Page 38 of How to Puck Your Boss (L.A. Hawks Hockey #3)
Chapter Twenty-Two
B y the time Penny had showered, dressed, and mentally prepared herself for the meeting with her parents, an hour had passed and she was officially late.
Her father had sent her a formal text message ordering her to be at meeting room E at eleven o’clock sharp, where he and her mother would be waiting for her.
It was now five past, yet she found Gareth in the lobby when she stepped out of the elevator. As always, he wore a suit and appeared to be exhausted. Today, however, he also wore a grim expression. He nodded at her and Penny wrung her hands. “Have you spoken to him yet?”
Gareth shook his head. “He wanted to talk to us separately, but I refused to talk to him without you. We might have to play his game, but not by his rules.”
A sweet pull settled in her chest, and she exhaled in relief. “Thank you,” she murmured and squeezed his hand. “Well, shall we?”
“Um hm,” he muttered and headed for the hallway to her left.
His shoulders looked strangely tense, as they had been for the past few weeks.
Penny worked hard, harder than most, but no one worked as hard as Gareth.
She had started to believe over the past few weeks that he slept in the office.
At least, she had recently discovered a toothbrush on his desk.
The thought of him losing the team left a bitter taste in her mouth, but so did the thought of having to leave LA.
“It’ll be fine,” she murmured, nudging him with her shoulder.
He laughed dryly. “What? I don’t want to lose — yet somehow I don’t want to win, either.”
Yes, she understood what he meant. “He won’t make a decision today.”
“No. But eventually...” he whispered.
Penny sighed softly. Gareth was right. No matter how the competition turned out…
she was the loser. Obviously, she could stay if she stopped working for the Hawks, but what would she do then?
She had various degrees but no specific job prospects.
She had always just wanted to do something for the greater good and something with money.
She was good at investing and using it properly.
Really, as crazy as it might seem, the job with the Hawks was everything she had ever wanted.
It brought with it enough money and influence to do something meaningful — and she enjoyed it.
She was part of something, part of a huge family that stood behind her, something that she’d been lacking for the last decade.
They stopped outside meeting room E. Gareth knocked while Penny was still thinking about how they could buy time. Her brother, however, was even more impatient than her father – who called out “Come in” a second later.
A large table dominated the room but was unoccupied. Her father and mother stood in front of it and Thomas Lyle, the general manager, leaned against the wall to her right, his lips pressed into a grim line as if he didn’t want to be there anymore than she did.
“Leave the door open,” Gareth muttered. “Then I can’t scream.”
She had to laugh even though she knew he wasn’t joking. She stopped the door from clicking shut before giving her parents a forced smile.
“Hey,” she said, wrapping her arms around her chest. “Did you have a nice chat with the players about us?”
“Yes, we did. You seem nervous, Penelope,” her mother remarked, surprised.
“Oh, no, why should I be? It’s perfectly normal for your parents to spend an hour interviewing people to decide whether you’ve failed or not. Who hasn’t experienced that? A normal Tuesday morning.”
Thomas Lyle’s mouth twitched, but her mother rolled her eyes. “You’re always so dramatic, honey.”
No, she actually felt her behavior was appropriate for the situation.
“Penny, it wasn’t that bad,” her father reassured her. “We simply want to hear what Thomas thinks and then, naturally, what you have to say. Then we’ll be off.”
“Fantastic,” Gareth replied dryly, while Lyle didn’t react at all to his name.
He looked at Penny instead and finally said, “Coach Gray used Leon Alvarez as a striker during practice.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks heated up, but she tried to keep a neutral expression. “And?”
“He was a disaster.”
Her heart sank. “Oh,” she just repeated.
Lyle nodded and pushed off the wall. “But then we tried to let him play the center position…and my goodness, Alvarez is a machine. As a defender and as a striker.”
Penny’s heart skipped a beat and her mouth went dry. “Really?”
“Yes. He was almost as good as West, and that’s saying something. In a year or two, he might even be better.”
A smile spread across her face. “So, I wasn’t wrong?”
Lyle snorted. “No. Not correct, but not wrong either. You had a good instinct,” he murmured. “I should have at least considered the idea back then.”
“Well, thank you,” she said, surprised, her chest suddenly feeling so light and free that she was afraid she might lift off the ground.
“No problem. And Gareth, Miss Malborne was so impressed with how quickly you threw together a contract for the Hawks’ partnership with Blue Lemonade that was tailored to her needs that she specifically requested that she only work with you when it came to legal matters.”
Gareth said nothing.
Lyle merely nodded as if he understood before turning to her parents.
“Mr. Clark, I say this with the utmost respect, but it’s pointless to make your children fight for the job.
Everyone wants Gareth on their side in a negotiation, but he often lacks the tact to smooth things over and deal with unhappy people.
And he’s impatient with finances. Penny, on the other hand…
She can keep a clear head and thinks outside the box.
That’s useful. And she has the best memory for numbers that I know.
So, if you ask me, Mr. Clark, it would be grossly negligent of you to let only one of them work in the organization.
The two work well together, and each has their strengths. ”
Silence fell over the room and hope stirred in Penny. Considering those words had come from Lyle…
“Well,” her mother interrupted her thoughts. “It’s not your decision, is it?” Her voice was not unfriendly, but there was still a certain sharpness in it.
“No, of course not,” Lyle replied soberly. “Anyway, that’s all I have to say about it.” He nodded at them again and left the room.
“He’s right, Dad,” Gareth murmured. “We work well together.”
Her father looked thoughtfully from one to the other of them before asking, “Yes, but for how long? You’ve always been good at shining for short periods, Penelope.
It’s only after a certain amount of time that you lose sight of what’s important.
Only then do you lose interest and seek out a new adventure. ”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m not the same girl I was back then, Dad. Sure, for a time I changed my major every other month because I didn’t know what I wanted and therefore tried out everything I could. But I don’t look for adventures anymore.”
Her father smiled indulgently…which made her blood boil. She didn’t need indulgence! She needed respect.
“I’m good at the job, Dad,” she stated harshly. “Gareth is good at the job. We both are. So, stop playing this stupid game and do it the way Gareth and I always wanted to do it.”
“So, you can let him do the hard work, take the money, and then run off?” her mother asked, piqued. “I don’t think so. We’re your family, Penelope. We know you.”
She laughed soundlessly. “Honestly, Mom, right now, I feel like the Hawks are a better family than we are. They’re wonderful together.
Totally different but still a team. They accept each other for the way they are.
They’re there for each other, aren’t judgmental, and don’t try to change each other. ”
Her mother sighed. “I don’t want to change you, Penelope. I’m simply stating the facts. You’re known for fleeing the country.”
Penny’s mouth went dry, and her heart twitched painfully in her chest. “Unbelievable,” she murmured and shook her head. A bitter taste flooded her mouth, burning her tongue. “Are you seriously accusing me of leaving back then even though it was you who told me to leave?”
“What?” Gareth asked sharply, his gaze shifting between Penny and their mother.
“Penny, please don’t raise your voice,” her father said calmly. “And could we close the door? We have an audience.”
Confused, Penny turned and saw Dax in the doorway along with…Jack. Of course. Now that.
“What do you mean you left because of her?” Gareth asked angrily. “Mom? Is that true?”
“I was merely giving her a nudge in the right direction, darling,” her mother said with a sigh. “You know what she was like. What she is like. I wanted to give her a break.”
Penny laughed dryly. “You wanted to give yourself a break. From all the headlines about your crazy daughter!”
“Well, Penelope,” she said, pursing her lips, “you beheaded a rooster on a stage! And naturally, it made the papers, and obviously, everyone was talking about it and wondering what we did wrong in raising you and…I thought a little break from your life would do you good.”