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“Goodnight, Violet,” Gage says, softly.
Delicious prickles of awareness slide over my whole body. It takes everything in me not to throw out practicality and beg him to kiss me. “Good night, Gage.”
For a heartbeat, neither of us move.
And then he closes the door behind him, leaving me alone in darkness, my phone glowing with the evidence of how desperately he once wanted me.
I groan and toss my phone aside, scrunching my eyes closed against the memories of Gage and me.
The sooner this trip is over, the better.
18
GAGE
From the moment we land in Colorado, Violet is distractingly enthusiastic. She’s even wearing a team jersey. It’s big enough on her it falls to her thighs. She’s wearing it with leggings and ankle boots and...
Wait a minute. I blink.
“Is thatmyjersey?” I ask as I follow Violet to my private plane’s exit.
“I didn’t have time to get my own. And one of us should be wearing team gear. How else will they know how serious you are about buying this team?” she asks.
The idea of letting anyone but Violet know how badly I want to buy the Coyotes makes the bottom of my stomach fall out. I’m used to making business deals to acquire companies I don’t give two shits about.
The Coyotes are different.
“Have you ever heard of playing it cool?” I argue. “It’s a highly successful negotiation tactic. You should try it.”
“Have you ever heard of telling the truth about how you feel?” she counters. “I promise, it’s more successful than you think.”
For a second, I imagine telling Violet an entirely different truth. I imagine saying how cute she looks in my jersey. How much I like that she’s trying to help me with this deal. How fucking good it would be to have her in my bed, wearing nothing but that jersey, dark hair spread across my pillow.
Yeah, I can’t say any of that.
Not after Violet made it very clear we were a one-time thing.
“Telling the truth is overrated,” I say. “Come on. Let’s go buy a baseball team.”
* * *
When we arriveat the stadium, we’re greeted by the current owner, along with the head coach, the assistant coach, and a handful of lackeys in suits. As we tour the stadium, they shower me with stats about revenue, growth potential, and how important the team is to the community. I respond with pointed questions about their debt, their streak of losses, and various bad management decisions.
In short, I do a very good job of acting like I don’t care.
But the closer I get to closing this deal, the more I want this team. The fact that the Coyotes are underdogs almost makes it better. I couldbuildsomething here. Help them be the team my dad always knew they could be.
“Do you have any more questions?” the current team owner asks. His name is Kevin, and he’s got the smarmy look of a guy who wants to be a winner without ever putting in the hard work to be one.
We’ve wound our way out onto the baseball field. The grass is fresh and green, and the sky is impossibly blue. It’s the kind of weather that makes you long to hear the crack of a bat in a crowded stadium.
“I think we’ve taken enough of Mr. Crawford’s time,” the head coach, Darryl, says. He’s friendly but in a weary kind of way. It’s clear he doesn’t get along with Kevin, but he’s decided it’s better to shrug and implement Kevin’s bad ideas, rather than fight for what’s actually good for his team. It’s sad because I remember a time when he was a decent coach. But it’s clear his heart’s not in it anymore. His team’s about to get bought, but he spent most of the tour making small talk with Violet about our upcoming (fake) wedding.
Not that I can blame him for that. She’s like a bloody ray of sunshine, walking around in that jersey and smiling at everyone and everything. I’m pretty sure the assistant coach, Pete, already has a crush on her.
“I don’t have any more questions,” I say. “My people will be in touch if Crawford Industries decides to place a bid.”
“I have a question,” Pete says, speaking up for the first time in this entire tour. He was one of the Coyotes’ best players before an injury took him out two years ago. “How do we know you won’t destroy this team and sell it for parts? That’s what you do with all the companies you buy.”
