She blinked. “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.”
“I don’t want to be a bad host, so tell me what you want, pumpkin, and it’s all yours.”
Across the room, a few guys chuckled.
I glanced at Nate. This was painful. He wasn’t being his natural, smooth self. You could tell he genuinely had no idea how to behave around her.
Her cheeks were pink as she narrowed her eyes. “I’m sorry. Did you just call mepumpkin?”
He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I did. Why? Do you not like it?”
Ember pursed her lips, trying and failing to hide her annoyance. “Depends. Are you eighty?”
I shook my head because my best friend loved to torture guys who showed an interest in her.
He lifted a shoulder. “Last time I checked, no.”
Ember went to stand up. “I think I’m going to check out your drink selection.”
“Perfect.” He held his hand out. “I can show you where it is.”
Nate groaned. “Dude, you are trying way too hard.”
I elbowed Nate in the side.
“What?” My boyfriend, who clearly wasn’t taking the hint, decided to make things more obvious. “She’s clearly shutting him down.”
“You don’t need to broadcast it,” I hissed.
Honestly, I didn’t think she was shutting him down. More so, making him work for it. And he was clearly trying to play along, which made it much sweeter. Jax was usually all polished lines and brimming with confidence. Seeing him so smitten with my friend had me rooting for them.
Ryder let out a loud whistle to get everyone’s attention. One second, the room hummed with conversation, and the next, we all turned to the television. A breaking news announcement flashed across the bottom of the screen. Brian Sullivan’s face popped up, and Ryder turned up the volume.
Former Sports Agent Arrested.
Nate’s arm tightened around my shoulder.
Well-known sports agent Brian Sullivan has been arrested in an ongoing investigation into allegations of financial misconduct, fraud, tax evasion, and sexual harassment.
Nobody said a word. You could hear a pin drop.
I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that the article I had written a few weeks ago had kicked this whole thing into motion. I only meant to expose what he did to Nate, but somewhere along the way, it turned into something bigger.
Since that article dropped, things have snowballed fast. The situation with Brian was worse than we had expected. It felt like someone had finally turned the lights on.
Not only was he in financial trouble, but he was in legal trouble as well. More than a dozen women came forward with allegations that he behaved inappropriately. A few were accusing him of assault. And thanks to Lydia, we had more than enough evidence that Brian didn’t have a chance of getting out of this.
“Jesus,” Nate said, reading the charges as they flashed across the screen. We were watching his life unravel in real time, and it felt surreal.
Every story painted the same picture.
A man who was greedy. Who thought he was untouchable.
“I bet there’s more,” Ember said, still staring at the screen.
I grabbed my phone, which was blowing up with text messages. People were sending pictures they had found online. Some were sending links to different articles. It amazed me how fast the internet could spread news.
“Dude was way worse than we thought,” Jax said, shaking his head.
