Hannah sighed. That ‘bad boy’s name’ was precisely what needed to be dismantled. Sure, a piece like this might result in lower engagement than the clickbait stuff, but it would demonstrate that Ward had matured. And bolstered by his newfound social media attention, something like this would surely help counter all the accumulated stories about his affairs and the drinking and brawling. A tall order, but the only thing Hannah could do was give it her best shot – and see where it went.

Emailing Tom the piece, plus an accompanying candid shot of Ward taken that day at the shelter which she’d kept on file for such an opportunity, she mentally crossed her fingers, hoping for lots more eyeballs of the forgiving kind this time. And couldn’t help but smile at the photo, one that she herself had snapped of him unawares.

This would show the world a very different side to Ward McKenzie for sure.

Later, she exited her office and hailed a cab, heading back to Courtney’s apartment, her mind swirling with various other ideas for the hockey player’s rehabilitation strategy. As always, once her brain found an opening, the ideas kept on coming.

Zipping upwards in the elevator to the penthouse floor, she tried his phone again – but the result was the same, voicemail.

My personal life is off-limits.

Could there be a significant other in his life that Hannah wasn’t aware of? Like the woman who shot that video. Well, if there was, she needed to know about it. For one thing, romance could provide even more positive press fodder and if she arranged some pap shots of him doing more wholesome couple activities, it would go a long way toward flipping the script on the womaniser image.

Strange though, once he’d let his guard down Hannah wasn’t quite convinced that Ward truly was a philanderer either. Unfortunately, she’d had enough experience with narcissistic males to recognize one when she saw it, and that element of his image never really rang true. Hence her confusion about the two very different sides to him, the hard man image he’d so carefully curated, or the more recent vulnerable guy who made her feel almost protective of him.

Was that it? Hannah wondered. Was what she’d been feeling around him more to do with protective instinct than anything more … problematic? Because she would never in a million years be attracted to such a blatant womaniser.

Come to think of it though, any of the women with whom Ward had been associated previously had shown up readily in the media – which indicated that a lot of those dalliances were perhaps set up, showmances even. She wasn’t sure, but it was possible that he himself might have been responsible for building up that love ’em and leave ’em narrative. Because the more time she spent with him, the more convinced Hannah became that he was anything but a playboy.