Page 77 of The No Try Zone
“How.” She sounds damn near murderous. “The fuck. DoesLennox Campbellknow?”
I shrink. Then I remember that I’m the head coach and straighten once more. “He heard me talking to my sister. He’s not saying anything.”
She throws her hands in the air. “You don’t know that! Jesus, Colin. He’s Ansel’s best friend. Do you have any idea what a chatterbox that man is? If he knows…shit. You have nocluehow many people know. All it takes is one wrong move andpoof.This is my nightmare.Nightmare.” She whirls away and starts to pace, hands on hips. “If the media get hold of this…I need to edit the statements…” She keeps muttering to herself, head down, wearing a path in front of me as she goes back and forth.
I let her go for a few minutes, because as much as I’d like her to leave, thisisher job. It’s nauseating to think about what would happen. I’d be fired. Ollie would detest me. And Sam? I can’t even consider it.
Then a thought occurs to me. “Does your boss know?”
She stops, jerking her attention back to me. “Absolutely not.”
Interesting. “He’s the head of PR. It seems he should.”
She raises a brow. “He should definitely not.”
I smirk and lean forward. “Is he as incompetent as I think he is?”
A ghost of a smile crosses her face. “No.”
“Bullshit. He’s a snake.”
She resumes her pacing with a shrug. “He’s effective. He handles the big stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like when we hired you. He set up the press conference, that sort of thing.”
“And?”
Kari stops and glares. “Stay on topic. What are you doing to fix this? I thought you were getting an annulment.”
I sigh and fall back into my chair, swiveling softly. “It’s not easy to get one. We both have to show up. Better if we get a divorce.” The word tastes bitter and ashy on my tongue.
“So when is that happening?”
I hesitate. “Sam hasn’t told you?”
“I’d rather hear directly from you.”
We stare at each other. I need to tread carefully. Not only for my professional career. Sure, that’s important – it’s why this whole thing is such a mess – but a strange sense of possessiveness makes me want to protect Sam, even if it’s from her best friend.
“We had no idea who the other was that night.”
“Clearly.”
“And the next morning –”
“When you ghosted her like a fucking coward?” she interrupts with a glare.
I hold my hands up. I’m obviously not the only one who feels like Sam needs protecting. “When I thought I could get it annulled without bothering her with it.”
The look of outright disgust and disbelief on her face is almost enough to make me shut up. But I keep going. I’ve already made this bed; it’s time to lie in it.
“And I needed to keep it quiet becausemyboss, the Granite president, made it very clear that he wanted someone squeaky clean and focused entirely on the upcoming season,” I continue.
“So you bailed on a woman you’dmarriedand didn’t so much as give her your real name?” She steps toward me.
I stand. “Look. I’ve gone over this with Sam. I don’t need to rehash it with you. I appreciate that you’re her friend.”
