Page 49 of Hot Damn
His hostility is no longer front and center. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s barely hovering in the background now.
“Are you going to be at the barbecue tonight?” Whitney asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Yes. I’ll be doing some filming and asking some of the fans questions.”
“Not the players?” Beckett asks.
“Probably. Especially if they’re with a fan. I want to continue with the real aspect of the Conversations with a Rogue series.”
“I’ve watched every one so far. They’re really good.” Whitney smiles at me. “I have to do a project about technology and I was going to focus on the way social media has changed our lives but I want to change it to how devices have made our lives different with a focus on the accessibility to the internet and social media particularly.”
“That sounds like a huge undertaking.”
“Not really. I did something similar last year but about cars. The evolution of them and their impact on society.”
I glance at Beckett. “Wow. Are you sure you’re in high school? That sounds like something you’d do in college.”
“It’s for an AP class.”
“I’m impressed.”
“Can I use your series as an example of what a phone can do? You used your phone to edit the videos, right?”
“I did. Although, I didn’t really edit them much. Mainly tweaked the sound.”
“I need to get your permission in writing, and I’ll credit you at the end of the assignment.”
“Sure. I’ll get my mom to draw up a legal doc covering it.”
“Your mom?”
“She’s a lawyer. You can meet her tonight if you want.”
“Your parents are coming?” Beckett asks, a look on his face I can’t decipher.
“Yeah. They try and support everything I do but they’re both hockey fans so it’s a no brainer they’ll be at all the Rogue things they can get to.”
“And yet, you’re not a fan.”
“You don’t like hockey?” Whitney asks, her mouth agape. “Who doesn’t like hockey?”
I laugh. “It’s not that I don’t like it. More that I’m not a fan.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Well, a fan goes out of their way to watch it, play it, talk about it.”
“And you don’t do that?”
“I don’t go out of my way, no. But I do watch. And I do talk about it. Kind of hard not to when I own a team in the NHL.”
“I don’t understand why you own a team if you’re not a fan.” Whitney shakes her head as we put the last few things out on our makeshift platter.
“It’s a business to me. Same as Rogue sportswear. I own them both but I’m not involved in the everyday running of either.”
“If I owned them I’d be in everything.” Whitney nods. “Yeah, you’d never get me to stop working.”
“That’s no way to live. It’s why we have managers and staff in both businesses. Experts in their field who take care of things we don’t have time or skill to do.”
