She really needed to keep her wits about her. She refused to let Tank get the upper hand on anything. Benny had reiterated this morning that he wanted her to take the lead on everything concerning Tank. She wasn’t sure if her boss had stressed that point because he wasn’t sure she could manage the guy, or because he wanted to make sure she understood she really did have carte blanche. She hoped it was the second.
She’d been successful in her new job thus far, so she didn’t want to fail now, given this was the first time Benny had trusted her with something other than making posts on social media. McKenna had only been working with the Stingrays since June, so she knew she had a long way to go as far as proving herself, but this still felt like a good indication that Benny would be open to expanding her role within the department at some point down the road.
Tank returned after only a few minutes, dropping down on the couch next to her. “Want something to drink?”
She shook her head, holding up her tumbler of coffee. “I’m all set.”
He leaned back, resting his arm along the back of the couch. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“Community outreach, family-friendly content about your personal life, and zero scandals.”
Tank grimaced. “Sounds boring as shit.”
“Exactly.”
He’d pulled on a pair of jeans that looked new and an army-green button-down. She had no idea how he managed to make such a conservative outfit look so freaking sexy.
Concentrate, Mac. Stop looking at the hot man.
“We thought it best to let the dust settle on the video and your apology for a couple of days. The hotel’s statement this morning didn’t help.”
Tank scowled. “I told them about the bed when we were checking out, and I paid to replace it right then. I can’t help but notice they didn’t manage to mention that, or the fact that was the only thing damaged in the room.”
McKenna shrugged. “That makes for a less-interesting story, and right now, people seem determined to paint you as the bad boy. Hence, our plan. Today and tomorrow, we’re going to focus on generating wholesome, positive content about you for Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.”
“Not sure what the hell I can offer that’s wholesome,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
She drew in a deep breath, refusing to be baited. “What did you do for the holidays?”
“What, or who?” he joked.
Yep. This was going to be a long damn day. She didn’t take the bait; rather, she attempted to pin him with an annoyed look.
“You’re taking this way too seriously, Mouse.”
She narrowed her eyes. “McKenna. And you’re not taking it seriously enough.”
For a moment, she thought Tank was going to argue. But in the end, he relented. “I spent Christmas Day at Victor’s house.”
Victor Reed was a defenseman for the Stingrays, as well as a native of Baltimore. As such, each Christmas, he opened his home to players who didn’t have time to travel to their hometowns for the holidays.
“Oh,” she said. “That’s nice. I tried to get Victor to share a few pictures from the day, but he’s overly private about his personal life.” Which was putting it lightly. While most of the other Rays were happy with the publicity, Victor went the opposite direction, offering her nothing because, as he’d told her on more than one—or five hundred—occasions, his personal life was “nobody’s fucking business.”
“Yeah, he’s super private. He probably didn’t want to share any pictures because his niece, Pip, was in a lot of them. And he’s protective as fuck over that girl.”
McKenna was grateful to Tank for explaining. Victor had simply said “fuck no” to her request and walked away, which honestly had been no surprise, but, given her job, she felt like she had to keep trying. She’d learned not to take offense over Victor’s gruff nature and language very early on. Mainly because she’d gotten a few glimpses of him with young Stingrays fans, and the man was an absolute softie when it came to kids. So, she no longer jumped at his sharp tone and constant use of the F word. “That makes sense.”
Tank opened his phone. “I have a few pictures without her.” He scrolled through his photos, then showed her a shot of himself standing next to two of his teammates, Andrew Thomas and Lucas Wilson, whom everyone called Rook. They were all three holding brightly colored Nerf guns, Tank dressed in full camo and Rook wearing a beanie and protective eyewear.
“We had an epic Nerf gun battle. It was Rook’s idea.”
“That sounds awesome.”
Tank grinned. “It was, even though we got creamed. We divided up into teams. Andrew, Rook, and Vic’s sister, Vivian, were on my team. Victor, Kostya, Anatoli, and Pip were on the other.”
“It’s nice that Victor opened his home to so many of you. I’m wondering how your Nerf team lost, though. You, Rook, and Andrew are seriously competitive.”
“Victor failed to mention that Pip had gotten an Elite Blaster for Christmas.”
