Page 112 of Brooklynaire

The click of the door closing behind him seems to echo in the silence thatfollows.

Georgia blinks. “Coach Worthington has some comments about the game,” she sayscrisply.

My head is spinning. The captain of the Dallas team is the same guy with whom Julietcheated?

I pat all the pockets in my shoulder bag until I realize Heidi Jo stole my phone. “Phone!” I hiss. But she doesn’t move fast enough, so I hook an arm through hers and bodily steer her into the hallway. “I need my phone! Whip it out.” Then I spot it in her blazer pocket and help myself. I do a quick web search for Nate’s name and “Dallas” andboom. The journalist already filed her story. She was just hoping to add a moment of on-air embarrassment at Nate’sexpense.

I’m going to cut thebitch.

I wait for the story to load, turning the phone sideways to try to make the text larger. Stress has made my vision dance, and my gaze feels squinty after a longday.

“Here, let me,” my intern says. “What are we looking at?Oh,” she says suddenly. “Yuck.”

“Read it,” Idemand.

“This headline.” She makes a tsk sound with her tongue. “Scandal: Owner Nate Kattenberger’s Secret Beef with Dallas HockeyStar.”

“Fuck!” It’s the most clickbaity thing I’ve ever heard. “Nate’s not likethat!”

“Shh!” Heidi Jo hisses. “If you want to keep your thing with Nate secret you’re going to have to lower yourvoice.”

I growl but she’s right. And Nate doesn’t need any more gossip right now. “Keepreading.”

“Five years ago the billionaire owner of the Brooklyn Bruisers caught his fiancée in their bed with a professional hockey player. This week Nate has a shot at revenge as his team takes on Dallas in the Stanley Cupfinals.”

“Holy shit,” Ibreathe.

As Heidi Jo reads on, I learn that Juliet is now Mrs. Bart Palacio. She owns a chain of Dallas fitness gyms, and she married Bart back when he played for the Rangers. Now he’s captain of the Dallasteam.

“Holy. Shit,” I say again. Then I snatch my phone from my intern’s hands and skim the story again, because I just can’t believeit.

“I didn’t know Nate was once engaged!” Heidi Jo whispers. “She’spretty.”

“She is,” I sigh. “They were together from college. I never liked her.” That last thing just slipsout.

Heidi Jo snorts. “I wouldn’t either. She broke your man’sheart!”

“Shhh!” Poor Nate. His tale of woe has just been smeared across the internet. I do a web search for Juliet Palacio and the screen lights up with photos. She has a daughter—a little toddler. In the photo she’s standing with the baby on her hip beside her husband. They’re all wearing matching jerseys with his number on them, and I throw up a little in my mouth when I seeit.

“Cute kid,” Heidi Jo says. “You didn’t know his ex was married to thecaptain?”

“I didn’t know she was married at all,” I stammer. “Never looked her up before.” But now I wished I had. Standing here in the emptying corporate box, a whole lot of things are starting to make more sense tome.

Nate hates Dallas but never sayswhy.

Nate wouldn’t take that interview about why he owns a hockeyteam.

Nate asked me to sit beside him at the Dallas games. Where he knew he might see his ex. He wanted me at his side. Yet I saidno.

“Let’s go, Bec.” I look up to see Castro straightening his tie in front of me. “Beringer has a table at The Tavern. You’re coming,right?”

I push off the wall and follow him, even though my head is still milesaway.

He holds the door for Heidi Jo and me, and then Silas—the backup goalie—appears, too. “Uber, cab, orwalk?”

“Walk,” I say immediately. The Tavern isn’t very far away, and I need to clear myhead.

“Sounds good,” Silas says, and we start off down thesidewalk.