Page 99 of Hot Shot
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” I stare at the floor, unable to look at him and see the hurt I’m sure is there.
“Why?”
I huff out a breath. “At first I didn’t know where things were going with either of you, and then I didn’t know how to bring the subject up.”
“Oh, I don’t know, how about ‘hey, Hunter. Do you know your coach? Yeah, he happens to be my father.’ That would have worked.” I wince at the sarcasm in his voice.
Dad claps his hands. “Clearly you two need to talk about Madison not telling you about me, but right now we have a bigger issue.” He looks up at the door and says, “Come on in now, Sutton.”
The door is pushed open, and a woman about my age with long blonde hair, dressed in jeans and a Storm polo, walks into the room.
“Madison. Hunter. This is Sutton,” Dad says, and Sutton nods at us. “She’s in our PR department and alerted me to what she stumbled on. Sutton, the floor is yours.”
I turn my attention to Sutton, and that’s when I notice she’s holding an iPad. My stomach rolls at the thought of what she might show us.
This can’t be good.
“Hello,” she says before glancing over at my dad. “I’m sorry to drag you all in like this, but we figured it would be best to handle this quickly.”
“Show them.” He gestures to the iPad in her hand. She pushes a few buttons before setting it on the desk between Hunter and me.
Shit.
My hands shake as I lean forward and look at the pictures and article headline—“Orlando Storm’s Head Coach’s Daughter Dating A Player.”
What the fuck?
My head swivels to Hunter, who is staring at the iPad, his face a shade of gray. He mutters something under his breath. I rub a hand over my chest, trying to alleviate what feels like an elephant sitting on it.
“What? What did you say, Hunter?” I ask.
“Elliot. Elliot Jacobs,” he repeats louder this time.
“What?” I lean back in my seat, away from him. “He wouldn’t do this.”
“You said that he wasn’t happy when he found out you were seeing someone seriously and clearly he wasn’t thrilled it was me. I mean the fight pretty much proved that.”
No. No. No.
“Madison. Are you okay?” Sutton puts her hand on my arm, and I realize that I’m on my feet, my chair toppled over backward on the floor.
Dad glances back and forth between Hunter and me, his eyebrows pinched together.
“I can’t.” I pull in a deep breath through my nose. “He wouldn’t do this.”
“Does he know Coach is your father?” Hunter’s shoulders drop and he hangs his head.
“He does,” I mumble. The pain that I was feeling about keeping the secret from Hunter is ten times worse now that he knows that EJ knew but he didn’t.
Shit.
He’s right. I can count on one hand the number of people that know, and they’re all people who would take my secret to the grave.
All except EJ.
EJ leaked this story.
There’s no two ways about it. He’s jealous. Of course he wanted to ruin my relationship with Hunter. Ruining Hunter’s career is the icing on the cake.Hunter’s career. His spot on the team. I right my chair before crumpling back into it, tears threatening to spill.
