Page 171 of Pucking Sweet

“I couldn’t agree more.” I lean forward in my chair. “But I’m not going to let you pull away from this—”

“I’m not gonna hurt her.”

I drop his hand and lean away with a glare. “Pulling away will fucking hurt her. And I warned you weeks ago what I would do to you if you hurt her.”

“Cole—”

He doesn’t get another word out before Poppy’s clicking heels in the hall announce her imminent arrival. She comes around the corner in her teal dress and sexy black heels. Her hair that was down is now tossed up in a ponytail. Her makeup looks smudged, like she’s been crying, and her cheeks are pink.

She looks from me to Lukas before bursting into tears. “I’m sorry,” she cries, hurrying into the room, dropping her heavy bag to the floor by the door. “Honey, I’m so sorry.” She stands on theother side of Lukas’s bed, taking his hand. Her other hand goes to his hair, brushing it back as she kisses his brow through her tears.

The asshole leans into her touch, his whole body turning like a plant seeking the sunlight.

Yeah, this is a man ready to take two big steps back.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” she says, lifting his hand and kissing that too, careful not to dislodge the pulse monitor. “I had the Finnish scouts, and the press conference, and then Rachel and—oh—Mars is going to the Olympics!”

“That’s awesome,” I say. “It’ll be fun to watch.”

Her smile falls as she glances between us. “It’s out. It’s all coming out.”

My heart skips. “What’s coming out?”

“You didn’t hear it from me, but Rachel was just suspended tonight for unethical conduct.”

I lean forward. “What?”

“Because of Compton?” Novy echoes.

She shakes her head. “No, it turns out they’ve had all the HR relationship forms signed since the beginning. And she hasn’t been treating him. No, it’s because of Ilmari.”

“His injury?” I ask.

“No, they’re together,” she says. “It all came out tonight. It was just awful. I had to be there to witness the whole thing with Vicki and the coaching staff. Rachel and Jake I knew about, but apparently Caleb has also been involved.”

“Well, we knew that,” Nov says with a shrug.

Poppy’s eyes go wide. “What?”

“Yeah, we caught them fucking at the hotel. They’ve been sneaking around for weeks.”

She sinks down onto the bed. “Seriously? Weeks? And neither of you said anything?”

I shrug. “It didn’t really seem like our business. We didn’t want them in our business either.”

“Well, hold onto your hats because she’s been seeing Mars too. And Jake and Caleb were literally caught in the closet tonight.”

“No,” Novy gasps. “Man, wejustasked the assholes to fess up, like, two days ago. Seriously?”

“And now they all wanna come out. They say they’re done hiding. Full press releases, the works. They want to get ahead of it as best they can. Rachel Price, America’s rock’n’roll princess, is in a loving, polyamorous relationship with our equipment manager, our Olympic-bound goalie, and one of our star defensemen. So, my life just got infinitely more complicated. I now get to coordinate a four-way coming out with the PR reps for Hal Freaking Price.”

“No,” Novy gasps again. “Do you get to meet him?”

“Well, y’all have a game in LA next weekend, and I’ve been asked to fly out for it.” She glances between us, her shoulders slumping a little. “Honeys, I’m sorry, but this is gonna take up a lot of my time this week. It’s gonna be a mess. My phone is already ringing—”

“Poppy, we’re not gonna stop you from doing your job,” Lukas says.

“I know, but you’re injured. You’re in the hospital.”