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“What story are they running?” Jared asks.

“You’re about to be on speaker,” I warn, hitting the button as I turn toward Henrietta with the phone extended. “Do you know how they’re spinning this?”

“They asked for a statement,” she explained. “If you gag me, I can’t give them one.”

“Tell them that the woman is their long time girlfriend,” Jared grunts. “They prefer to have their private life kept private. Also let them know that the story will not last for long. It’ll get pulled within hours. I hope they enjoy the notoriety they’ll receive from their little story, because I cleared my schedule just for them.”

“Who are you?” Henrietta asks with wide eyes.

“That’s above your pay grade,” Jared says coolly. He has the rich bastard personality down pat. I guess I don’t need to worry about acting like an asshole, he’ll do it for me. “My family isn’t a three ring circus, and I am including Alastair within that statement. Do your job and spin this.”

Did he…did that?!

“Yes, sir,” Henrietta says quietly.

“Take me off speaker, Alastair.”

I hold up an almost apologetic finger as I do as he says and turn back to the wall. Now that Jared has firmly taken the rein on things, I feel less out of control. I don’t want to fuck up Isla’s bubble of safety.

“I’ll handle it and let her know,” he says. “She knew this was a possibility. It’s fine.”

“Henrietta called her a puck bunny,” I grunt under my breath. “That’s not the narrative I want going around, nor is it what Isla is to us.”

“No, but we all know that people have small minds and willingly make up stories for things they don't understand. You did the right thing calling us. We’ve got it.”

Sighing I nod at the empty air as he hangs up, properly chastised. I narrowly miss getting hit with the door as Paula storms into the room, and her jaw drops as my hand raises to deflect it.

“I’m so sorry, Alastair,” she winces. Took the wind right out of her sails, huh?

“I’m getting a lot of apologies from your department today, Paula,” I murmur, walking over to a chair and sitting down. “You know what, we should get Coach for this meeting too.”

I cross my arms over my chest as I watch Paula rush out to get him, settling in to have some difficult conversations. I already spoke to my agent about trading teams, and I need to talk to Coach about it too.

I’m not going behind anyone’s back. I’m simply setting up talks for what’s possible. Coach sees the set of my jaw and sits down beside me.

“Are you ready to talk about what’s in San Diego?”

NOOR

“Dahlia’s mom isn’t very nice,” Zayn says under his breath as we walk home.

A certain photo of the guys and I went viral on an internet media site and everyone is talking about it. The story didn’t run my name, but did say I was the long time girlfriend to Alastair, Draven, and Ciaran. Jared called me to break the news, explaining that Alastair was running interference with his team.

Ciaran and Draven called me right after, saying that Alastair had texted them about it. He was in the office for hours, going over things and couldn’t call me until much later. None of this bothered me.

I completely understand that none of this is in their control, and it’s been something I’ve been cognizant of. Most of the people Zayn and I are around don’t pay attention to gossip rags, which means life hasn’t changed much in our little corner of the world. The story was pulled in four hours, though we all know that screen shots live on forever.

No, fucking Constance is my goddamned issue.

“What did she say today?” I ask, tugging my son into the park to sit on a bench. I have a feeling I’m going to have to pull out the big guns and walk him straight to the ice cream shop after this.

Constance Adams is my son’s class aide, and seems perfectly nice. Dahlia is in his class as well, and she’s a super sweet kid. The problem is, Constance apparently has this giant crush on Arran that I’m not aware of, because she’s using this news story to attempt to break us up. That’s kind of difficult since Arran is perfectly fine with me dating the three hockey players in question, but god forbid a woman fall in love with multiple people.

“Argh!!!!!” he yells, scaring the birds.

“Take your backpack off,” I murmur, placing it on the picnic table next to us. “Are you too big to come sit on my lap?”

“No,” he sighs, looking more relaxed as I pull him up to hug him. “She didn’t think I was standing behind her.”