Page 74 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

Louis nodded. “I guess that explains why Mullens attacked Lonnie on the ice the other night. He spent a lot of time in the sin bin rather than out there doing what he’s good at.”

“I’m sorry, I think he believed he was helping me.”

“Got it,” Louis said. He leaned forward, hands on his knees as if he planned to stand. He paused. “Can you confirm he follows your diet plan?”

“Yes.”

Louis settled back in the chair. “So why’s he a jerk to you?”

Athena lowered her head, embarrassed by how she’d let herself be used as a prop to enforce Chad’s reputation. His rule-breaking illusion was like a magician’s sleight of hand, making you think you saw something, when in fact your brain was simply making assumptions and erroneous cognitive leaps based on what he’d already established—his reputation. She’d been an unwilling part of the magic trick, and didn’t know how to convince anyone that it wasn’t anything more.

“The team needs to respect you, and they’re taking leadership cues from him. You’re great at what you do, but…” Louis was positioning to stand again. Athena felt a stirring of panic.

But was never a good word, and she was failing the team. She was the easiest person to fire. That would really decimate her own currently declining reputation.

“I’m still digging into why he takes such exception to me and my diet plans,” she said quickly. “But I can confirm that in private he follows them and uses my recipes. He’s serious about his career.”

Louis nodded, thinking that over. He stood. “I’m going to check in again—say, at the end of February? Give you about a month? In the meantime, you know where to find me. We’ve got to get this guy straightened out and the team on board.”

Athena stood as well. “Yes, of course.” She followed him to the door, then closed it behind him. She let out a long sigh, sagging in defeat.

What woman in her right mind would date a man who was in the process of possibly destroying two of her careers? Chad might be different from Lonnie, but he still had the ability to cause significant damage.

She wasn’t just going to lose her heart with this one. She was going to lose everything.

And the more she thought about it, the worse it seemed. His flagrant flouting of her diet rules and plans, his dependence on charm instead of consistent effort, his belief that a few shared childhood wounds were a strong enough foundation for them to trust each other…

She was never going to learn, was she?

New player, new lessons.

But the lessons all led to the same result—a broken heart.

Mullens caught up with Athena near the arena’s employee exit. She was heading to the private parking lot in the back, no doubt ready to go home. He fell into step beside her.

Louis had pulled him aside over the gala clip of him and the men drinking. He couldn’t speak for the other guys, but he’d personally been enjoying some watered-down apple juice that he’d intended to pass for whiskey.

He was pretty sure Louis hadn’t believed him about the juice. Like everyone else, he saw what Mullens had wanted: that rules didn’t apply here.

Coach was mad.

Athena as well, if her marching pace and the grim lines bracketing her luscious mouth were anything to go on. He’d kind of been hoping she’d laugh at his situation and call him a silly fool for creating such an awful persona in the first place. He’d also been hoping for another one of those kisses that branded his soul.

Which was dumb. Her cookbook could be on the line. And she’d probably gotten an earful from Louis. All because of him.

But everyone would get over it, right?

“Attention equals money,” he said. “And money equals happy managers and executives.” He’d bet Athena would soon be looking at a raise and a third cookbook contract once this all blew over.

Hopefully.

“And at what cost?”

Okay, so right now it probably looked like he’d sent an exploding torpedo her way. She wasn’t used to having her integrity and professional image under fire the way that he was. She had a right to be upset.

“Truth? The last drink I had was a beer during my summer break, before camp started.”

She let out a snort of disbelief.

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