Page 93 of All Your Reasons Why

I tear my gaze away and glance up at her. “Uh, I can see multiple problems.”

She tents her fingers together. “Do elaborate.”

Well, one big problem is that he’s not going to be able to play very well once I make him a member of the castrato. “Well, number one, the biggest problem I see is that we are trying very hard to get the press to focus on Mason’s ability on the ice and his charitable works, and we don’t want them thinking about him as a playboy again. We don’t want them to associate the wordsMasonanddrama.”

She nods approvingly. “What else?”

“Lexi is known to be dating his teammate. This whole love-triangle aspect is a nightmare. The press is going to be waiting to see which of the two throws the first punch. And is Lexi going to be allowed back in the wives and girlfriends area? And which guy will be getting her the girlfriend pass?” I can hear my voice as if from a very long way away. I’m doing everything right. I’m sounding professional, detached.

Go, me.

Cecelia nods again. “We’ve identified the problem. How do we address it?”

“Well, I need to speak to him first and figure out what’s going on. We know how important his career is to him. Maybe ... maybe they just ran into each other?” Cecelia winces. I sigh. “I’ll have a better idea of a plan of attack once I’ve spoken to him. If he ... if he’s dating her again, I mean, we can’t tell him who to date, but he would need to be a lot more discreet.”

I’m talking about him as if he didn’t have his tongue up my private parts in the very recent past. As if he hadn’t talked about us together with a dreamy look in his eyes.

That lying sack of shredded coconut.

Oh, I’ll be shredding his coconuts all right ...

Damn it. I only have myself to blame for this.

Cecelia stands up, nodding. “You’re on the right track. He’s very lucky he has you in his corner. Let me know what you come up with.”

As soon as she leaves, I look at my messages. None of them are from Mason. What a surprise. I do have several concerned messages from Shelby, who of course heard about it. I don’t answer her, because I have no idea what to say.

I start searching online. It’s all over the usual gossip rags. Some of them, citing anonymous sources, say that they got back together weeks ago; they’ve just been keeping it on the QT and this is them finally going public again.

Other anonymous sources report seeing them discreetly making out in the VIP area of a local celebrity hotspot. The date and time that’s named ... we weren’t together that night. So it could be true.

I feel faintly ill. Mason has that rep. He dated a ton of women before Lexi, worked his way through New York’s eligible bachelorette population after Lexi ...

The phone rings.

It’s Mason.

“Hey, hotness,” he says brightly.

“That’s me.” I hide the rage brimming in my voice. Screw him. So he wants to have his cake and eat me too?

I’m not going to let my own stupid mistake cost me my promotion. I’m a big girl. I always knew this was just a fling ... I guess I’m just disappointed because I thought that at least we were going to be honest with each other.

“So, what are you working on? How are the plans to conquer evil and make it suffer?”

“Oh, they’re going just great.” I smile savagely and open my desk. I pull out my ever-present box of Rovers chocolates, grab Mason’s, and squeeze it between my thumb and my pointer finger, holding it over the garbage.

I can’t stand the idea of popping Mason in my mouth right now.

I watch the red cherry juice dripping from between my fingers. Then I toss him into the trash.

“Do I get details?” he asks.

“No.” I don’t elaborate.

“Uh ...”

I grab a tissue from my desk and wipe my fingers off.

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