Page 9 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

“Small fish. Not your thing.”

That sounded similar to something he may have parroted to Rafard. Or maybe his agent knew him well and was preemptively striking deals without telling him about them?

The man did work closely with Mullens’ business manager, and some weeks an overwhelming amount of proposals flew back and forth among the three of them. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to leave Mullens out of the loop from time to time.

“What’s it called?” he asked.

“Let me see if I can find it.” The sound of fingers dancing over a keyboard came through his phone. “Here we go. From late September. It went out to the whole team. The NHL cookbook: Eat like a Player. You said no.”

“Right. Well, I want to be on the cover. Or inside it. In the commercials. Whatever she needs.”

“This isn’t your brand.” His agent’s tone turned dismissive. “And the pay is literally peanuts. It’s not what you’re looking for in terms of financial incentive or visibility.”

“Get me on the cover.”

“Not your image,” Rafard stated curtly.

“So make the book my image.”

“It’s her project,” he replied patiently. “Not yours. And as for your image, we’ve worked really hard on it for years. It’s not going anywhere. And certainly not for some cookbook.”

Mullens pinched the bridge of his nose. He needed time with Athena. Not only because she was curvy and gorgeous and he couldn’t figure out how to get her to like him. But also because he needed her help to save his career. Possibly literally.

Showing her a little respect would probably be a good start….

“I need to play nice with her.”

“She knocked up?”

“No,” he replied sharply. Man, his business manager really had done a bang-up job of cementing Mullens’ image. For the past several years he’d loved it. At the moment, though, not so much. He sighed. “Just make it happen, Rafard.”

He hung up and rounded the last corner to the coach’s office.

What was he going to do? His usual charm didn’t work on Athena. He’d called her bluff, and she’d struck—hard.

He loved her for it, even though it created a pit of fear in his stomach. How could she, the team’s dietician, hold such important cards? And why couldn’t he have just kept his head down and his mouth shut the day they’d met? Why had he reacted like such an unstable teenaged boy?

He reached Louis’s dark office and tried the handle. Locked. Ever since Coach had moved back to Sweetheart Creek he was barely around. Rumor was he had his heart set on some chick from his past.

But Louis? The idea of him forsaking work to chase some gal was almost laughable. The whole thing about the woman was likely just that—a rumor.

Mullens’ phone rang. It was Rafard.

“That was fast.”

“Dude, don’t hang up on me.”

“Sorry.”

“I need to know what you’re willing to offer.”

“What do you mean?”

“A carrot. For the publisher. Something big to get you in on this project—assuming it hasn’t already gone to print.”

“It hasn’t.” He hoped. “Give her whatever she needs.”

Athena would see right through his ploy to get into her cookbook, but it was the best plan he had.

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