Focused: A hate to love sports romance(2)

I took a deep breath and nodded. "A little."

Her scarlet red lips curled up in the slightest of smiles, something I'd come to know as the ultimate sign of amusement for Beatrice. "You probably don't struggle with people liking you, do you, Molly? I imagine it comes very easily to you."

Did it?

I suppose it was na?ve of me to think she hadn't already answered that question in her head.

"It doesn’t always come easily," I heard myself saying.

Now the edges of her smile stopped, frozen on a face that showed nary a wrinkle, despite the color of her hair. "I'm sure it's difficult to make friends. You're beautiful. Charming. Privileged. Your brother is a football legend and now a celebrated coach within these very halls. Your sister-in-law, Paige, is a former supermodel who could walk in New York Fashion Week tomorrow if she wanted to. You scored a job fresh out of college that ten-year industry veterans would kill for. Obviously, you're doing something right, Miss Ward."

The emphasis on my last name had me sitting up straight in the chair.

Like she was sitting on my shoulder, I could hear my sister-in-law's voice, the veritable devil with flaming red hair, the one who always battled for my sisters and me when someone came against us.

This bitch can go screw herself. She doesn't know you, and she sure as shit doesn't know our family, Paige whispered. My inner Paige wasn't wrong.

But on the other shoulder was my brother, Logan, the man who'd all but raised my three younger sisters and me after our mom bailed. And I knew what he'd tell me to do. Show respect. Do my job. Prove her wrong in the right way.

Inner Logan wasn't wrong either.

"I know what I must look like to you," I told Beatrice. "How my life must look. But you've only just met me, Miss Kelly. I'm a hard worker; otherwise, I wouldn't have this job, no matter what my last name is."

"We'll see," she mused.

Her attention flicked back to something on her desk, and my molars ground together at her flippant tone. She held up a file and handed it to me over the immaculate expanse of her desk. The black and red Wolves logo was stamped on the front, and I opened it up once I had it firmly in my hand. My eyes skimmed quickly over the cover page, eyebrows popping in surprise.

"Amazon?" I asked. "That's ... huge."

"It is. I got this job because I'm bringing this project with me." She sat back and watched me again. As much as I wanted to flip through the pages to learn more, I gave her my full attention.

"How can I help?"

"You told me you're good at developing relationships. That you anticipate problems and make them go away. That people feel comfortable around you. Am I remembering all those things correctly?"

I nodded slowly.

"I think you've been behind a desk for too long."

I took a deep breath, excitement tingling along the edge of my fingers where I gripped the manila. "Where would you like to move me?"

Beatrice pointed at the folder. "All of that is laid out on page two. I'm offering you a huge chance to back those words up, Miss Ward, but I'm giving you twenty-fours to give me an answer."

My eyes scanned quickly, but when I opened my mouth, she interrupted.

"No, I mean, I don't want to hear a yes or a no for at least one day. If you say yes to this, this is your one chance to prove to me that you're not just here because of your last name. Got it?"

Carefully, I forced my immediate acceptance down. "I understand."

Her eyes held mine unflinchingly. "This is a big deal. Working with a company like Amazon opens doors that don't get opened often, Molly. That job description includes a lot of fine print that you'd do well to read through, which is why I want you to take your time."

Returning my gaze to the papers in my hand, I saw a lot of familiar jargon. But there were new phrases as well.

No fraternization.

Morality clause.

My attention went back to her. "I didn’t think we had a no-fraternization policy in the Wolves handbook."

"We don't," she answered dryly, "but this one does. I insist on it for anyone who’s assigned to something of this caliber and reports to me. I’ve seen people’s careers ruined for a lot less, which is why I take this so seriously." Beatrice held up a hand. "It's for your protection too, if you agree."

"Got it."

She searched my face. "Only say yes if you know, unequivocally, that you can do this job. I don’t believe in the three-strike rule, Molly. In life, we get one chance to impress people, and rarely do we get another."

An hour and a half later, I pulled into Logan and Paige's driveway, mind chugging like a freight train. It hadn't stopped since the moment I flipped over to the second page.

I was the first one to arrive for family dinner, which we gathered for every Tuesday night without fail. We held them on Tuesdays because during the season, it was my brother's day "off," if you could call it that. As the defensive coordinator for the Wolves, he still worked what seemed like a thousand hours a week during the season, but it was the one day a week he could get home before six thirty for all of us to eat together.

Before I walked into the house—the same one I lived in from the age of fourteen until I'd officially moved out after college—I took a second to calm my racing nerves.