Ryker (Cold Fury Hockey 4)

There is no surprise on Alex's face and he nods thoughtfully. "Atkinson I hate because he's got a great attitude. I just don't think he's ready for this level of play. Halik I hate too...good guy but I think he's done. Amedee is poison and unreliable. If I had to pick one out of the three, it would be him."

Pretore nods, Frank scribbles on his pad, and I smile at Alex. "Thank you for your candor and for staying behind from practice today to talk to us."

"No problem," Alex says as he stands up. He hesitates a moment and then turns back to me. "Amedee...when you let him go...he's going to react badly. It's just a feeling I have. No offense, Miss Brannon, but I would suggest you have someone else in the room with you."

Icy cold prickles break out along my spine over the serious intent in Alex's voice. I nod at him with a polite but grateful smile. "Noted. Thank you."

After Alex is gone and the door closes, my father says, "Make sure Frank sits in with you on each meeting."

I cut a quick glance and smirk at my dad. He hardly ever interferes, but he's taking Alex seriously, so I put his mind at ease. "Gladly. Now, let's see who we want to acquire and whose ass we want to kiss to get it done."

--

It took us the rest of the day to go through the prospects, but we finally came to an internal agreement on who we wanted and in what order we wanted to try to get them. Frank would go back now, make contact with agents for our top picks, and start negotiations for the trades. He was more than qualified to make the deals and set up league approval.

When we're done, I congratulate everyone on a productive meeting. I was even gracious to Frank when he decided to bring up the goalie situation and hit Pretore directly. I tried and thankfully succeeded in not laughing when Pretore told Frank in no uncertain terms that he felt Ryker was the best choice for starting goalie. It became a little difficult, I'll admit, not to puff up with ego when Pretore told me he was basing that decision not only on his thirty-plus years in this league, but he was very intrigued by my statistical analysis, and thinks that with Rinne and Reimer trades, Ryker's stats will stand up much better than Max's.

I walk back toward my office and my father tags along silently. I know he wants to talk about what just went down, but he knows better than to do it until we're behind closed doors. I know my dad well...he's practically ready to burst with pride that I handled my first trade deadline.

Before I even hit my office, I am overwhelmed with a delicious floral scent.

Gardenia, I think.

When I walk into my office, sitting on the corner of my desk is a massive flower arrangement. It has to be at least three feet tall and it's filled with a variety of pastel colored flowers in pinks, purples, creams, and soft yellows. I see sprigs of gardenia and know my nose was accurate. My father has them all around his house so I know the smell well.

Turning to him, I wrap my arms around his waist and sigh. "You're like the best dad in the world. But you really shouldn't have. You had no clue if that meeting was going to turn out the way it did and then that would have been a complete waste of money."

My father squeezes me and kisses me on top of the head. Chuckling he says, "Well, you're wrong about a few things. First, I did know that meeting would go that well because my brilliant daughter was running it. And second, those flowers aren't from me."

I pull back from my dad and cock an eyebrow at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Ryker.

It has to be.

My dad releases me and gives a nod toward the flowers. "My little girl's been keeping secrets from me."

Oh, if only he knew.

I turn away from him and walk up to the massive arrangement. A card peeps out from the top with my name written on it. My father walks over and casually sits in one of my guest chairs. I take the card and walk around my desk as I open it.

It's a typed message and it's simple. Be my valentine?

I can't help but smile. I want to actually cry because this is so sweet and unexpected. I've had men give me flowers before...no biggie. But for some reason, this just feels very special, and that has everything to do with the man who sent them to me.

"Going to let me in on what the card says?" my dad asks curiously.

I slip the card back into the little envelope. I answer him truthfully. "It just says 'Be my valentine.' "

And was that a girlish giggle on the end?

I look over at my dad and he's got an eyebrow arched at me. He's never seen his daughter get goofy over something as trivial as flowers. And I don't say this often about my dad, but he'd be wrong in thinking that there is anything inconsequential about this gift. It is with deep longing and sadness that I can't just tell my dad the truth. He'd be so happy that I'm happy.

But he's too much of a realist. He would look at me with pity all the while telling me I was a fool to get involved with a player.

"So who is the man courting my daughter and why haven't I met him?" he asks.

"I don't introduce you to everyone I date, Dad."

"That's true. But I've never seen you react like that, so I'm thinking this guy is pretty special," he says with a pointed look.

"React like what?" I ask defensively, because surely I'm not that obvious.

"Like those flowers were the best thing that happened to you today, and not the fact you just approved some majorly impressive trade offers that are going to make this team even better."

Whoa. Really? He got all that by watching me?

I mean...he's dead fucking accurate in the way I'm feeling right now. These flowers...the fact that Ryker was thinking of me. The fact that he's showing me romance.

Me. Romance.

Best thing to happen to me today.

I place the card on my desk and sit in my desk chair. I level my dad with a smile, but I'm firm when I say, "This relationship is very new, and it's complicated. We're sort of like on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to our careers, and I'm not sure it's got long-term potential."

As I say those words, they hurt deeply, because while I might be evasive with my father, I am being truthful. Our careers are what stands in our way.

Brian Brannon, the one man I've loved in my entire life, stares at me thoughtfully for a moment. And when he finally chooses to speak, he almost knocks my feet clean out from underneath of me.

"Gray," he says gently. "If you have a chance at love, you should never let anything stand in your way. And I mean anything. Not even this job."

I try to swallow past the lump in my throat and accept what my father is telling me. The man who molded me and made me love this game so much. The role model I patterned myself after, because I wanted a hand in creating a championship team. My father...who has always taught me that I could be anything I wanted to be.

And now he's telling me that all of that should take a backseat to love?

Ridiculous, right?

Yet still...I can't deny that Ryker is someone I want very badly on all levels. We've only scratched the surface of what we could be together and I know the best is yet to come. Could I give all this up on the hope and promise that he could be the one I'm destined to be with? Step down as general manager. I could go back to being a scout. There'd be no conflict if I did that.

It's almost as if a split personality resides in my head. One side screaming at me to disregard these foolish notions and keep my eye on the prize. I've been waiting my whole life for this opportunity to manage a hockey team. But another part of me is screaming that isn't what's important. That matters of the heart should always take precedence, and then on top of that, I'm extremely confused that my father seems to be siding with love over business as well.

I give myself a mental shake. None of this is relevant at this moment. And I certainly don't have to make a decision right now. In fact, the only thing I need to do is put my business hat back on and get my father's feedback.

"So, how do you think it went today?" I ask my dad in a cool, measured voice. I'm making it

clear...talk of flowers and love are done for now.

My father nods in understanding, giving me an accommodating smile. He looks sad for a moment, almost as if he knows that I might make the wrong decision one day, but then he launches into how proud he is with the way I handled things in there.

After he leaves, I pull out my phone and send Ryker a text. The flowers are beautiful. And the answer is yes.

I start packing up for the day, bringing home some work for tomorrow. It's Saturday, and while I do try to relax some on the weekends, I always seem to have work with me. Besides, it's not like I have anything better to do. The man I'm crazy about has his daughters, who don't know anything about me, and really, why should they? I'm a secret, not a part of his actual life, so what's to share? It depresses me to no end that the next time I might possibly see Ryker is this coming up Tuesday when we have an away game.

The familiar text sound comes through and I look at my phone. The words cause my heartbeat to go wild with joy. Hensley has girls for weekend. Come show me how much you loved those flowers.

I grip my phone in both hands tightly, bring it to my chest, and do a mad little dance of glee right there. When it's out of my system, I quickly text back. Be there in an hour.

Chapter 21

Ryker