Page 64 of Blindsided

Daisy’s eyes widened. “Oh my god. I forgot about that. Should I go get popcorn? Oh shit, Dane and Tory together all afternoon!”

I opened my laptop but shot her a grin. “Think we can get the catering staff to fire up one of the popcorn machines on the concourse level?”

“I’m going to go flirt with Lisa. I bet she’d do it for me!” She tossed her long braids over her shoulder and hurried out of the room, blowing a kiss in my direction. “Popcorn coming up!”

Alone once more, I turned my attention back to my computer screen. Three more minutes of video to watch, and then I could head downstairs. Hopefully, I’d get there before things got started.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, I was in the elevator with Lisa and a large cart of fresh-popped popcorn. I grabbed one of the buckets. “Are you staying for the main event?”

“Alright, spill. What the hell is going on down here?”

The elevator stopped and the doors opened to Dane’s raised voice. “This is not going to work!”

“Wait, wait. Don’t leave, Dane. We need you here!” Lincoln sounded more panicked than I’d have liked, especially since the actual shoot wasn’t even scheduled to start for twenty more minutes. I ignored Lisa’s question and took off in a jog toward the locker room, certain I was leaving a trail of popcorn behind me.

I didn’t slow as I pushed the door open. Lincoln was standing to the side, clutching the giant plush owl normally in my office and looking between Dane and Tory, his wide eyes not focusing on either of them as they ping-ponged back and forth.

Tory had three chalkboards in front of him and another one in his hand and a marker in the other. He was waving the marker around in front of Dane’s face, stabbing the air between them. “This is going to work! This is brilliant, and you don’t really have a say in it anyway. It was decided by people higher up than you!”

“I decide what is going on the social media accounts! This is, shockingly, what I am paid to do!”

The marker slashed the air again. “And I am paid to do wonderful things to hair, not put up with your bullshit as I try to help you make nice signs! Would you like to take over, Mister I Know Better Than You?”

As Lincoln’s eyes began to scan back to Dane, he caught sight of me and deflated. “Thank fuck. Make them stop. They’ve been at each other’s throats since Tory walked in the room.”

“Uh-huh.” I couldn’t help but think that Tory had probably pushed Dane’s buttons in one way or another. “And what was Tory doing when he walked in?”

Lincoln blinked as he tried to work out the start of the drama that afternoon. “Uh, he was on the phone talking about a hookup from last night. Dane asked—snapped might be a better word for it—if he could keep his sexcapades—his words, not mine—out of the locker room. Tory told him he needs to get the stick out of his ass and it’s not his fault he’s a prude.”

I groaned. “And it escalated to marker-wielding insanity how, exactly?”

Daisy, who had come in shortly after me, swiped a container of popcorn off the cart Lisa had brought in, then stepped beside me and whispered “This is great popcorn. And seriously, those two either need to fuck or fuck off.”

Lincoln reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn out of my bucket. “How long should we let them go before we step in?”

“I should probably put a stop to this before we get yelled at by Cunningham.” The Grizzlies head coach had looked frustrated with life as he’d walked past my office earlier in the day. I was pretty sure I’d heard mumbles about his own team’s insanity, so adding to his stress was going to make for a very long and uncomfortable training camp.

Putting my fingers in my mouth, I gave a whistle piercing enough that silence finally fell over the locker room. “Enough. The popcorn was mostly a joke, but shit, you two are a mess. Tory is here to help us because we are hockey players, not creatives, and our handwriting sucks. You're a talented artist of many forms, but Dane, you’ve got to focus on the pictures, not writing these boards out between every player.”

Shaking my head, I put my popcorn bucket down on one of the benches. “Seriously, Tory, you can’t stab the social media guy with a marker. And Dane, you’ve got to let the insanity roll off your shoulders or this is going to be one of the longest days in history. I can’t speak for you all, but I have plans that do not involve being at the rink until tomorrow morning.”

Lincoln’s face heated, but he smiled. It wasn’t that we were doing anything exciting that night. I just wanted to get Lincoln out of the rink and spend some time devouring his body before the next day. Surviving his official first day of training camp was something worth celebrating. Then again, if his body was involved, I would always be looking for a reason to celebrate.

Dane and Tory looked properly contrite at my admonishment, though I couldn’t be certain about anything with the smudges of marker across Dane’s cheek and his shirt. “Tory, you cannot slash people when you don’t get your way. Even if it’s with a marker.”

Tory huffed. “It’s just a chalk marker. It will wash off easily.” Then he looked at his hands and rolled his eyes. “And I need to wash this off or these boards are going to look like shit.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Do you really want to push it right now?” I looked over at Dane. “Go clean up before the guys get in here. Both of you.” When they walked away, I looked between Lincoln and Daisy. “Someone has to stay with those two at all times. We cannot have the first impression of the Parliament be the two of them fighting.”

Lincoln’s eyes went wide. “Does that mean one of us has to play babysitter to this?”

“Who’s taking the first shift? I actually have shit to do today.”

Daisy sighed. “I’ll take first. Lincoln gets second. If it gets too insane and we need a third shift, maybe we can convince someone else..”

“Or tell Cunningham to get Trevor to deal with it since this was his idea.”

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