Chapter 4
Leaving Mary’s office on the ground floor, I take the elevator back up to Grant’s office.
Gabby’s office door is closed when I walk by on my way to Grant’s, and I hope that means she’s already gone home after that shit show of a meeting.
She did great, whereas I would’ve liked to kick Mark in the balls and stab Ricardo in the throat.
It’s worse than I thought, and I’ve seen a lot of shit in this business.
Grant’s door on the far end of the hall is closed as well, giving me a minute to gather myself before our next sparring match. Seeing him from a distance at games was no match for seeing him up close, and it may take me another full year to recover from it.
“Best get it over with, Taylor,” I whisper to myself. With a slightly shaky hand, I reach up and knock on the wood door.
“Come in,” Grant calls out from inside. Even muffled, his voice has my pulse racing.
With one more deep breath, I push the door open. His office spans the entire width of the building, overlooking both the stadium on one side and the downtown Nashville skyline on the other.
He looks up from the massive executive desk facing the door with the downtown view at his back and a soft smile tugs at his lips. “Ms. Baker.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at his attempted formality, the teasing lilt giving him away.
“You wanted me to come by when I got finished with Mary?”
“How did it go?”
Making myself comfortable, I move to the bar cart in the corner behind the round table and pour myself two fingers of bourbon.
“By all means help yourself.” He stands from his desk, shucking off the jacket of his three-piece suit and draping it over the back of the chair before rolling his sleeves up to his elbows.
Those tan forearms on display have me tossing back the dark liquor in one shot.
The burn in the back of my throat does nothing to extinguish the burn for him—if anything it intensifies it. Not a great sign.
“Are you going to pour me one?” Grant crowds me from behind as I refill the glass. The barest hint of rosewood and amber in his cologne infiltrates my senses. I close my eyes, reeling from the memory of buying it for him when we started dating.
“I may be your wife, but I’m not your servant.”
“Oh, so you do remember?” He takes the crystal canister from me, his fingers brushing against mine in the process. The tingling sensation jolts me away from him.
Ignoring his question and redirecting our conversation to the point of this meeting, I say, “It went fine. Mary knows what she’s doing, but I get the impression she’s not used to this particular brand of media attention.”
“In your opinion, how concerned should I be about the public perception of Bennett and the team?”
Is he really asking?
Sitting in the wingback chair against the window that overlooks the stadium, I cross my legs and take him in, silence filling the space between us.
He leans a hip against the bar cart, sipping his bourbon out of the glass that I’m pretty sure I gifted him after my first big promotion.
Grant is a Davenport, but it’s still hard to reconcile the man in front of me wearing a tailored suit with the man who could barely find a button down on our wedding day.
Breaking the silence and reading my mind, he says, “Yes, I’m really asking.”
“Honestly, I think it’s big news right now because there’s not much to talk about.
Chase has a reputation for being a troublemaker, so of course that sparks a whole conversation on whether or not it was a bad move to bring him up.
Was it too soon? Did he need more development in the minors?
Is he a hothead with no reform? Yada yada. ”
“The answer to those questions is no. I stand by the decision to call him up. We need his glove at shortstop if we have any chance of staying at the top of the division.”
“I agree with you. He’s a valuable asset to the team.
Mike, Preston, and Miller feel the same way.
If he was a bad egg, your captains wouldn’t have adopted him into the fold.
” Preston and Miller are notoriously inclusive team co-captains, but they don’t open their inner circle to teammates easily.
The fact that they invited Chase into their bromance tells me it has less to do with Chase and Gabby having a one-night stand that only Miller and I know about and more to do with the potential they see in him to be the future of the team.
Grant must see it too or he wouldn’t have made the decision to call him up.
“Bennett has made an impression in the short time he’s been on the team. It just so happens he made a terrible choice where cameras could capture the whole thing. We’ve all been there.”
“What matters right now is how we spin it. Luckily, half the internet thinks this was a hilarious prank and he should get off with a warning.”
“We?” Grant quirks an eyebrow while taking a sip of his bourbon. The movement of his Adam’s apple when he swallows has me re-crossing my legs to ward off the pulse that’s found its way to my core.
Rolling my eyes, I say, “Yes, we. I told you and Gabby both that I could help.”
He looks down, swirling the brown liquor in his glass. “You don’t need to do that. I can bring someone in from Stella Holdings.” He’s bluffing. I know he’s bluffing because I can barely make out the tilt of his lips behind the glass he now holds to his mouth, and yet I still play into it.
“They don’t have the athlete experience.”
“We need to discuss the terms of your engagement if you do help Mary’s team.”
I smile into my glass. Folded like a lawn chair, just as I expected.
I wave him off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m happy to help.” I have more than enough money to support myself. I’m here because this team matters to me and its players and staff are my family. I don’t need the money.
“You don’t work for free.”
“Grant—”
“No.” The finality in his tone says it’s the end of the discussion, but I’ve never been one to roll over.
“Fine, you can have the friends and family discount.”
“Am I the friend or the family?”
“Undetermined.”
He smirks before turning to place his empty glass back on the bar cart. “Where do we start?”
“First, you fire Mark and Ricardo. I’m not working with that prick.”
“Consider it done.”
“That simple?”
“I don’t know how simple it will be since I need to pull their contracts and see what I’m up against, but after their show of disrespect today, they’re as good as gone in my book.”
“I didn’t realize it had gotten that bad when Gabby mentioned she was having trouble with them.”
“I hate that I didn’t see it before now. I thought I cleared out all the bad eggs.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Men like that are good at hiding in plain sight.” I would know. As the only female at the PR firm I worked at right out of college, I grew accustomed to off-colored jokes and advances from men with stellar reputations but poor morals.
“Ricardo has brought in some of our best talent, but I won’t tolerate someone who acts like that. The women in this office are the best at what they do and keep us running. No one knows that more than me. Hell, if it weren’t for Teresa, I wouldn’t have made it this far.”
I smile thinking of the woman who’s always been kind to me.
We’ve never met in person, but she’s been with Grant since he started the company.
I don’t know if she ever told him, but she used to call me when I wouldn’t return Grant’s phone calls after we first broke up.
First it was to tell me he was trying to reach me or to tell me how he was doing, but then it evolved into her checking in on me as well.
She’s an angel among mortals and I’m thankful Grant has her in his corner, especially since his own family members are twats.
“There are better scouts out there. You don’t need Ricardo. Might I suggest a replacement for Mark?”
“Gabby?”
“She’s a boss ass bitch and has been running that department without recognition for a while now. I won’t tell you how to run your organization—I know how much you love that—but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t take a long hard look at her contributions to this team.”
“You were right—she more than proved herself back there. If she wants the job, it’s hers. I just need to follow all the proper steps to get rid of Mark and Ricardo first, so I’d appreciate if this conversation stays between us for now.”
“It wouldn’t be the first thing I’ve kept between us.”
“They still don’t know about us?”
“No.” I haven’t figured out how to tell Ivory and Gabby that Grant and I have a history, and not just a history but a marriage that neither one of us have made a move to dissolve in ten years.
For a while, it didn’t matter because he wasn’t part of my life, but now, with him in close proximity to my friends and plans for us to work together, I know I have to tell them soon.
Thankfully, he doesn’t push. “So with your first condition satisfied, what’s the next step?”
“Well, we need to see what the league is going to do. I’d rather wait to make a statement until after that determination is made.
Then, we should hold a press conference.
Give the media time to settle down and then come forward as a united front with a proactive resolution and actionable steps.
Show the community that the Music City Organization is taking this seriously and not sweeping it under the rug for points and standings. ”
“Like so many others do.”
“Exactly. If you want to be an example, then you need to lead by example. Chase is a great player, but there are no actions without consequences. You need to come off strong and united on making amends. I have no doubt based on Chase’s words today that he will follow through on the conditions we laid out.
Now, it’s the team’s turn to hold him accountable and support him through it. ”
“Hopefully by the time the team is back from their away series after the break, we’ll be ready to hold the press conference. I don’t want to wait too long.”
“We can get everything wrapped up by then,” I promise him. If I know Gabby, she’ll start working on the MLB investigation immediately so Chase can be back on the field as soon as possible.
“Send over your engagement letter so we can make it official, but you have free rein to work with Mary and the communications team. Whatever you need, let me know and I’ll make sure you have it.”
With a nod, I exit Grant’s office knowing one thing for certain—I still want my husband. What’s less certain is how I feel about that revelation.