Page 51 of Puck Me Secretly

“Nothing important.” I kept walking.

I stomped backto my office. I couldn’t believe that Katrina took credit for all my hard work, and worse, I couldn’t believe I had said nothing. I had a million responses, five seconds after the fact, but at the moment, my tired brain could not come up with anything that sounded intelligent.

Katrina drove me crazy. There was no doubt in my mind that she had tipped off that reporter. The question waswhy? She pushed to have him in front of the media and then set him up to fail. If I hadn’t gotten to the bottom of last night’s incident, who knows what would have happened to Max? And now she took credit for fixing the issue? It was so infuriating, I almost couldn’t stand it.

I read about twenty emails and then decided that my heart wasn’t in the game. I needed to cut out of work early. I was so tired I couldn’t see straight.

I started packing up when a knock sounded at the door. Max filled the doorway. No matter how many times I saw this man up close and in person, I never got used to how big he was. I could smell his intoxicating fresh scent from my desk, and I thought he looked hot with his freshly showered wet hair.

“What?” my tone cut.

He stepped into my office. “Are you heading home?”

“Thanks to you, I haven’t been home since last night, so I think I deserve to go home a few hours early. If that’s okay with you.” My voice was sharp. I knew my comment wasn’t fair, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

He tipped his head to the side. “You were here all night?”

“What do you want?”

“What did you want to talk about?”

Silence ticked between us while I dumped my wallet and keys into my bag.

“What’s going on?” Dad’s terse voice sounded from my office door. He trained his eyes on Max, who visibly stiffened under his gaze.

“We were talking about last night,” I swung my Louis Vuitton purse over my shoulder. “And I’m heading home.”

Dad rocked on his heels and crossed his arms. “Did Rory tell you everything she did for you last night?”

Max scratched the side of his neck. “We hadn’t gotten that far yet.”

I could tell that answer annoyed Dad. “Rory somehow managed to get her hands on the raw footage of your interview. Then sheworked with our legal team to use that tape to gain some much needed leverage. She banned that reporter from this arena and by threatening to do the same to the station, they have issued a public apology. That reporter has dropped all charges against you and they have suspended him without pay all because of Rory’s hard work.”

It was anticlimactic that my father had to sing my praises. Especially after Katrina stole my thunder. I stepped from around my desk avoiding Max’s all-seeing eyes. “Just doing my job. Now if you’ll both excuse me, I’m heading home.”

I made it down to the Concord before I heard Max calling my name. “Rory.”

Ignoring him, I skipped down the steps towards the entrance.

He moved as fast off the ice as he did on it.

“Rory.”

His big hand grabbed my arm and held me until I stopped walking.

“What?”

Frustration marred his expression. “Why did you let me think Katrina fixed this?”

“I didn’t want to get into it with Katrina.”

He studied me. “You’re tired.”

His concern was almost too much to bear. For one terrible moment, I thought I might start to cry. I forced myself to steel my expression. “I need to go home.”

“Let me give you a ride.”

I shook my head. “Unnecessary.”

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