Page 46 of Home of the Brave

“A smile and nod will get you further than you’d think,” she laughed.

“It likely had to do more with who was doing the smiling and nodding,” Amelia taunted. “He probably thought you were cute and didn’t even notice that you didn’t ask him more questions.”

“Oh, no.” She waved that off like it was impossible, and not the most likely explanation.

“Some people get chatty when they’re nervous,” Derek added. “He was probably talking to cover it up.”

“I wouldn’t know.” She shrugged. “I had no idea what he was saying.”

“Did you ever get the right guy?” Erik asked.

She sighed. “No, that was the worst part. By the time I made it into the clubhouse to hunt him down, I was told he’d already left.”

“Then what did you do? The article was due in the morning,” Amelia leaned forward.

“I got his number from one of his teammates and called him. Apologized for invading his privacy, asked him my three questions, and promised he’d never hear from me again.”

I laughed with Erik, but Hartman narrowed his eyes. “His teammate handed out his number to a reporter?”

“Yes?” Victoria grimaced. “It wasn’t my finest moment, but I begged.”

“And what did he want in return?” Amelia asked.

She closed her eyes. “A date.”

“Knew it,” Amelia clapped her hands. “It’s easy to get what you want when you’re this pretty.”

“Speaking from experience?” I teased, and she beamed.

“Yes.”

Victoria was blushing. “I swear I’m professional ninety-nine percent of the time. It’s hard enough being a woman in this industry. The last thing I want is to build a bad reputation, but there have been just a few times I’ve charmed people into getting my way.”

“No one will fault you for that.” Amelia glanced around the table, challenging us to disagree. “You have to fight twice as hard for the same things as your male colleagues. You don’t need to explain using what you have to your advantage. If it weren’t for the connections I had, I never would have gotten to this point in my career.”

“Yeah, you nepo baby.” Erik teased.

“Excuse me,” she shot him a glare, “I’m a nepo sibling.”

We all laughed, but Victoria waited.

“My sister is married to Nikolai Koslov. After I graduated, she got me linked with Madi.” She looked to Erik. “His wife. I interned with her until I got a spot on the training team for Salt Lake’s basketball team. After a couple of years with them, I got hired by the Utah’s NHL team.”

“And now you’re married to a player,” Victoria grinned. “How scandalous.”

“A retired player,” Derek corrected. “She came on after I left.”

“Oh yeah, there’s no blurred lines with our team,” Hartman quipped. “Very serious about keeping things professional and separate.”

We laughed again, and Victoria waited with an expectant smile.

“My sister was head of marketing,” Erik started.

“She was head of everything,” Derek laughed. “She ran the team behind the scenes.”

“And she married Reese Murray,” Hartman added. “Madi’s the daughter of our previous head coach,” he shot a look at Erik. “Which was one of the boldest––”

“Or stupidest,” I added.