“It’s okay.” Miller winks. “There will be more,” he assures me, even though we don’t know that. We don’t talk about it, but both he and Preston are getting up there in playing age. We aren’t sure when their last season will be. Knowing this could possibly be his last All-Star appearance and I’m going to miss it makes me sad. It also makes me mad at Chase for pulling this stunt and ruining this chance.
“There better be.” I squeeze him once more before moving to Preston.
“We’re fine, Gabs. Go be your badass lawyer self and deal with the troublemaker. Tell him he’ll be running laps and on clean-up duty for at least a month.”
“I’m sure we can come up with some creative ways to punish him if we can get the charges resolved.” I nod to them both and leave the hotel suite. My phone rings again as we exit the elevator in the lobby.
“Hi, Coach,” I answer the call with one hand, wrangling my bags with the other.
“Gabby, I’m sure you’re in the know. I just wanted to call about Bennett’s arrest.” I hear an echo and look up to see Coach pacing in the lobby. Walking over to him, I say, “I have.” When he sees me, he hangs up the phone.
“We’re headed back to Nashville now.”
“Let me walk you out,” he takes my bags.
“My assistant called right as the news broke. Mark called immediately after. You were my next call after Taylor got the plane sorted.” I’m already exhausted and we haven’t even left the hotel yet.
“When do you take off?” Coach asks as we approach the attendant at the waiting car.
“Grant is sending the plane. It should meet us at the airstrip.”
“How did you manage that?” His eyebrows hit his hairline.
“Taylor.” He eyes me skeptically, like he knows there’s more to the story than even I know. Interesting.
“What do you know?” I ask him as he hands my bags off to the valet to load them into the trunk.
“He was arrested overnight and booked into Metro. His lawyer was able to get him released, but charges are currently pending, and the league isn’t happy. Neither is Grant.”
“Mark wasn’t pleased either. I haven’t talked to PR yet but will on the way to the airport.”
“They didn’t call you?” he asks, surprised.
“No. Something I will be handling once I get to the office.”
“You do that. I don’t understand how Mark runs that office sometimes. Let me know if I need to have a word with Grant. You’re the best we have. They need to treat you like it.” His affirmation that I’m good at my job means a lot. I’ve been working nonstop for this team since they brought me on four years ago. It’s hard to not get jaded when that hard work goes unnoticed.
I lean in to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Daddy Mike, but I’ve got this.”
“That you do,” he beams. “Now, see what you can do to keep my rookie out of jail. We need him this season if we’re going to make the Series. He’ll be punished, no doubt about that, but I can’t inflict my punishment with him in jail.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” I wink.
“Chase is a good kid. I’m choosing to believe this was a rogue night that ended with poor judgment.”
“I hope you’re right.” Deep down I know he is but the inklings of doubt niggles in the back of my mind. He was relentless when I met him in the bar. Reckless in the minors. Was this a one-off or is this truly who he is?
“Gab, we gotta go,” Taylor says from the backseat of the car. With a firm shake of Coach’s hand, I climb in the back with her. He closes the door behind me and we’re off to the airport.
By the time we land in Nashville a couple hours later, I’ve talked the district attorney about the charges. We’ve been acquaintances for several years through the local bar association. Since this is Chase’s first offense and it was nonviolent, they’re willing to work with us, but he’s currently looking at a felony for stealing the horse, drunk and disorderly, and public intoxication charges. Whether we can strike a deal depends on the meeting we’re about to have with team management.
“You ready for this?” Taylor asks in the elevator on the way up to the conference room. It’s down the hall from my office, so we stop to drop our bags off there, grab notepads, pens, and collect ourselves after the flight. Thankfully, flying private allowed me the opportunity to freshen up and put on a blue sheath dress instead of the loungewear I’d been wearing at the hotel. The last thing I need today is someone commenting on my unprofessional dress.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s hope they go for it.”
“They’d be stupid not to.” I’d kill for an ounce of her confidence and command of the room.
We leave my office and walk two doors down to the open conference room where everyone is waiting to start. Grant stands at the head of one end of the table. Mark, my boss and the team’s general counsel, sits at the other end of the tablewith the team’s general manager, Ben, on one side of him, and Ricardo, the dickhead, on his other side. Also in the room are Mary, the director of communications, with a few members of her team, and finally Chase and his representation on the far side of the conference table. Chase doesn’t look up from where he’s seated between his attorney, George, and his agent, Tom, when I walk in.
