Chapter Fourteen

THE SHARKS’ DEFENSIVE coordinator, LeRoy Bradley, pulled Drew into a corridor outside of the team’s locker room. Drew had always had a good rapport with the guy. He was conscientious, thorough, prepared the defense each week for what they might face from their opponents, and didn’t get involved in the squabbles that happened between highly competitive teammates. Right now, LeRoy folded his arms and narrowed his eyes.

“Is it true that you are seeing Kendall Tracy of the Miners?”

Drew wasn’t going to bother asking him where he got his information. “Yes.”

“How long has this relationship been going on?”

“A couple of weeks.”

LeRoy shook his head. “Will you be asking for a trade to San Francisco?”

“No. I’m not interested in playing for the Miners.”

“Have you been discussing team business with her?”

“Hell, no.”

He’d given Kendall advice. He hadn’t divulged team strategy or anything else the coaching staff would consider confidential.

“McCoy, I’m not joking. If we find out she’s seen your playbook or you’ve been discussing our game planning with her, you’re not going to like the consequences.”

“With all due respect, LeRoy, do you discuss that stuff with your wife?”

“She hates it.”

“I have other things to talk about with Kendall besides football, too.”

Drew knew he was going to get grilled, but that fact didn’t make his current situation any more enjoyable.

“It’s hard to believe you couldn’t find another woman to date in the Puget Sound area. You also have to wonder what she’s thinking too. Wait until their front office finds out.”

Drew’s stomach churned. He knew there would be consequences for Kendall when and if their budding relationship came to light. These guys considered it a betrayal, but her team would consider it an act of treason.

LeRoy nodded down the corridor. “Coach wants to see you. You’re going to be asked the same questions. There’s also a good chance you might get benched on Sunday.”

Drew expected as much, but he’d make his arguments to the head coach instead of discussing it in an open area where any of his teammates could overhear the conversation. He followed the DC to the head coach’s office. He stepped inside to see most of the coaching staff and a few of the front office boys.

“McCoy,” Coach Stewart said. “Have a seat.”

SYDNEY STROLLED INTO Kendall’s office as Kendall was attempting to enter data on a spreadsheet and eat half a turkey sandwich at the same time.

“Your secret is out,” she said. She sat down in one of the chairs in front of Kendall’s desk.

“What’s happening?”

“They’re meeting to discuss how they’re going to handle it.”

Kendall’s heart skipped a beat and she felt the cold fist of dread forming in her stomach, but remaining calm and taking some deep breaths was the best thing she could do for herself right now. She’d had plenty of time to think on the flight back to San Francisco and while she’d been working at her desk most of the afternoon.

Her private life was her own. She and Drew were consenting adults. It was really nobody else’s business who she was romantically involved with.

“It might be nice if I were included in that meeting,” she said.

She took another big bite of her sandwich. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make anything this good at home. Maybe the guys at the deli would share their secrets with her. Concentrating on the sandwich was a hell of a lot more fun than dwelling on what was about to happen to her at the hands of the Miners’ owner and her co-workers.

“Maybe you should attend the meeting anyway,” Sydney said. “They’re in the main conference room.” She grabbed Kendall’s iPad and handed it to her. “The rest of your sandwich will be here when you get back.”

“Would you like to attend as well?” Kendall knew she’d need a witness to what was said.

“I’m right behind you,” Sydney said. She wrapped up Kendall’s sandwich to stow it in the mini-fridge in one corner of the office, grabbed her own tablet, and followed Kendall down the hall.

Kendall grabbed her suit jacket, pulled it on, and strode down the hallway to the conference room. She pushed the door open hard enough for the doorknob to bounce off of the wall behind it. The seven men surrounding the table fell silent as she walked into the room.

“Thanks for inviting me to the meeting, guys. What are we discussing?” She put her iPad down on the table in front of the only empty chair, pulled it out, and sat down. They’d called out the big guns for this meeting; both the team’s owner and the CEO of the Miners, George Simmons, were there.

George glared at her. “We understand you’re involved in a romantic relationship with Drew McCoy of the Sharks. You’ve put us in a very unpleasant position as a result, Ms. Tracy.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve been calling me Kendall since I was sixteen years old, George.”

“Part of the expectations for your job, interim or not, is to sign McCoy on the offseason. It’ll be difficult to obtain his services when we’re getting sued for sexual harassment.” George steepled his fingers. “How did you think this was going to end?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“You can’t work for the team and sleep with a player from another team,” the Miners’ owner said.

“My personal life really isn’t anyone in this room’s business,” Kendall said.

Jerry Berggren, an older, overweight man with a permanently red face, pointed at her and shouted, “It is when you’re fucking around with the biggest free agent acquisition this year.”

“That’s enough, Jerry,” George said to him. “You need to apologize. That was inappropriate.”

“I’m not apologizing to her,” Jerry snapped.

“Your comments violated labor laws,” the team’s lawyer said, and he put his face in his hands. “I suggest you all calm down a little. Kendall’s right. Her private life is none of your business.”

Kendall heard the door behind her open: Sydney walked in. She couldn’t miss Jerry’s comments; Kendall was pretty sure people in the next county could have heard him clearly. Kendall saw Sydney sit down in a spare chair in the corner of the conference room.

“She had one job: Sign McCoy. She’s already failed at it. The franchise is more important than her inability to find a date,” Jerry said.

“Maybe we’ll get him for less money because of the side benefits,” Leonard, the acting director of football operations, snarled.

“Enough,” the team’s attorney snapped. “You’re all over the line.”

Five other men started talking at once about how Kendall wasn’t the best choice for the job, how she would make them the laughing stock of the league when this got out, how she (and every other woman) could never be trusted in any pro football franchise leadership because they couldn’t keep their personal lives out of the office. Kendall saw Sydney’s mouth drop open out of the corner of her eye. She was holding her iPad at an angle too. In other words, she was recording what was being said.

If they all thought Kendall was going to burst into tears and slink out of the conference room, they had another thing coming.

The typically shy and introverted Bruce, the Miners’ team attorney, was on his feet by now. “Quiet!” he roared.

“We could fire you,” George Simmons told him.