While giving his dad an update that was pretty positive, Will pulled his iPad off its charger and opened the mail app tied to the email he only used with his professional contacts. There were already several emails from the PR office, as well as a few names that made him wince. Pretty much everybody wanted answers, from the top office down.
And he’d answer them at some point, but he read his contracts pretty closely before he signed them and there were no clauses giving the Harriers an opinion on who he dated.
“I found it,” Will heard his mother say over his father asking about the Skimmers’ practice facility, and both men groaned. “Let me talk to him for a minute, Jack.”
It took a solid five minutes for Will to convince his mom there was nothing going on that merited her getting on a plane to the US. Then he capped off the conversation by asking about his four-year-old nephew. Talking about her grandson was always the perfect distraction.
Once the call ended, he plugged his phone in to charge and sat at the desk with the iPad. After responding to the emails from PR—making it very clear he didn’t want to hear anything but “no comment” from the Harriers or Skimmers—he sent an email to his social media manager. There was going to be a flood of ugliness, and they were going to ignore it, as usual. But attacks on Kristen wouldn’t be tolerated, and those comments should be deleted on platforms that allowed it and the accounts blocked whenever possible. He’d been in the sports corner of the internet long enough to know it wouldn’t be pretty, and not only were they trying not to antagonize Kristen’s boss, but it would be best for everybody if Will didn’t read any comments for a while. He couldn’t fight everybody.
With that task out of the way, he killed twenty minutes putting away the clothes the laundry service had delivered and making a list of things he was running short on in the kitchenette. Once he knew Mitchell and the rest of the team would be back on the ice, he called his friend’s number and left a voicemail, giving him the same story he’d given his parents. Casually seeing each other. Miscommunication with Burke. Nothing to see here.
Best case scenario, they’d play phone tag for a few days, until it all died down.
But when he finally went to theHometown Hosersite to see for himself, he knew it might take more than a few days for it to fade away. Joel had really missed his calling writing tabloid trash because while he didn’t technically change the facts, he made the scandal sound a hell of a lot juicier than it actually was. And a quick Google search told him other sites were picking up the story and running with it. He didn’t even bother checking Facebook or Twitter, since it wouldn’t do anything but jack up his blood pressure and make it harder to stick to the strict no-comment strategy.
All he could do was hope being Erik Burke’s sister would shield Kristen from the more disgusting comments, and that hockey fandom would focus more on the punch in the face than the reason for it.
And that Kristen’s conversations with her brother and father didn’t blow everything up. He’d wanted to be with her, but she’d made it clear his presence wasn’t going to help, so he put on a movie and did his best not to think about it.
* * *
Kristen decidedon drinks at her place rather than meeting her brother in a restaurant or bar for the conversation ahead of them. Not that Erik would cause an unpleasant scene, but because at least one person in any public space tended to recognize him, and she was going to be talking about her sex life.
She’d also refused Will’s offer to be present when she explained the situation to Erik, for obvious reasons. They weren’t even twenty-four hours from Erik punching Will in the face and that wasbeforethe situation went publicly sideways. She could reason with her brother, but not if the two men were facing off in some kind of dick-swinging contest.
Erik not only sent her a text message when he arrived at her building, but he knocked on the door and waited for her to let him in. He was still tense, and his mouth was pressed into a tight line, but at least he’d gotten that message.
“Have a seat,” she said, gesturing to the two fresh drinks she’d set on the coffee table when she got his text.
He sat in the armchair, as always, but he didn’t reach for the glass. “What’s going on, Kris? I’ve been dodging Joel fromHometown Hoserand a couple other guys since that post about you and Lecroix being a couple went live.”
“That’s a stupid name for a site, even if it is about hockey, and what’s going on is Will getting ambushed with questions he couldn’t get around answering.” Somehow that information had come from her brother, which she couldn’t forget. When he looked confused, she sighed. “Will is his actual name, you know. His mother didn’t name him Cross.”
“Oh, yeah. I think I knew that. But the last time we had dinner, you told me you weren’t dating anybody. Did you really think you could hide this from me?” When he looked her in the eye, it wasn’t anger she saw there. Her brother was hurt, and her face flushed with guilt. “How can you be in a relationship with this guy and not tell me?”
If he’d raged at her, she probably would have stuck to her original plan, which was to lie to him and to let him continue believing what Will had said was the truth. But when everything else was stripped away—the hockey and the resentments and their relationships with their father—Erik was her brother and believing that she’d been seeing Will behind his back would hurt him.
“We don’t have a relationship, Erik.”
“You sure as hell have something.”
“I picked him up in a bar. I didn’t know who he was, but I watched him for a while and then I brought him home with me. That was supposed to be the end of it.”
His brows drew together, and he shook his head. “Then why the hell did he tell that reporter you’ve been dating?”
“Because somebody ran their mouth about last night. It wasn’t me and it wasn’t Will, so…” She let the accusation go unsaid, one eyebrow arched.
“I went out with a couple of the guys after. Had a few drinks.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I was pissed, so I might have said some shit.”
“Yeah, and one of those guys you went out with told somebody else who thought it would be a cool story for the sports page.” She felt herself getting heated and forced herself to calm down. “Or you were talking loud enough that somebody else overheard you.”
“I’m sorry, Kris. I’m going to find out if it was one of the guys I was with because they were Marauders, and if one of them ran his mouth about you…I’ll find out, I promise.”
“Will had a split second to consider the fact the real story could cost me my promotion. That me picking up your biggest rival in a bar for a one-night stand could be a juicy enough story that the mainstream media might pick it up.”
“And you guys datingwon’tbe a story?” He leaned forward and picked up his drink, downing half of it in one shot. Hers was almost empty, so she didn’t blame him a bit.
She inhaled slowly through her nose before the blowing the breath out through her mouth. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to make him understand. “It’s a story no matter what. But one version paints a picture of a woman falling for her brother’s professional opponent in some kind of star-crossed romance or some shit. The other version stars a woman looking for a one-night stand in a bar. You know how people get—how guys like my boss get—when it comes to women who just want to get laid.”
