Page 9 of The Closed Off Captain

“No.” He doesn’t even let me finish.

“Coftman!” Coach yells again.

Gunner skates backward. “I’ll talk to you after practice.” Then he skates off to join his team.

“Oh, goody,” I mutter. I push off my interaction with him and go back to taking photos and video. Coach is in a mood, so I don’t stay longer than I need to. Once I have all the videos and photos I want, I head back to my office. My stomach starts growling while I’m working, but I ignore it for now. I need to get a few more things checked off my list before I eat. Not even twenty minutes later, somebody knocks on my door. “Come in.” The door opens, and Gunner walks in, still in his skates and sweaty practice jersey. I raise an eyebrow. “You couldn’t even take a shower first?”

“Why did you ask my teammates about suggestions for women to date?” His voice is low andnothappy.

I come around to the front of my desk and lean against it. “I’d offer you a seat, but since you’re all sweaty, no thanks. Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking. We get one of your teammates’ wives’ friends to agree to being your girlfriend, maybe fiancé, if we could pull that off.”

“No.”

I ignore him and keep going. “We have her come to a few games, you two go on a few dates, take some pics for social media, and poof.” I wave my hand. “We have a legitimate couple, and this Jenny fades off the scene.”

“No.”

I cross my arms across my chest and level a look at him. “You asked me to handle this. This is me handling it.”

“Find another way.”

“Thisisthe way, Coftman. You want to get this Jenny girl off your back? Then show the world a real woman. In a perfect word, she’ll have a ring on her finger. It’s a great plan. Why won’t you consider it?”

He takes a step towards me, so that’s there’s only about two feet separating us. “When I put a ring on my woman's finger, it won’t be for show; it will be for real.”

My heart speeds up, but I refuse to acknowledge it. “Well, yes, that would be ideal; but we don’t have ideal in this case, Coftman. We have a woman who is threatening to destroy what you love most. Hockey.”

He studies my face a moment. “You really think this will destroy my career?”

I meet his gaze head-on. “I do. This is the kind of story every PR agent is warned about. She’s crazy, and crazy people do crazy things. It doesn’t matter that it’s not true. If she gets people to believe it’s true, they will start to turn on you.” I go for the jugular. “And then they’ll stop supporting the team.” I watch as his scowl deepens, and I know I hit my mark.

Chapter 5

Chloe

“Look, I’m here to tell you the cold, hard facts. I obviously don’t want that to happen to you or to the team. This doesn't have to be a big deal. You just date the woman publicly for a little bit until things settle down with Jenny. I’ve got our lawyers working on it too. And then, you can get back to your regular life. The woman can only claim it for so long. Once the baby is born, we can do a paternity test to prove you’re not the father. Then it really will be all over. This is just a temporary fix to give you peace this season. So,” I pause. “What do you think?”

“You know how this went with Sebastian and Aiden right?” His voice is still low and irritated.

“What do you mean?”

He gives me a look that lets me know he doesn’t buy my innocent act. “They both ended up marrying the women they were ‘fake dating’,” he says, using his fingers to mime quotation marks.

“Yes.” I smirk. “Guess you’d better choose the girl wisely.”

He doesn’t smile back. My stomach chooses that moment to growl loudly, reminding me I need to eat. “All right. I need to get back to work. You need to decide in the next day or two if you’re on board. The guys are going to get back to me.” I walk behind my desk and sit in my chair and roll closer to my desk. I look down at my desk and immediately three things I need to do ASAP catch my attention. I open the first file I need. When I look up again, he’s gone.

Over the next few days, I don’t get a chance to talk to Gunner again. Oh, I try; but he conveniently manages to avoid me. Which is a feat because we had an away game this week, and we were both on the same bus. Somehow, every time I wanted to talk to him, so did one of the coaches or trainers, or even his teammates. I finally gave up.

Before I know it, it’s Friday morning. Because he’s been avoiding me all week, I made sure to text him early this morning to remind him to be at the studio at nine-fifteen, so we can prepare before he goes live. I get to my office extra early, so I can get some work done before I have to drive the twenty minutes to the studio. I get to the studio at nine and head inside. I’ve been here plenty of times before, so I know right where to go. I tug at my black blazer and make sure my blouse is tucked into my skirt neatly. I wore a green blouse today, since I’m here representing the team. I’m greeted and shown to a room where I can wait. There’s coffee and fresh pastries, but I bypass both and snag a bottle of water. After reviewing the notes on my iPad that I wrote for today’s interview, I pace and then go over my notes again. When nine-fifteen comes and goes, I pace faster. Gunner’s not usually one of the ones I’m worried about being late. That would be Sebastian and Zac and a few of the rookies. When nine-thirty hits, and I still don’t see him, I pull out my phone to call him. A young guy enters the room. “Is Gunner Coftman here?”

I pocket my phone and put out my hand. “Hi, I’m Chloe, the team’s PR agent. He’s not here yet; he should be here momentarily.” Before I can say another word, Gunner strides into the room looking relaxed and at ease.

“There he is. Hi, I’m Steve.” He shakes both our hands. “Follow me.”

Gunner waits a moment for me, and we follow Steve out of the room. “Sorry I’m late. There was traffic.”

I refrain from looking at him. “There’s always traffic.”

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