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“Just be careful. If you do anything to hurt Parker—intentionally or otherwise—I think you’ll be dealing with a whole lot worse than wardrobe replacements.”
I crack a smile. “Like knee replacements? Hip replacements?”
Felix does not smile back. Instead, he nods. “You’re getting the picture.”
Then he’s gone, leaving me wondering if I should lock my door tonight. And maybe drag the chest of drawers in front of my door—just in case.
CHAPTER9
Parker
He’slike any other guy. Just another player.
Telling myself this doesn’t ease my nerves as I wait for Logan in my office. Thankfully, I can distract myself by going over his player profile, which he filled out with as many one-word answers as he could. Nothing I didn’t already know. Nothing I couldn’t have found with a quick Google search online. I think his Wikipedia page is probably more detailed than what Logan wrote.
Getting Logan to talk about himself was always like trying to pull teeth … from an angry dragon using a pair of chopsticks while wearing mittens. Guess he’s still the king of deflection. Recording my normal player profile video is not going to work. I can tell.
Maybe I need to forget doing this the normal way. Thinking outside the box has served me well in this job. The player profile doesn’t need to be a sit-down interview, even if that’s what I did with most guys. One of the conference rooms upstairs has fabulous light and has worked really well for filming.
But for as long as I’ve known him, Logan always seems most like himself with a pair of skates on his feet. So, why not film on the ice?
It’s perfect. I’m not sure why I never thought of it before. Probably because even the guys who are most introverted or who are the most closed off—hello, Nathan and Felix—gave me more in their profiles than Logan did. And because I’m still on an excited high from my genius idea, I make the mistake of answering my phone on speaker without looking at the caller ID.
“Glad you finally made time for my call.” My dad’s voice booms through my office, careening like a wrecking ball through the small space.
Is it possible to get instantaneous headaches? I think I just did.
“Dad. Hi.”
“We need to finalize details for the gala.”
I roll my eyes. Even though he can’t see me, the small scoff I hear through the phone line makes me feel like somehow heknows.
“What details?” I ask.
“The details regarding your date. I spoke with the Wagners. Aaron was incredibly disappointed, to say the least.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have told him I’d go with him without asking me first.”
“His father was also disappointed. And I don’t need to tell you how close our families are.”
Code for: how important the Wagners are to the company.
“Dad, I am not a puppet or a pawn. You can’t use me to keep business partners happy or leverage whatever it is you’re trying to leverage with the Wagners. It’s like half a step above prostitution.”
“Parker!” He sounds disgusted. Not half as disgusted as I feel whenever he does something like this.
“Dad, I will be at your birthday gala. With Logan.”
He sighs heavily. But I can almost hear the sound of him regrouping, pulling up the next plan of attack in a file labeled How to Manipulate My Daughter.
“Fine. But coming with a date doesn’t mean you can’t dance with Aaron a few times.”
“No.”
“Why not? Surely, Logan Barnes”—I bristle at the condescension in my father’s tone—“would be happy to share you.”
So many layers of gross in that sentence. Practically a whole layercakeof yuck.
