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She turned her sharp gaze on him. “Jack, I’m paying you a hell of a lot of money to just sit there. So just sit there. I need to know why my own team captain is having a personal relationship with a journalist who hates our team.”
Coach Maddox exhaled through his nose, probably feeling caught between a rock and a hard place. I wasn’t conflicted at all, though.
“What’s between me and Elle is none of your business,” I said. “You don’t own me just because I signed a contract to play on your team.”
Mila threw her arms in the air and walked over to the door, putting her head down and taking a second to gather herself. That was uncharacteristic; usually she just exploded with no regard for the consequences.
The others at the table were Coach Maddox, Alyssa Thompson, who was the head of the Coyotes PR department, and two women Jack had brought with him. They all looked like they wanted to crawl under the table right now. This should have been a private conversation between me and Mila, but since she’d started it here, I was glad to finish it here. I wouldn’t be bullied.
She gestured toward me with bunched fingertips as she spoke. “I’m paying you millions of dollars to be here and to play for this team. I brought you here specifically to lead this team out of crisis. And this is how you repay me?”
“We’ve won our last eight games. You can bitch at me when we’re losing. You don’t get to bitch at me over a column in the newspaper that I had nothing to do with.”
Her jaw dropped. “Nothing? Ford,nothingis exactly what I’m bitching about! When you’re playing hide the sausage with this fucking idiot of a woman, can’t you make an effort to bring her over to our side?”
I pushed my chair back, anger making my jaw clench tightly. “I won’t sit here while you talk about her like that.”
“Listen,” Jack said. “Let’s just”
“You think she’ssmartfor being opposed to the new arena?” Mila asked me icily, crossing her arms.
“Don’t put words in my mouth. Either you apologize and treat her with the same respect she’s given you, or I’m done with this meeting.”
Her expression was both pained and disgusted, like she’d just walked into a long-neglected portable toilet on a hot day. Mila was a stubborn, hot-tempered woman sometimes, and she couldn’t bring herself to apologize.
I got up and headed for the door, Coach Maddox groaning and Jack jumping up to come after me.
“Ford,” Jack said. “Emotions are running high, but we can work this out.”
I didn’t stop walking until Coach called out, “Ford.”
I put my hand on the doorknob and turned to look at him. There was nothing he could stay that would keep me in this room; I wasn’t backing down. Mila might be the owner of this team, but that didn’t mean she could call someone I cared about, someone who didn’t deserve it, a fucking idiot.
I respected my coach. He was levelheaded and genuinely cared about his players. If he asked me to sit down and ignore what Mila had said about Elle, it would hurt.
“Mila, you were out of line and you need to apologize,” Coach said. “Or else I’m going with him.”
Stunned silence filled the room, no one moving a muscle. I’d never heard Coach disagree with Mila on anything, and it meant a lot to me that he’d stood up to her.
Finally, Mila’s shoulders sank.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” she admitted. “I let my temper get away from me, and…I’m sorry.”
I nodded, walked back over to the table, and sat down.
“I want this arena to get built,” I said.
“I know people think I have bottomless pockets, but the truth is we need the city’s funding package to make it work financially,” Mila said. “If we don’t get help, we can scale the plans back, but I think our team and our community deserve the best arena we can offer them.”
I nodded, the tension in the room gone now. “I do, too. But honestly, I think you’re all worked up over Elle’s column for nothing.”
“I’m co-signing on that,” Jack said, pointing at me. “It’s the city council members we need to be concerned with, not anyone else.”
Mila sat back in her chair. “I hear you, but it kills me to read those columns. TheChronicleis the largest newspaper in the state. She makes it sound like I want to build a gladiator ring and put people in it to beat each other to death.”
“We have the economic impact numbers,” Jack said. “We can prove this will bring more money into the area over the next ten years than it will cost. Those kinds of figures are catnip for elected officials.”
“But then Eleanor Lawrence points out that the arena will only benefit a few businesses in the surrounding area,” Mila said, her frustration evident. “Did you see today when she asked how a new hockey arena would help the owner of a restaurant or another business on the outskirts of the city?”
