Page 75 of Playing the Field
“Yeah?”
She presses her lips together and shakes her head. “Follow me.”
I don’t want to follow her orders when I’m dying to head into the locker room and take a cold shower. That’s the only thing that will begin to temper the hotheaded ire burning in my veins, and I start to protest. “I don’t?—”
“Goddammit, Reyes, for once do what I’m asking.”
I blow out a breath and let her lead me outside the clubhouse. She doesn’t say a word until we’re alone in the empty training room. “What the hell were you thinking? How hard is it to say ‘no comment’ and keep on walking?”
“I did that. Maybe you didn’t hear, but I did that three fucking times, but that woman wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“She’s not in charge! You are!” It’s not the first time she’s shouted at me, but I can see now why she wanted us to be alone. Her face is red, and she looks like she’d like to take a swing.
Ashley cracks her neck and exhales her frustration. “She can ask all the questions she wants, and they’re all bullshit until you go spouting your mouth off, and now people have something to talk about, and it has nothing to do with soccer.”
I nod. She gives this speech multiple times a year because, apparently, we are a bunch of dundering meat heads who don’t know enough to shut our traps. Or maybe that’s me.
“I know.”
“You do?” Her eyes take on an incredulous roundness.
“Yes.”
My rage has cooled in the couple of minutes since my confrontation with the reporter, and now I’m no longer seeing red. This is the problem with being a jock and not someone whothinks things through. Gracie always has a plan when surprises arise. I guess it’s part of her job to think everything through and play out all the possibilities in order to analyze what could happen with specific players.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that way.
I go on instinct. Block the shot, move before my opponent knows what hit him. If I wait that extra second to think things through, the moment is lost. The ball is in the net.
Instinct is all I have.
And today, it’s fucked me.
“What do I do? Tell me what to say and I’ll say it. I’ll blow out the smoke before it catches fire.” I start pacing the room, thinking. “Can we get that reporter back in here? Offer her some other story if she doesn’t go live with what I said?”
Ashley shakes her head. “She’ll never go for that. If we start protesting, it’ll convince her even more that she’s got a scoop. Best thing you can do now is go silent. Stay home other than coming to training. I’ll instruct Gracie to make a statement putting the rumor to rest, and if you behave yourself, it should go away.”
“You need Gracie to make a statement? Why?”
“Because she’s the one whose job is on the line. No one’s gonna fire you for parading around with yet another woman, but she’s new here and has a high-profile position. The fact of the matter is that she did basically save your job on the team, so the optics are pretty bad if now you’re thanking her with your dick. She’s a wonky numbers girl. Even the idea of you dating someone like that gets tongues wagging, so we need to shut it down. Shut. It. Down.”
I scrub a hand over my face as the enormity of the situation hits home. Gracie could lose her job. I know how hard she’s worked to get where she is, and the idea that I could torpedo that because I can’t control myself makes me feel worse than ashamed.
Ashley is right. We need to handle this properly for Gracie’s sake. “Tell me what to say and I’ll say it.”
She nods. “Good. You need to get ahead of this. The sooner you’re ‘caught’ on camera with another woman, the sooner this whole thing goes away.”
“Wait, what? I thought you said I needed to stay home and let Gracie make a statement.”
Ashley snaps her fingers as she paces the room, as if ideas are popping up like popcorn. “No, no, this is better. Cleaner. We live in a visual world. People believe what they see. So let them see you with another woman. Two within a week, even. That’ll cool the other rumor right down, and Gracie will be off the hot seat. Better for her anyway. She’s not media trained.”
“Yeah? You really think that’ll work?” I’m too confused to know what’s right. I need to talk to Gracie, at least before I commit to this crazy plan. As long as she’s in on it, I’ll do whatever is needed to save her credibility.
“I really do. And Hunter…” She shakes her head at me. “Don’t fuck this up.”
I close my eyes, regretting how much I’ve already done to throw things off the rails. “I won’t. I promise.”
CHAPTER 38
