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"He's driving me up a wall. I wonder if I should just buy him out and do what I want anyway."
"You mean to stage a hostile takeover for a charity?" I smirk.
"Yeah," he says, looking stubborn. "Why not? Since he wants to be childish about the whole thing."
He's not the only one being childish.
I shake my head and smile. "You can’t bulldoze your way into helping someone you have to be more diplomatic.
"There’s no diplomacy in that stubborn goat's body."
I laugh. "Did you stop to think about why he doesn't want to work with you? Maybe he's heard something unsavory about you."
"Impossible. All my philanthropy is top notch."
"Yes, but could there be someone somewhere, trying to make it seem like that's not the case?"
He frowns, thoughtfully. I know he has someone in mind. "Possibly."
"Exactly." I nod. "So, the first trick is to put his mind at ease."
"How do I do that?"
I sigh, slip into the seat, and gesture for his phone. After he doubtfully hands it over, I type out an email, softer, requesting a chance to change his mind about me.
When I hand it back to Luke, I think he's going to oppose my urging tone, but he smiles instead.
"You're good at this. Maybe I should hire you as my diplomacy manager."
I roll my eyes. "Well, those of us who didn't grow up with people kissing our ass all the time have to learn other ways to get what we want."
"Yeah. Yeah. You should teach me. Or better yet, there's a charity gala coming up and there are a few people I want to talk into a partnership. You should come with me."
I shrug. "Sure. If I have time."
He freezes, as though he didn't quite expect that answer. And then, a smile spreads across his face. One that has my heart racing so fast I almost snatch my words back.
"It's a date," he says.
12
LUKE
A sudden outburstof outrage reverberates throughout the small crowd of preteens standing in the middle of the rink. Mia flinches. I'm sure she expected the dissent but didn’t quite think it would be so loud and chaotic.
“Ok, guys settle down.” She claps and practically yells but she's barely heard over the noise. “Come on guys, let me talk.’
“I can’t believe this!" The red-haired kid who walked off during the last game, says. His voice is loudest, and his face is the angriest. “You want their team to join ours?”
“We don’t play with those cheaters,” another blonde boy yells in a weedy voice. Meanwhile, my team, who initially had neutral expressions on their faces coming in, are also growing increasingly agitated.
“Yeah,” one of them yells. “Well, we don’t want to work with you either.”
Mia sighs and glances over to where I'm lounging in one of the seats in the bleachers. I shrug. I warned her that this would happen. As grateful as I am that she's trying to help out, it's not going to be easy merging two opposing teams.
She rolls her eyes at me and I try not to smile at her annoyed expression. She'll probably think I'm gloating.
She turns back to the kids and tries to calm them down, but she can't even get a word in, edgewise. Even her co-coach is having some trouble calming them down, but at least he doesn't seem surprised at all, by this turn of events. Mia told me that while he agreed to give it a chance, he also warned her that the kids wouldn't like it.
