“Liam Holloway, right?”
Keri passed me a clipboard. “That’s right. Here are hard copies of the player summaries I wrote for you. There’s one for each of our meetings today.”
I looked down at the bulleted information on our top left-winger, scanning the summary again although I’d already read through it on my laptop.
“You even included their stats,” I said, amused. “Keri, you’re the best. Coming here with me to help revamp this team means a lot to me.”
“It’s a challenge,” she said as we walked down the concrete hallway of the arena toward our makeshift offices. “And you know I love a challenge.”
Our offices weren’t far from the owner’s box, and I met Keri’s eyes as I reached for the tacky gold doorknob leading to my office. “Here we go,” I said.
As we entered the room, an attractive blond man stood up from the metal chair he’d been sitting on.
“Mr. Holloway?” I said, approaching him. “I’m Sidney Stahl, the new owner.”
We shook hands and I gestured to Keri. “This is Kerrigan Oliver, my director of public relations.”
Keri shook his hand and we all sat down on the rickety folding chairs positioned along one wall.
“I apologize for the state of this office,” I said to Liam. “We just arrived yesterday and we’re having furniture delivered later this week.”
He arched his brows, looking surprised. “You’re using this as your office space? I’ve never known an owner to have an office here at the arena.”
“It’ll be more convenient for us. Moving forward I’ll be very involved with the team and it will be good to be close by,” I said. “As will Keri.”
With a nod, Liam folded his arms across his chest and stared directly at me. “So, am I staying or going?” he asked. “You don’t have to sugarcoat it if I’m out. I don’t really care that much.”
His attitude caught me off guard. In my experience, minor league players were eager, hungry, and sometimes desperate. They played hard in an all-out effort to make it to the big league.
I glanced at Keri, sending a silent message for her to take the lead.
“Frankly, the fact that you say you don’t care is a problem,” she said. “You aren’t being cut, but we have some serious work to do on your image. You haven’t done a single charity event or interview since joining this team a year ago. You don’t sign autographs or interact with the fans. That’s all part of the job.”
He shrugged, looking amused. “With all due respect, I really don’t care about my image. I’m just here to play hockey.”
“Well I care about your image,” I interjected. “Your image is a reflection of this team as a whole. And ambivalence is not an image I’m interested in.”
“You want me to do interviews?” he asked, a challenge in his tone. “You want me to be honest about what went wrong after a game? You want me to say this team’s a fuckin’ mess of lazy and unskilled players? That’d make a nice headline, wouldn’t it?”
I held his gaze. Point made, but I wasn’t about to acknowledge it.
“We need you to be a team player,” Keri said.
“Well, I’m not.” He shrugged. “You might as well just cut me.”
If it had been an option, I would’ve sent him packing right then. Nothing annoyed me more than someone who took their career and their future for granted. Not to mention how much I hated childish, petulant behavior. But I’d promised Orion, and I wanted him coaching my team.
“I can give you some media training and coach you on interview skills,” Keri offered.
“And I can coach you on a thing or two in return,” he said, winking at her.
My blood heated with anger. What a chauvinist. I was about to put him in his place when Keri beat me to it.
“That’s very kind but completely unnecessary,” she said. Keri was a consummate professional. She hadn’t defended herself strongly enough, but I’d cover that later, in private.
“Mr. Holloway, participating in community events and dealing with the fans and the media are part of the expectations I have for every member of this team. We’ll offer guidance and training, and we won’t throw you in all at once. You’ll have ample opportunity to warm up to the tasks. If that doesn’t sit well with you, then you are free to leave the team at any point.”
He shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
“Let me get this straight. Are you saying you’d rather quit than play nice?” Keri’s tone was aggravated and a little bit angry.
“I said I’ll think about it.”
“Well, you’d better think fast because I’m taking you to your first charity event next week,” she said sweetly.
Liam glared at her. I got up from my chair.
“So glad we had this conversation Mr. Holloway. I’ll let you two work on this and Keri will keep me updated.” I flipped the page on my clipboard. “It was a pleasure to meet you face to face. You’re an outstanding player and an asset to this team.” Opening the door to the office I said, “Can you please send Killian Bosch up when you get back to practice?”