Playing the Game (The Renegades) (Volume 3) by Melody Heck Gatto

that’s what Paige needed to
convey to the cyber world. It should’ve been easy; he was just
defending himself. But all the public saw was that the cops were
called. When in fact they were called to protect Tyler, not because
of Tyler.
    She did her best to explain that. Her fingers did the
talking, flying up and down the keyboard, writing a press release
for Coach to give later in the day, and stopping all rumors on
social media.
    Melanie stopped by her office first thing, not her
usually bubbly self. Her face looked droopy and tired and there was
no hop in her step.
    “ Hey, good morning. You
okay?”
    Melanie pushed her hair out of her face and managed a
half smile. “Yes, I’m fine. Have you taken care of the Tyler
situation?”
    “ Yes. I just emailed Coach Walker
his copy for the press conference later this morning. Is there
anything else I can help out with?” She had never seen Melanie this
off her game before. Something wasn’t right.
    Melanie nodded. “Just glance through the media
requests for the presser, and only approve the usual folks. I’ve
set up a meeting with Tyler this morning to get his take on things
and see what I can do to help him stay out of this kind of trouble.
He’s giving himself a bad name and it needs to stop. Unfortunately
our job is to try to get him to understand that.”
    Melanie pulled her buzzing cell phone from her pocket
and glanced at the screen with a hard sigh. “Excuse me Paige, I
have to take this. I’ll talk to you in a bit.” She hurried out of
the office.
    A little while later, Paige jumped at a knock on her
door, almost spilling her second cup of coffee. It was Melanie,
looking more frazzled than she had before. “Paige, I need a huge
favor.” Her face was flushed and serious. “I’m so sorry, but I
can’t make the meeting with Tyler after all. I don’t have a lot of
time, but after a very long night and little sleep my day has gone
from bad to worse. My mom fell last night, and we had to take her
to the ER because she hit her head pretty bad. My husband is with
her now so I could try to handle this mess with Tyler, but he just
called and”—she took a deep breath trying to compose herself—“the
doctors say she had a stroke. I need to go.”
    “ Oh no, I’m so sorry. Don’t worry
about a thing. You go do what you need to. I’ll cancel the meeting
with Tyler and—”
    “ No.” Melanie cut Paige off. “I
need you to take the meeting with Tyler. I have family things to
handle, but this can’t wait either. Since I can’t be the one to
talk to him, it’s up to you. I trust you can handle him. Now I
don’t have time to contact him, so you’ll just need to catch him
when he comes to my office. He’ll be here about nine, and he’s
never late.”
    Paige bit her lip. “But I could just text him and
postpone until you get back?”
    “ Nonsense. You can do this, Paige.”
Melanie waved her insecurities off. “I’ll check in with you later.”
Melanie headed into the hallway.
    “ Okay,” Paige called after her
nervously, not understanding why she couldn’t just postpone the
meeting until later. “I hope your mom is okay.”
    “ Oh, she will be—I mean, thanks.”
She disappeared down the hall.
    Paige kept her door open instead of closing it like
she usually does, and sat back down at her desk. Glancing at her
watch, it was eight fifteen. She was going to need more coffee to
get through this day. How long could a meeting with Tyler really
take? Surely she’d be out of here before lunch. There was no game
tonight and the players had a day off from practice. As soon as she
finished going through the email requests for the presser today
she’d be done.
    Finishing up the last email, her mind wandered to
Tyler. The way he looked at her the other day on the ice. His eyes
held hers while he should’ve been signing his jersey and playing to
the media. She had done her best to avoid his stare, but the few
times she got sucked in she didn’t see this