Page 106 of Lucky Puck

She finally stops talking, and I still can’t read her mood. She’s confusing the fuck out of me so that I can’t think of what I’d planned to say to her.

“So are you? Pleased?”

“Considering I was worried I’d be out of work, I don’t hate having offers.”

I smile to myself, and some of the pressure in my chest lessens. “What are you going to do when the dust settles?”

“Be the best rep I can for Kat. I’ve been doing lots of research in the music industry, calling some veteran agents in that business and requesting lunches. So far, I’m lunchless.”

I smile again. “Not for long. I know how relentless you are.”

“Some people call it persistent. Sounds more professional, less stalkerish.”

I laugh, and it feels like my chest is cracking open to let the sunshine in, like I’ve been living in the dark for the last two days, which feel like two years.

I invite her to the meeting, giving her a rundown of the attendees.

“What’s it about?”

“I’ll explain it all there. Let’s just say I’d like you to keep an open mind. Don’t write me off as past history, Bianca. Not yet.”

“Okay,” she whispers, and it’s the first crack in her upbeat attitude I hear. Shit.

“And Bianca, thank you for sending me Heidi Lawless. Ax thanks you too.”

She laughs. “Anytime. See you there, Brody.”

I stare at the phone for a long time, mixed about how I feel, unsure about how Bianca feels. Sure, I care way too much about how she feels. In particular, about me.

The conference room at the Harborview Hotel fills one by one with my list of attendees. Heidi and Jett are seated at the head of the table, and Heidi’s assistant distributes a neat sheaf of papers to each person as they walk in and take their seats.

Sabien and Ax arrive together, and Coach Logan and Coach Nash arrive together. Jett’s PR expert arrives with an apology for not coming sooner. Martino arrives and shakes my hand before sitting at the opposite end of the table. Gary Edwin, the reporter from Bar Stool, stops in the doorway and surveys the crowd before coming into the room and taking his seat.

I look at my watch and sigh in relief when I spot Bianca, dressed in her signature out-of-style pin-striped suit with a silky pink blouse under it, and my eyes drink her in like she’s a fancy umbrella drink and going to make me very drunk on her sex appeal if I keep it up.

Stubichuk is attending via video conference, and when he calls in, Heidi puts him up on the screen.

“That’s everyone,” Heidi says after she introduces Stubby around the room.

“Thank you all for coming.”

“You didn’t need to rent a hotel conference room; you could have used the Arena’s conference⁠—”

“I wanted us to be on neutral ground.”

“Who’s the stranger in the room?” Coach Logan nods in the direction of my brand-new lawyer who’s dressed in a winter white wool dress that shows off her long, shapely legs, and I can see her using her legs as a distraction.

“This is Heidi Lawless, my attorney for handling the fallout from the so-called fake marriage caper.”

She nods in her no-nonsense way and pushes a lock of her mane of flaming red hair over her shoulder while looking over the room with her snapping green eyes.

“As you all know from the recent barrage of coverage and social media gossip on the subject, a man named Bigelow, who worked as a concierge at the hotel where the NHL All-Star team stayed last month, sold a story to the TMSZ purporting to be all about the Great Newlywed Hoax, or the fake marriage caper as others have dubbed it. His story is true in part, but it’s not the truth, and it’s not his story.

“It’s my story and Bianca’s story.” I drag in a breath and take the plunge. “I’m going to tell you my truth here and now. In spite of our confession to not being married, there’s a lot more to the story than that.”

Jett puts up a hand. “Let me interject here that Brody and I tried to buy the story from Bigelow, but he wanted his pound of flesh and his five minutes of fame, so he sold it to TMSZ for far less money than we offered.”

“Thanks, Jett. That’ll be the last interjection.” I look around the room. “I’ll start by calling out the untruths in Bigelow’s story. I didn’t steal the wedding ring. I didn’t bribe Brooks to pose as my wife for a publicity stunt, and neither did she suggest that we should pose as newlyweds for that purpose. We broke no laws or rules set by the team or the NHL. I had Heidi double-check that.