ZANDER
I amone hundred percent sure that I’m in love with Rylee.
It’s been a week now since we got back to Colorado, a week since she’s been living with me in my apartment, and it’s been amazing. Her boss let her have the time off she requested, but she’s still been keeping busy assisting with some projects on a part-time basis because my Wildcard does not like to get bored.
She’ll have to go back to Nashville after the holidays, so I’m already figuring out dates to travel home to be with her and I plan on living with her in the off season.
When I think about building a future with her, I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself.
It’s Sunday morning and I wake up to find Rylee’s already up and in the shower. I stretch, thinking for a moment about going in to join her, but then decide to give her some privacy instead. Grabbing my phone, I scroll through it to double check my flight and hotel information for the away game tomorrow that we’re leaving for tonight. It won’t be nearly as fun as last game because Rylee and the girls are staying behind to have time to themselves.
Just as I’m opening the email with the flight information for tonight, I get a text message. Then another. Then another, and another, and another.
What the hell? Why’s my phone blowing up?
I open the first message, which is from Landon.
Landon: Who the hell did you piss off, dude?
The fuck is he talking about?
His next message has a link to an article, and it hits me that today’s the day that Rylee’s article about me was released
Stomach twisting with anxiety, I click the link to open the article and read.
Zander Caldwell is an excellent hockey player and shines on the ice, but when it comes to his personal life, things aren’t so impressive. There’s a reason he’s still a bachelor, and it’s because he can never seem to settle for one woman. A notorious playboy, he’s smooth talking and charming, but how much of that is genuine … and how much is just a facade to get what he wants?
What the hell is this?
I go to the ICON website to pull up the article directly from the source. Maybe this is a prank - a fake news thing. However, I start reading again and it’s the same as what Landon sent me.
The article is an assassination of my character. It basically calls me out for being an arrogant playboy who lies to women.
How did this happen? This couldn’t have been Rylee. She wouldn’t do something like this. What happened? Did they switch up the article without telling her? She would have warned me if she knew this was what was coming out.
Why would anyone do this to me? I don’t understand…
The shower turns off and a few moments later, Rylee comes walking out with a towel wrapped around her.
“Thank god this building has endless hot water… ” She stops when she sees me and frowns. “Zander? Are you okay?”
“Have you seen this?” I ask, getting out of bed to give her my phone.
She blinks, clearly caught off guard, and slowly reaches out for my phone.
“What is it?”
“Supposedly the article is about me.” I expect her to read it and fly into a rage. To declare that she’s going to get to the bottom of whoever did this and rain hell down on them.
She turns her gaze to the screen and starts to read, and I watch as all the color drains from her face. She shakes her head and murmurs, “No… no, this isn’t right. This isn’t the article I wrote.”
I feel a wave of relief. Thank God! I knew it. But, why isn’t she angrier?
Why are her eyes going wide and her jaw dropping?
“You didn’t write that… right?”
Her gaze jerks up to mine and she stammers, “Well… I, uh, no… not like this. I mean, I did write something… but it was private. I was just venting… it wasn’t this clean and put together?—”
