Page 4

FOUR

SCOUT

“ H ey, Scout, do you have five?” a voice behind me called, just as I hit the button for the elevator.

I spun around to find Ava Martinez, my most senior boss, and VP of marketing, next to Lowe Slater, her boss, and the Lions president of global media communications, standing in Ava’s office doorway.

“Big guns,” Alice hissed as she passed by me on the way back from the bathroom, letting out a low whistle at the same time. “You’re in trouble.”

“Shut up,” I hissed back, though the way my heart automatically raced had me wondering the same thing while I attempted to hurry over to them but in a way that made me seem totally casual and unpanicked.

I wracked my brains as quickly as I could to figure out what I could have done that would warrant a meeting with two of the most senior women in the company.

Was I about to get fired? I don’t think I’d done anything fireable. And no one knew about the ton of Post-its I stole last month for my roommate to use on a bachelorette she was planning. Maybe this was about Cyrus and Joey gawping over players’ butts.

Given the slightly bemused expression on both their faces, I wasn’t sure I nailed the innocent look quite as well as I hoped.

All in all, being called into her office was way out of the realm of my usual day to day.

Ava’s tight curls bounced as she turned back into her office and perched on the edge of her desk, while Lowe took a seat on the couch. I was still glued to the spot in the entrance, wondering what was going on.

I’d never been in a meeting with Lowe Slater before. Not one on one. In fact, she was so many rungs above me on the corporate ladder I’m not sure I’d ever properly spoken to her. It didn’t help that she was married to Penn Shepherd and therefore intimidated 95 percent of everyone who worked in this building.

I knew Ava slightly better, very, very slightly. She was my boss’s boss, which meant I usually only saw her once a month at the wider team meetings.

It was all the more confusing that they both looked entirely warm and welcoming.

“Come in, Scout. Take a seat.” Ava gestured toward the couch next to Lowe and the spare chair. I sensibly opted for the chair and promptly rammed my hands between my legs to stop them shaking. “We won’t keep you too long.”

“Where were you off to?” asked Lowe, brushing her hands over her jeans and almost blinding me with the giant rock on her finger as it caught the light.

“Downstairs. To the entrance. We’re setting up for some social content with the guys for when they come in today. We’re asking them who was the last person they called on their cell. We usually get some fun answers,” I blurted. “Especially as no one ever calls anymore.”

“Cute, I look forward to seeing it.”

I stared at Lowe, trying to come up with a response, better than thank you , but I couldn’t. Instead, I smiled.

I mean, obviously she must look at the social channels for the Lions, because she oversaw everything, but the idea that she saw them—that she saw my work— was kind of a reality check. Because she was married to the guy who paid my salary, and if she didn’t like it then maybe he wouldn’t like it and…

“How did the intern briefing go this week?” asked Ava, pulling me from my spiral.

I nodded with a smile, trying to disguise the surprise she’d even known it was happening.

“Not bad, thank you. They had some good ideas. I think they’ll be an asset to the team this quarter.” Assuming they can stop talking about butts. “They seem very keen to get to work each day.”

In fairness to Cyrus and Joey, they had produced some good work. Better than I expected them to. They’d totally nailed the task I’d set them to come up with content ideas for the next few weeks.

Two days ago, we’d filmed in the locker rooms as part of a before and after to assess the damage done during a game.

We’d gotten down there early before the day started and before anyone arrived. The place was spotless. Everything from towels to water bottles and snacks were all lined up, neat and tidy as usual.

That wasn’t the case when we returned after the game when everyone had left. A disaster zone would be in better shape.

Wet towels were everywhere.

Who had left all the empty cans of Diet Coke piled into a pyramid on the floor?

Who’d left their shirt and shorts on the floor next to the laundry chute?

Who’d left their shower shoes in the shower?

The video was posted yesterday, and even for the start of the season, there’d been incredible engagement. We’d had nearly three million views in twenty-four hours, and over five thousand comments. (It was widely agreed the shower shoes belonged to Ace Watson.)

“Happy to hear it. I look forward to seeing the results,” Ava replied with a smile, her eyes quickly flicking to Lowe before focusing back on me. “Keep up the good work, Scout. You have great ideas, and your work during preseason was excellent.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyway, I”—she gestured over to Lowe—“we, wanted to discuss a new opportunity with you. We’re creating an overarching Lions social brand, which includes the Jungle Kings—the Triple-A team out in White Plains. Penn Shepherd wants consistency, and we believe it’s key for audience reach and strengthening our fan base. One of the roles will be a social manager who can create a strategy for each of our channels and lead a small team, reporting to Tim Chang, the VP of comms over in White Plains. We’ve been impressed by your work over the last year with the Lions and think it would be a great step up for you. I’ll get HR to send the job description over, and the post will be announced externally next month. But we’d like you to apply.”

My brows shot up, my already clammy palms became even sweatier. I didn’t know what this meeting was about, or how it would go, but it hadn’t been this. A new job.

“Oh wow, that’s—thank you. Thank you for thinking of me. I’m honored.”

“You know the brand, you work hard, your ideas are inventive and creative. We’d be silly not to include you,” Ava replied as she stood, indicating the end of the meeting. She meant it when she said she wouldn’t keep me long.

Please don’t ask me any questions, please don’t ask me any questions.

My brain was whirring too fast to come up with answers, I only just remembered how to stand up, put one foot in front of the other, and make my way to the door.

Lowe followed close behind. “This is a great opportunity for you, Scout. I hope you don’t need to think too hard about applying.”

“No, no, ma’am,” I stuttered, certain it was the first time I’d ever heard her say my name, and before ten minutes ago I hadn’t even realized she knew who I was. “Thank you, again.”

I barely took a step out of the office when Alice rushed over. If the meeting room wasn’t made of glass, there’s no way she wouldn’t have been pressing her ear to the door. As it was, I found myself yanked back over to the elevator banks and out of sight.

“What was that about?” she asked, rapidly pressing the button for it to arrive. “You looked so nervous. Why was Lowe Slater in there?”

“Did I?”

“Yeah, you were doing that thing you do where you rub your hands together. I thought you were getting fired. Tell me you didn’t get fired. Do we have to pack up boxes?”

“I didn’t get fired.” I crossed my arms over my chest, ramming my palms into my armpits, which were still kind of nervously sweaty.

“Then why’d you look so nervous?”

“I’ve never been called in like that before,” I replied, stepping into the elevator as the doors opened, and hitting the button for the ground floor. “But they’re creating a new overarching Lions brand to include the Jungle Kings. They want me to apply for a role in it. Social manager for all the channels.”

“No way!” Alice’s eyes widened. “That’s awesome, babe. Do you want to apply?”

I shrugged. “I guess. I literally found out about it two minutes ago. Once I get the job description, I’ll check it out. I’d get more responsibility. It could be great.”

“You should totally apply,” she replied as we reached the ground floor. “When you get the paperwork, we’ll go through it. Hey, do we have plans for after the game tomorrow?”

“Don’t think so. You wanna go out?”

“Yeah, not a late one though. I’m still hungover from last week.”

I was about to reply that it was unsurprising given what she’d drunk last week, when I realized I stepped out alone. “What are you doing?”

“Going back to my desk. I only rode down with you to find out what the meeting was about.”

For the first time since I got called into Ava’s office, I laughed. “Of course you did.”

“Keep up the good work, hot stuff,” she yelled through the narrowly closing gap. “See you at lunch.”

I bit down on my grin, thankful—for once—there was no one around to hear her, and made my way out of the building to where the guys were setting up, waving to Pablo as I passed the desk.

A sharp breeze hit me as I walked outside, and I cursed myself for leaving my sweater on my chair upstairs. It looked way warmer from the windows.

“Hey, guys, what’s going on? Are we all set up?” I asked, wrapping my arms around myself. Jeez. How was it this cold in April? Last week the weather guys had sworn summer was coming early.

Cyrus glanced over from where he was positioning a small video camera and microphone on a tripod, in front of which, Joey was hopping about.

“What about now? This good?” He took four paces back. “Or here?”

“Yeah, stop, stay there.” Cyrus nodded, secured the tripod in place, and pointed behind him. “As long as everyone walks in via that door, we’ll catch it all.”

“Where’s the sign for everyone to read?” I asked.

Joey turned around and picked up a large piece of card stock I hadn’t noticed, along with a stand. “Right here.”

“Cool. Have you seen anyone arrive yet?”

He shook his head. “No, no one’s been through. And I checked with Pablo, it’s all still quiet.”

Flipping my phone over, I checked the time. “The early birds should start arriving soon. There are usually two or three who come for the gym or a steam, plus everyone who has PT scheduled. Then the rest seem to arrive all in one go.”

As I was talking, a blacked-out Range Rover drove past us, heading around to the players’ parking lot.

“Head’s up, Joey. Jupiter Reeves is always one of the first to arrive.”

“What?” His eyes shot to mine. “That was Reeves? That’s Reeves’s car?”

I nodded, and watched the boys try to contain their excitement. Joey especially was a big fan, he’d made it quite clear on his internship application that the New York Lions was his club. He came from a family of Lions diehards, and Jupiter Reeves had quickly become his number one favorite player.

While I didn’t have a relationship with baseball or New York from my family, I understood the love and affiliation you had for a team. My dad was in the armed forces, and I’d been born in the hospital on the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Originally from Texas, we supported the Longhorns, because that’s where my dad had been at school, and college football was the focus for us.

As I said in my interview, I enjoy sports, but I’m better at my job. Not being a fan of the Lions means I’ll be more objective and focused, and I’m not going to be fangirling over the players.

This was clearly not the case for Joey, who was now smoothing down his T-shirt and checking his reflection in the glass doors as Jupiter Reeves headed our way, holding the hand of his fiancée, Marnie Matthews, who also worked here.

“Dude, chill,” muttered Cyrus, who didn’t seem any more chill than Joey, given how red his face had turned.

“Good morning, Mr. Reeves,” they greeted in sync. I could almost see their heart eyes.

Jupiter grunted his response with a single head nod, attempting to power past them, but Marnie pulled him back.

“Jupiter—”

“What?” he barked.

She pointed to the board, now set up on an easel. “You need to answer the question.”

“Otherwise we can’t grant you entry,” Cyrus joked, only for his smile to die on his lips as Jupiter scowled.

“What question?”

“This one,” replied Joey, moving away from the board he was standing in front of.

Jupiter squinted at the question. “Who was the last person I called on my cell?” He glanced at Marnie and shrugged. “I dunno. You, probably.”

Marnie rolled her eyes. “Jupe, you literally just hung up on Drew.”

“Oh yes. Yeahhh. So, I did.” A very rarely seen, broad smile spread across Jupiter’s face—making it clear why underwear ads of him along Sunset Boulevard had caused fender benders and traffic jams—and he looked directly into the camera. “The last person I spoke to was my brother-in-law, Drew Crawley, to remind him he still owes me a thousand bucks, because I won our fantasy football league this year.” Jupiter peered around the camera to Joey. “You’re putting this on TikTok or whatever, right?”

Joey nodded.

“Great.” Jupiter grinned at the camera again. “And now everyone else knows, too, and you should all feel free to message him on his social channels as a reminder. Tag him in the post at Drew Crawley.”

I bit down on my smile as Marnie hid a similar expression. Drew Crawley was a legendary New York hockey player and married to Jupiter’s sister. It wasn’t the first time Jupiter had used the social channels to give Drew shit, it wouldn’t be the last. And it always got picked up by the sports press, so I didn’t care.

“Have an awesome day, guys.” Jupiter walked off, slinging his arm around Marnie and muttering, “That was fun.”

“That was amazing,” Cyrus cried as soon as Jupiter was out of earshot.

“It was. Well done. That’s the kind of stuff we need, content that keeps rolling and more people visiting the channels.”

The pair of them nodded eagerly.

“Who’d you think will be next?”

“Could be anyone,” I replied, frantically rubbing my arms again to ward off the cold, and taking one step closer to the shelter of the building. “Okay, guys, you seem set up, I’m heading inside to work. Come and find me when you’re done, then we’ll edit the footage and get it scheduled to post.”

“It’s Parker King.”

I spun back around. “What?”

“Parker King, Lux Weston, Ace Watson, and Tanner Simpson,” Joey replied, his gaze locked on something over my shoulder.

I almost didn’t want to look, but the temptation was too much. I turned 90 degrees, and sure enough, the four of them were walking toward us.

Out of nowhere, my core clenched.

I hadn’t seen Parker up close for a couple of days, not since he ran after me in the corridors on Opening Day. When we stood staring at each other, neither of us able to form a full sentence. I’d been all but glued to the spot, gazing into his bright green eyes, before Coach Chase interrupted about HR’s dating form.

I’d run back upstairs so fast it had taken me a minute to catch my breath.

Watching him now, running his fingers through still-damp hair, I was almost tempted to sprint up to HR and get the form myself.

Better relationship choices, Scout.

Walking next to the other three only emphasized the size of him. The width of him.

While shorter than the rest of the guys, he was still well over six feet. Where the others strode toward us with long legs, Parker looked powerful. Thick thighs from hours spent squatting behind the plate, strong enough to hold him in position for every game.

His tee had ridden up a couple of inches, showing off a stretch of tanned skin at the base of a hefty set of abs. I was so focused on it, that I didn’t notice Parker had paused his step, and when I finally looked up, I found him staring at me.

The clenching doubled down.

My gaze hastily shifted, only to see a wide grin spread across Ace’s face. It was the grin Jupiter had worn—dripping in trouble and mischief. Tanner nudged Parker in the ribs, wearing a similar grin. Only Lux remained expressionless, though as they got closer, I could see a faint smile twitching on his lip.

“Hi, Scout,” Tanner and Ace chorused.

“Hey.” I waved back, no doubt looking as awkward as I felt, my eyes darting everywhere but at Parker.

“Now, what have we got here?” Lux asked, staring at the board. “Who did I last speak to? Um, my girlfriend.”

“What about you, Parker?” crowed Ace, in a way that told me he already knew the answer.

“My mom.” Parker rolled his eyes and scowled at Ace. “You can shut your mouth, not like you don’t call your mom every morning too.”

“Not denying that, bro.” He rubbed his hand over Parker’s hair, only for it to be smacked away. “There’s nothing wrong with being a mama’s boy. Right, Scout?”

I shook my head, trying to figure out what was going on, because beats me. “No, I think it’s cute.”

Whatever I’d said resulted in the identical smiles of Ace, Lux, and Tanner to grow. Parker, however, pulled at his neckline, which was distinctly pinker than it had been a minute ago. Was he blushing ?

“Scout thinks you’re cute.” Ace laughed, nudging Parker hard with his shoulder. “Was there anything you wanted to say in return?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t drive in alone this morning.” He rolled his eyes and shoved Ace so hard he almost fell over, though that was more from Ace laughing.

Another gust of wind blew past us, reminding me that I’d been heading inside to the warmth. As I turned to leave, I allowed myself a glance at Parker through the reflection in the glass doors.

What I didn’t expect was to find his gaze meeting mine once more, which is where it stayed until I forced myself to look away. And suddenly I wasn’t so cold anymore.

Quite the opposite.