the extreme?” Taylor said. “Why don’t you just put him in jail.”
Dave shot a glare Taylor’s way. “Not a bad idea. Maybe we should consider that.”
Taylor’s jaw tensed. “He’s supposed to be a monk for the whole season?”
“Not the whole season, put can he manage a month? Even a few weeks? How about a day?”
Oh boy, as much as I was enjoying this tarring and feathering, it wasn’t getting us anywhere, so I decided to end the madness. I held up my hand and cleared my throat as loudly as possible. “I don’t think this is very productive, let’s steer the conversation back to what’s important.” Whatever that was.
“You’re right,” Dave said. “We ask that Mr. Vaughn keep himself squeaky clean for a few weeks. Is that too much to ask?”
“No,” Doofus said. “Look, I know I screwed up. But what happened between me and Orla was nothing. I promise you I won’t screw up again.”
Taylor dropped his head and rolled his eyes. I was pretty sure I was the only one who saw that. And since there really wasn’t more to discuss, I was about to wrap up the meeting, but Clay decided to get in on the action.
“Son, you’re nearly thirty. Isn’t it time to find a nice woman and stop these shenanigans?”
“I’m twenty-seven.”
Clay frowned as if he were about to take away Doofus’s puppy dog. “You need to smarten up. All your teammates are settling down, and instead of doing that, our captain is screwing around with teammates’ wives. That’s not a good look. What you need is a nice woman to keep you straight and repair that image of yours.”
“That’s a great idea. I’ll look into it,” he said about as sincerely as my mother when she claimed she’d forgotten about my high school graduation when I’d only reminded her ten times.
Clay glanced over at me and in a split second his eyes lit up. What was that all about? Before I knew what was happening, he was telling everyone his great idea.
“I’ve got it. I have a solution to this problem, and it involves Ms. Bowman. She’s single, and you’re single, Mr. Vaughn. I think the two of you would make a great couple. See? Now our captain—former captain—problem is solved.”