“No, I don’t.” The urge to do it all tightens around me, but she’s right. Scouting isn’t my job, and it would risk me dropping the ball with the team.
I rub my jaw. “I was thinking you could do it.”
She stares at me with wary apprehension. “No.”
“You were right about Hutton and you were right about Yang-Hanson. We need a scout, Jordan.”
“I have no experience.”
“That’s not true. Maybe you didn’t play, but you grew up around hockey. You studied it in school.” She tenses, but I continue. “You have a remarkable aptitude for predicting team dynamics based on player personalities. In my eyes, that’s even better than a few years in the NHL.”
Her face is going red.
“We need you,” I tell her. “We’re hiring more scouts, but I want to wait for the right fit, and who knows how long that will take? Maybe through the summer.”
She hesitates. “We have so much at stake this season. I don’t want to screw up and everyone—” She cuts herself off. “I don’t want to cause problems.”
And everyone what? I wish I knew why she dropped out of her master’s program.
I wantherto tell me, though. I want her to trust me.
“I believe in you. I believe you’re the best person for this job. We need you, Jordan.”
She takes a deep breath, holding my eyes with fear in hers. I want to gather her up in my lap and tell her it’s going to be okay.
A problem, because I don’t feel that way with any other employee.
“Okay,” she says, swallowing.
“Okay? You’ll take the job?”
She nods and I smile with pride. She’s scared but she’s stillmoving forward, still taking risks and pushing herself out of her comfort zone.
She doesn’t even realize how courageous she is.
“Where will I be based?”
I nearly laugh. Jordan thought I was going to send her away? Absolutely not.
“We’re going to do it a little differently. You’re going to stay with the team. Watch their games, watch the other players.”
It’s an unusual approach, but my gut tells me to keep Jordan close. That she’s better with the team than away, in some barren apartment on the other side of the country, all alone.
Jordan has been alone long enough.
“Is that okay?” I ask, and she nods. “Great.” I lift my eyebrows at her. “Find me someone good.”
A wide, happy grin pulls across her mouth. It’s just a brief moment before she tamps it down, but my heart jumps in my chest.
The part of me that loves watching people rise to their potential? It vibrates. Making Jordan a scout was the right decision. Now I need to be patient.
That afternoon, I drop by my office on the way to practice, and something on my desk makes me laugh.
A box of Dunkaroos, the ones with vanilla icing and sprinkles.
CHAPTER 37
JORDAN
