Page 38 of Heart on Ice

“She mentioned something this morning about a couple of blind items, but that seems to be all there is right now. I haven’t had a chance to catch up with her again since getting here. Issy and I flew home to grab Frankston yesterday. You’re looking into making sure I have custody of Frankston, aren’t you?” Pierre asks his lawyer.

“Yes. And as South Dakota doesn’t recognize common-law partnerships, Kitty isn’t entitled to anything that you have. Now, of course, her lawyers could decide to fight but we aren’t there yet. I haven’t heard anything from Kitty’s lawyers, but today we are here to discuss what we need to do regarding that. I’m assuming you and Kitty are over?” Jordan asks.

“Oh yeah, we are most certainly over,” Pierre states.

“Just needed to check. There’s no chance of reconciliation or anything like that?” he continues to question Pierre.

Pierre shakes his head. “I’m done.”

“I understand you are angry now, but some people are able to work through infidelity to get back together,” Jordan explains.

Pierre’s eyes meet mine. “Kitty isn’t who I want,” he tells Jordan.

Why is he looking at me? He better not be talking about me. Hell no. This is a second chance at friendship, nothing else.

“Glad we sorted that. Why don’t we sort out your career first before worrying about your relationship? I think that’s more important right now,” Jordan adds as he looks over at Marcus.

“Jordan’s right. As you know, we sent an email to Bill and his team requesting that your contract be paid out for the two years remaining. That you’ve lost faith in the team and leadership, and that the team no longer aligns with your values.”

“Executive speak for you’re a cheating asshole, I like it.” Pierre chuckles.

“Honestly, I can’t believe Bill would be so unbelievably stupid to mess around with one of his player’s partners,” Marcus states.

“I’ve seen men do stupid shit for a beautiful woman,” Jordan adds.

“I don’t get what Kitty sees in him,” Marcus adds.

“Dollar signs,” Jordan says, before stilling. “Sorry, man, no disrespect,” he says to Pierre.

“None taken, I don’t understand what she sees in him either, other than his billions. Look, Kitty and I were having a lot of problems, but I wasn’t expecting her to seek comfort in his arms. Last time she did, at least it was someone her age.”

“She's done this before?” Jordan asks.

“At the start of the relationship. She was living in LA, and I was helping set up the Devils. It was long distance and some photos came out of her with one of her exes. The media at the time didn’t know we were together,” he explains.

“Sorry, man, I had no idea,” Jordan says.

Pierre shrugs his shoulders. “We put it in the past and moved forward. Like someone has told me before, a leopard never changes their spots.” He looks over at me, it’s the same words I threw at him during the wake when he kissed me.

“Issy, have you heard anything back from The Mavericks?” Marcus asks me, pulling me back into the conversation.

“Not yet, but I’m following it up today,” I tell them. Little do they know that later tonight we are having dinner with Harper’s dad and using his position on the board to push for Pierre. “But I’ve also sent out some feelers to other teams.”

“I’ll do the same as well, when I get back into the office. It’s going to be hard talking cryptically about you, but it’s not the first time,” Marcus explains.

“I appreciate it, guys. I don’t want to retire, but I think we might have to look at those options, too, especially if Bill is not prepared to let me go.”

“We put a retirement clause in the contract, so yes, we can invoke that if we have to. But you still have a couple more years before you need to retire. This is not how your career ends,” Marcus says.

“I won’t play for the Devils. And if Bill wants to be an ass, then this is going to be it because either way if I stay with them, he is going to bench me to teach me a lesson, and if he doesn’t, the last thing I want to do is win him a fucking cup. And that kills me because the team deserves that win,” Pierre says, raising his voice.

“Thanks so much for doing this,”I say to Harper as we leave my home. We’ve left Felix and Pierre together to hang out while we said we needed girl time. They are none the wiser, and I didn’t want to get Pierre’s hopes up about The Mavericks if we aren’t able to do it. After dinner with Harper’s dad, we are meeting up with Kimberly and Meadow for drinks. I need to get out of the house and away from Pierre’s looming presence.

“It’s no problem at all,” Harper says as we get into the car.

“Who would have thought this is where you would be all these years later, Pierre’s advocate.” I tease.

“The universe works in mysterious ways.” She chuckles. “You two seem to be co-existing.”

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