Ward exhaled and suddenly coming to a decision, he picked up the phone again and flipped it open.

Pinging out a quick text message to Bernie, he kept it brief.

OK, I’ll do as she says from now on. Doesn’t mean I’m gonna like it though.

He pressed send and then waited for his agent to respond.

A minute passed, then two, then four. No response. The churning stomach roiled again and he belched a little, tasting the alcohol from earlier.

He knew Bernie was pissed at him for yet another public mess-up. And he needed his agent to be on-side. Besides Johnny, who had no sway with the suits, Bernie was the only true advocate outside of the team he had left. The last thing Ward needed now was for Bernie (or worse, Coach Lewis too) to also start seeing him as a liability and concede to Hannah that there was no fixing him and she shouldn’t bother.

Especially when he’d finally decided to play nice.

He felt the cat stir again and approach on his left-hand side. She crawled right up onto his chest and took a seat like a monarch getting comfortable on her throne. Ward met her gaze, the cat’s amber-flecked eyes boring into his as if he were the biggest idiot on the planet.

‘Yeah? What do you want?’

She tilted her head as if confused by his apparent stupidity, then chirruped and extended a paw, swatting him across the chest.

He barked a laugh. ‘So, I’m gonna be told what to do on all fronts now, huh?’ He edged her off his chest and pulled himself up. ‘OK. I get it. You’re hungry. Let’s get you fed. Great, now I’m taking orders from a cat, too.’

Ward climbed off the couch and Pretzel followed in his wake, pleased that he was smart enough to take a hint and jump in line.

Chapter 21

HANNAH

Hannah couldn’t help but feel vindicated. Like she’d just made a strategic gambit (she had no idea of the hockey equivalent) and now Ward McKenzie was scrambling to figure out a way to rethink the defensive play he’d been relying on so far.

‘About time,’ she muttered satisfactorily, turning her attention back to the apology note she’d been writing to her neighbour. She was confident that she’d hear from the athlete again soon and that this time her errant client would approach her with his tail firmly between his legs.

Seems there was indeed no substitute for straight-talking.

Picking up her pen, Hannah reviewed what she had started to write.

Dear Ed,

Sorry about the noise earlier, but I can assure you I wasn’t having a party or anything.