Since I was a kid, making it into the World Hockey League was the ultimate goal. No relationship could match my first love, and after my rough childhood, I wasn't putting my heart on the line.
When Bellerive makes a successful bid to move the Califo...
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"Have you gotten him out around the island yet?" Alex asks, rocking back in the highbacked leather chair behind his expansive wooden desk.
"That's what you called me here for?" I glance between him and my father. "You said it was important." I'd been neck deep in planning my first session with Logan when I was literally summoned to the palace and accompanied by a royal bodyguard.
"Our star player's happiness is important," my father says with a scoff. "The most important thing, actually."
Just like my father to not even consider my time or my happiness. The only reason breaking up with Dalton had been acceptable to him was that I then took this job. My mother is probably still pissed that I let such a big political fish off the hook. She loves lording her advantages over other people on the island, and having a daughter married to a substantial figure would have been a coup. A tiny part of me might care at least a little about her opinion if we were still on speaking terms.
"He got here three days ago, and Tamiko said Logan's not a party guy," I say.
"Go see the sights," Alex says, gesturing around the room and then toward the window. "Show him how entertaining Bellerive can be."
"He's in training mode. I get the sense he's not going to want to just hang out with me for fun."
"You're a pretty girl, Sawyer. And single," my father says, raising his eyebrows. "Lots of ways to entertain a man."
"That's disgusting," I say, turning from him to Alex to make sure they both didn't have this expectation. "I feel ill right now. For real."
Alex gives my father an exasperated look that's at least a little reassuring. "It's a hectic playing schedule, and I don't want him to get to the end of the season and still not feel connected to the island. He was already asking for a trade. There are a few people involved in the organization who believe a trade would benefit the team. Your father and I aren't on that side of the debate. We want him here."
"Okay," I say. Whether Logan Bishop stays on the team and on the island doesn't exactly matter to me. The only thing I care about is proving to Logan that I'm capable of making him better. That's what I want out of this deal. To know I made him better. If that leads him elsewhere, that's not my problem. "I know I originally agreed to fulfill multiple roles, but I also didn't know you'd lied to him."
"We didn't lie," my father says quickly, visibly bristling.
"You told him I was a trainer."
"Physiotherapist, trainer—no difference."
"To him, there's a big difference."
"Are you able to train him?" Alex asks, cutting in.
"According to him?" I ask. "No."
"He fired you?!" My father has raised his voice, and his brow is furrowed.
"Sort of," I say. "He's agreed to keep me on a trial basis while he looks for someone else. Or, I guess he's not looking, but he has one of his "people" searching for someone else." That part of our verbal agreement rubbed me the wrong way. He was fine for my father and Alex to find him someone, probably with little guidance. If I'm not good enough, maybe he should be doing his own looking. He obviously has a very specific idea of what's acceptable to him.
"A trial basis?" My father scoffs. "What horseshit. He's not going to find anyone better than you on the island."
At least I'm pretty confident that part is true. Though, I'm still mystified how my father can make the claims he does when he's never stepped foot in my physiotherapist space.
"He's probably got his staff wooing people off island," Alex says with a grimace. "Which is a problem with our visa and immigration laws. Getting someone approved now would be difficult."
"Another reason you should be taking him out," my father says, flicking his wrist. "Entertaining him. Maybe he'll forget this trial nonsense."
"Or I could just be really good at my job," I say, "which I am." I try not to seem surprised at how confident I'm coming across. There's still someone else's voice in the back of my mind that keeps butting in with an "are you sure" every time I make a claim about my abilities.
"Doesn't solve the fact he wants off this island," my father grumbles.
"I'll work on being a good trainer. You two work on "entertaining" him."
My father opens his mouth, and Alex holds up his hand, a ghost of a smile on his face. "Ava's actually volunteered to lead the welcoming committee for the team."
"Ava?" I say, barely holding in my disbelief. "And you're considering that?"
"I'm sure she'd really throw herself into the role," Alex says.
"Throw herself at him, you mean. And every other player, married or not."
"Unlike your father, I'm not suggesting that's a good strategy. But I firmly believe, and so does my wife, that the key to Logan Bishop staying on the island is connection. Connecting with people. Connecting with places. Rory thinks he's a kid who likely craves connection, given his upbringing."
The fact that he's called Logan a kid in the same breath he references his wife, who's barely older than him, is almost laughable. However, Aurora Summerset has excellent instincts when it comes to people. She, somehow, managed to turn Alex, a man who was once an arrogant ass, into a tolerable human. I never would have thought he had it in him, and it's one hundred percent why we only ever went on one arranged date when he was seeking a wife.
"A little amateur psychoanalysis," I say, pursing my lips.
"Giving him roots is worth a shot," Alex says, splaying his hands. "You're good with people. You were excellent at working a crowd during Dalton's bid to get on the Advisory Council. I was sorry to hear you two had split. Seeing you together, I thought it was the real thing."
I swallow, and I gather my thoughts. "You never really know from the outside." Even inside the relationship, I didn't know until it all came crashing down. "But I'm not mixing business with pleasure where Logan is concerned. I'll figure out how to train him in the way he wants and needs, but I'm not his personal source of connection." I give them both a pointed look, a little proud of myself for maintaining firm boundaries.
Alex sighs. "Ava it is then."
"She is very good at throwing parties," my dad agrees. "I'll get her to put something together for tonight. At Wino Wine Bar. A little mixer. Get Bishop to go, will you?"
I run my fingers along my forehead and down my temples. "I can mention it to him."
My father gives me a satisfied nod, and when I see Alex and him exchange a glance, I sense my firm boundaries were nothing but a mirage.
Happy New Year for anyone celebrating! See you back here next week. ♥
