He nodded. "I was embarrassed."
"Embarrassed?" Was that all she was capable of? Repeating his sentences?
"I was thinking about you in a less than professional way, and you saw it. Embarrassing."
Liquid fire flooded Jenna's middle. Did he just admit that out loud? Take responsibility? "Well. Thank you for your apology."
"I think your blouse is nice." Country’s neck flushed, and Jenna's pulse quickened. How many times had he told her he loved her breasts? How they were the perfect size to fit in his palms?
"Thank you for the compliment." Jenna snatched a lemon protein bar from the top of the pile and walked toward the booth, but Country caught her arm.
"What are you doing, Jenna?"
She froze, his fingers burning against her forearm. "I'm going to help Liam deal with the aftermath of your commentary."
Country's eyes bore into her. "No, what are you doing here at this network? You always wanted to be a sportscaster, and now?—"
"Now what?" She pulled her arm free, her heart beating in her throat.
"Now you're a producer, which is incredible, by the way, but I don't see that leading to a sportscaster job. Why don't you?—"
"I’m sorry, are you judging me for my career choices?" Jenna's eyes flashed. Was he actually taking this moment to lecture her on something he knew nothing about after sitting on set for a total of eight minutes? This was so classic. Such a perfect vignette of her entire rock scrabble of a career path. “Don’t you dare try to mansplain this situation, Gentry. You made women—and likely John—thirsty on TikTok and were miraculously offered a guest slot, whereas I’ve worked my ass off at this network for three years. Before that, Globespan for seven.“
“You were at Globespan?”
Jenna ignored the question. “The day I grew a pair and suggested I fill in as a guest on HEC was the day Kessler asked me out for a drink because he didn’t know I was so hilarious.” She stepped back and dragged her finger down her decolletage, opening the collar of her shirt wide enough that he could see the top of her nude lace bra. “So. I will use whatever assets I have at my disposal. I will laugh at their shitty jokes. I will blow dry my hair even though I’d rather let it go curly. I will be available, but never quite attainable. I will be so damn good at my job that they can’t help but use me. And you, of all people, don’t get to sit here and tell me how I’ve sold out.”
Country's throat bobbed. "I—" He closed his mouth, then nodded once and walked back toward the desk.
_____
So. He was an ass. Country already knew that to some degree, but his most recent interaction with Jenna was a new low. To be fair, he typically avoided real, deep conversations with women, so he was definitely rusty. But that? That had been an old Chevy left in the cornfield since Cretchien was Prime Minister.
Country floated through the rest of their segments, switching off the part of his brain attuned to Jenna at all seconds of the day. Was she watching him in the booth? What did she think about Petrov's fight in the third period? Glen responded with conventional hockey commentary, and while it was entertaining to watch him react to Country's lack of filter, the only person he wanted to talk about the games with besides Polk was standing behind an inch of glass.
"You think that salary offer is fair? No, uh-uh. That's weak sauce. Yellow-belly." Jenna turned off the highway and stopped at the red light.
Country barked a laugh. "Yellow-belly? Do we need to have a discussion about why you're reading Tom Sawyer for a broadcasting degree?"
She tipped her nose in the air. "It's the perfect phrase for the situation."
"You think they should've offered Kettering more."
"One hundred percent. Did you see his plus-minus?"
"Wasn't as impressive as Gold's."
Jenna scoffed. "Gold's going to burn out. He's all hot gas."
"He scores goals."
"For now. Until he gets injured because he can't keep his body over his skates."
How long had it been since he'd had a discussion about hockey with someone and they'd disagreed with him wholeheartedly? They jawed about highlights at practice, but the boys mostly agreed with him. That or they didn't have the balls to get in a row with him. Considering he rarely listened, considered their opinions, or conceded, he understood why that wouldn't be an attractive proposition.
Jenna had never cared. They'd never tried to convince the other person they were wrong, they just enjoyed the sport of it. At least he did. Since they'd been together four years, he assumed she did to. Something twisted in his gut. Or maybe she didn't. Maybe she'd gotten sick of it—wanted someone who was less of an iron pole and more of a bendy straw.
When the light turned red on the camera, Country rolled through the highlights. Now that John had expressed how happy he was with Country's presence on camera, he was much more relaxed. Liam was sweating buckets, but that was beside the point. After the first period, Country watched Glen Kessler do his Coach's Commentary and mumbled his rebuttals to himself since Jenna was nowhere to be found to hear it. Not that she would've wanted to after how he'd acted.
