Chapter 17 #2
He inhaled deeply and rubbed his face. Shit, he was in big trouble. But maybe Ford could learn from his mistakes. “Okay,” he said, his voice low. “If you want her back, then tell her. Be honest with her. I have no idea why you broke up…”
“We…”
“…and I don’t want to know. But if you miss her and want her back, tell her.
” To this day, he regretted never having done the same thing.
He had wanted to protect himself, but it was too late for that.
“Be as honest as you can, and if she still says no, then accept it. Then at least you’ve done everything within your power.
But don’t throw away your career. Separate that shit.
Go to Fox or West; they’re the two who I think are good at insulating their emotions from hockey.
West gets shit about Penny every game and has only knocked down one of the opposing players so far, which is a good average.
So maybe he can help you. But don’t throw away your future.
You’re brilliant when you’re in top form — and my goodness, beg Moreau to take you on as his protégé. You can learn a thing or two from him.”
Ford stared at him, his mouth slightly open. “You’re not as scary as everyone thinks, Mr. Clark,” he stated finally, perplexed.
Oh, God. That was the worst thing Ford could have taken away from this conversation. “If you tell anyone, I’ll swap Snickers for Milky Way again and tell everyone it’s your fault,” he warned.
Ford had the nerve to grin as he stood. “I get it. So, I guess I’ll go beg for help.” He nodded at him and disappeared out the door the next moment.
Good.
Gareth doubted he’d provided the player with anything of value. He couldn’t possibly turn things around by tomorrow’s training camp tryout, but at least he’d done his job, which meant Hazel…
“Well?” She plopped down in Ford’s empty seat and eyed him curiously. “Hanging out with your hockey players?”
Gareth folded his hands on the table and leaned back. It was purely a precautionary measure because he had the urge to reach out and touch her. He hadn’t had an issue with not touching her for the past decade, but now that he’d started again…
“You’re back.”
“Looks like it.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I have a meeting with Leon, but he wants to finish the tennis match,” she remarked with a smile, nodding toward the television.
“I see. So you’ve been in contact with him?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You haven’t responded to my texts.”
“I’ve been busy.”
He snorted. “Just respond to my texts, Hazel.”
A deep crease appeared between her brows. “Can you stop phrasing requests like commands?”
Oh. Hmm. He should…wait, that was… “Please respond to my texts?”
She grinned, and his fingers twitched. God, he didn’t even want to touch her body, but her face!
“If you ask me, you spent a little too much time thinking about how to construct a non-command sentence. And, God, I’m supposed to say goodbye, I’m supposed to reply to your messages. .. Your sex buddy standards are high.”
He frowned. “I’ve never had a sex buddy. I don’t know what the standard arrangement is.”
“You’ve never had a sex buddy?” Incredulous, she let her gaze travel down his neck and chest.
“You sound like people with sex buddies are the majority.”
“Not people. Just the millionaires of this world.”
“You’re a millionaire too, Hazel. Have you had sex buddies?”
“Obviously. Why do you think I’m so shocked?”
He narrowed his eyes. Okay, he hadn’t wanted to know. The fist in his chest let him know that he couldn’t forget it now either.
Fuck.
It was okay! Hazel could sleep with whomever she wanted. He didn’t care if she…
Okay, yes. He did care – far too much. He hated the thought of her…with whom she…how many she… Wait, was she currently sleeping with other men?
Hazel didn’t seem to realize that she had triggered an internal debate within him, coupled with far too many emotions — God, those feelings! “What did you talk about with Blake?” she inquired. “Your conversation seemed rather intense.”
“I gave him some relationship advice,” he said absently, trying to remember if Hazel had included any clause about sex with others in the contract. As far as he knew, she had left the subject completely open, and until a week ago, he would have claimed they didn’t need a clause about it, but…
Hazel laughed. “No, seriously. What did you talk about?”
Blinking, Gareth looked at her, trying to focus on the conversation instead of the strange fingernails that seemed to be scratching the inside of his chest. “I gave him relationship advice,” he repeated, confused. As if he was joking!
“What?” Hazel’s jaw dropped open. “But you…what?”
“Well, you wanted me to talk to him.”
“Well, yes, but…I thought you’d tell him he’d be sold if he didn’t prove he should stay on Saturday.”
“Yes. I mentioned that too.” He frowned. “Why are you so surprised? You said I should ask him if he wanted to talk to someone about his ex-girlfriend.”
“But I didn’t think you'd listen to me and then talk to him about it yourself!”
He shrugged. “It seemed like the most efficient way. It's what I would have told you, if you’d responded to my messages!”
Shocked, Hazel opened her mouth again, but she couldn’t reply before two shadows fell over her: Lucy James, a Hawks PR consultant and the girlfriend of their striker Dax Temple, stood in front of them with a tall, blond man whom Gareth also vaguely recalled as being from the marketing department.
“So the rumors are true,” Lucy announced theatrically. “The boss is hanging around with the hockey players. Now I almost regret calling Ford a liar, but nobody could have foreseen that, could they?”
Gareth sighed. He knew that if he started talking to the players, the consequences would be disastrous. He was only surprised that Hazel was also shifting restlessly in her seat. “Hey, Lucy,” she said, greeting the redhead before her gaze wandered to the blond man. “Hi, Simon. Nice to see you.”
“Yeah, hello,” Gareth felt compelled to add.
The man nodded stiffly but completely ignored him. His gaze was fixed on Hazel’s face.
“I tried calling you,” he mumbled.
Hazel’s fingers twitched on the table. “Yeah, I know, I’ve been incredibly busy.”
“Okay.” He blinked. “Only because you indicated that we could stay friends.”
What the fuck?
The claws in Gareth’s chest dug deeper. Had Hazel gone out with the guy? With a man from the Hawks organization? Whom she’d probably met at one of her meetings with him?
“Um…” Hazel said, her uneasy gaze flicking toward Gareth.
“Interesting,” Gareth mumbled dryly, rubbing his tense jaw. “You never asked me if we could stay friends.”
Not that he would have said yes, but the option would have been nice.
Wide-eyed, Simon stared at him, and Hazel nervously licked her lips. “We can go out again, Simon,” she replied warmly.
Gareth looked at her abruptly. The hell she would!
“I’ve just been busy,” Hazel continued, smiling. “I’ll get back to you, okay?”
Simon blushed, but nodded. “That would be nice.”
No, it wouldn’t.
“He works here, Hazel,” Gareth said sharply. “Should you really be having personal relationships with business associates?”
Hazel seemed to choke a little, visibly restraining herself from letting her face fall before she replied tightly, “No. Probably not. But I’ve been making a lot of unwise decisions lately.”
Oh, being called an unwise decision was still better than being called an asshole, so he didn’t mind. “Yes,” he said quietly. “Perhaps you should focus exclusively on one stupid decision at a time.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I can deal with as many stupid decisions as I want, Mr. Snark.”
Lucy snorted, reminding Gareth that they weren’t alone.
“Okay,” she said loudly. “I don’t know what’s going on, but that’s really not why we’re here.” Rolling her eyes, she turned to Gareth. “So what about Devreaux? Can we include him in our campaign for next season or not? It would be nice if we could finally get some information to work with.”
“Make the plan with him,” Gareth replied firmly without taking his eyes off Hazel. “We have a meeting Saturday morning to finalize his contract. Right, Hazel?”
“Yep,” she said, smiling broadly and standing. “For once, Gareth’s right. Now excuse me for a minute, I need to use the bathroom before Leon’s done beating Austin at tennis.”
“Hey,” Fox called out. “The guy’s cheating.”
“Please, your reflexes are terrible, old man,” Leon replied, unimpressed.
“Fox isn’t that much older than us,” Dax said.
“Maybe not that much older than you!”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Lucy, arrest him for saying that!”
“I’m a PR consultant, not a hockey cop!”
“Then take a seminar so you can be both.”
“Man, Dax, we are older,” Fox muttered.
“We? I haven’t got a 3 in front yet.”
Hazel grinned. “Chill, guys. It was great to see you, Simon!” she said, squeezing the marketing guy’s shoulder and then disappearing.
Gareth gritted his teeth and stared at the spot on Simon’s arm where Hazel’s hand had just been.
He tried to ignore the tingling from the hundred needles piercing his body.
He felt as if it were a hot summer day and someone had pushed him into a tub of ice water, only instead of freezing, he was burning.
Great. He was jealous.
He wasn’t generally in touch with his emotions, but even he recognized jealousy, especially when it was so damn obvious.
His throat tightened, and the panic that had driven him to Cian’s floor slowly crept back into his veins. He wanted too much. He wished for too much. He should just drop the whole thing. Hazel wasn’t his girlfriend, so she could…well, if she wanted to, she could…
He abruptly rose. “Sorry. I have to…” He didn’t finish the sentence before hurrying after Hazel.
He didn’t feel like explaining himself. He wanted her to explain herself. And he wanted a new clause in their contract!