Page 62 of The Head Game

“There’s a lovely coffee shop in the lobby,” Kate said with a bright smile. “Just follow the signs to the ground floor.”

With a murmur of thanks, Anika and Noor left. The moment the door closed, Kate turned on him.

“Manning, please explain this to me. You and Nico are engaged?” she asked. “When I asked Nico who he was with in the photo, he failed to mention that little detail.”

August laughed weakly. “I’m sure he was trying to protect me.”

“You are a referee. Your relationship is an enormous conflict of interest.”

“I—I know. I know this isn’t great,” he said weakly.

“We’ll have to inform the league, of course.”

August recoiled.

“Especially because they are going to be reviewing those hits from last night’s game very thoroughly. You should have disclosed this relationship already. People will be questioning every game you’ve refereed with him in it.” She rubbed her head.

“It’s … recent,” August said, grasping at straws. “We, uh, it’s only been the games so far this season?”

“You should. Have. Disclosed,” she said between gritted teeth.

He grimaced. “I know.”

“And it sounds like you wouldn’t have if this situation with Nico hadn’t happened! I understand wanting some privacy but this is incredibly dangerous for both of your careers! Yours more than Nico’s.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I had no idea Nico would ever consider getting married. I think that’s the most shocking part about it all.”

“Well …”

Skylar slipped her arm through August’s. “You know Nico, always surprising us with his wild decisions! You’re lucky these two didn’t fly off to Vegas and get married without telling you.”

Kate closed her eyes and breathed deeply, as if she was trying to calm herself. “I guess I should count myself lucky. We’ve already had one surprise wedding this season and I’d rather skip another.”

August winced. “I shouldn’t have come to the hospital. I just … I was very worried about Nico. I needed to see for myself he was okay.”

Kate softened. “Of course. I understand. This was a horrific thing to see happen to someone you care about.”

“I was so close when it happened too,” August said, his throat thickening as the memories rushed back in. “And I couldn’t do anything.”

A flicker of something crossed Kate’s face before August could identify it. “That must have been awful.”

He nodded.

Kate leveled him with a look. “Obviously, Nico will need a little time to recover but once he is feeling up to it, the three of us will need to sit down and discuss this, Manning.”

“Uh, August, please. And yes, I understand.”

Somehow, August would have to extricate himself from this whole lie he’d dug himself into. God, what had he been thinking?

Kate’s shrewd gaze landed on his coat. “Is that the peacoat mentioned in the gossip column?”

“Yes. I’d, uh, planned to drop it off at the thrift store but I ran out of the arena last night with no coat and I needed something.”

“I will take it and get rid of it now,” she said firmly. “I’ll be happy to buy you a replacement but there are reporters camped out here hoping to get info. We can’t risk them seeing you in it and putting the pieces together until we decide how we’re going to handle this.”

“Right. Of course. That’s smart.” He handed it over.

Kate shook her head as she draped it over her arm, hiding the buttons. “Good God. This has the potential to blow up in our faces. Do you know the kind of disciplinary action that might be taken after a conflict of interest like this?”

To be honest, August had been trying to avoid thinking too much about any details.

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