Great, the attitude again.
“I already told you, I have no idea. Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.”
He narrows his eyes at me, his mouth pursing shut.
Fuck this. I’m not going to keep playing this game with him.
“Look, are you accusing me of something?” I say sharply, my brows knitting.
“No, I’m not.” He sits back in the big leather chair. “I just find it interesting.”
“Interesting. You find it interesting.”
“You did sort of come out of nowhere.”
“This came out of nowhere,” I say icily. “You’re acting as though it wasn’t a surprise to me to suddenly find out I owned half a football team from a man I’ve never met before.”
His piercing gaze holds mine. “So you just got a call out of the blue and boom, you own half of the Rattlesnakes.”
I spread my arms. “Yep.”
“Really.”
“Look are we going to be adults about this or are you going to spend the next thirty days being an asshole?”
Landon barks out a laugh as he eases back in his chair. His eyes never leave mine.
“Here’s the deal, Ms. Roth.”
“Serena works just fine.”
He pauses, his lips going tight as if mulling it over, his hands steeling in front of them.
“Fine, Serena.” His eyes flash green flame at me.
“I do rules. I do plans.”
He leans forward.
“You aren’t in those plans.”
I smile thinly, holding those eyes of his for another second before I sigh.
“Well, Mr. Reece,” I stand suddenly, shouldering my bag.
“Landon works-”
“I don’t care.”
His brow perks at the sharpness in my words, and for a second, I almost think I see a grin in the corners of his lips.
“Well, Landon, whether you like it or not, it sort of looks like I’m in those plans now, now doesn’t it.”
His eyes narrow, and I smile.
“How’s that work for your rules?”
I flash another smile before I turn and stride across his office. I pause at the door and turn back to him.
“When you’re ready to stop acting like a child, we can move forward with actually running this team instead of throwing sand at each other, okay?”
There’s that almost hint of a smile again, but then it’s gone.
“I’ll be in touch. Close the door on the way out, please.”
I leave the door wide open when I turn and stride towards the elevators.
Chapter Six
Serena
“Well holy shit.”
London stares at me in shock over the counter in my kitchen. This was something I had to do in person, not over the phone from Denver.
“Sam Horn,” she says incredulously.
“Yeah.” I raise my brows as I shove the cork back into the top of the wine bottle and put it back onto the marble countertop. “Sam freaking Horn.”
London bites her lip as she arches a brow at me. “Who you know…”
I groan, slumping onto counter.
“I have no fucking idea! We’ve been over this!” I slump against one propped up arm while I bring the giant glass of wine I’ve just poured for myself to my lips and take a huge sip.
“This is bad prank, right? I’m being pranked for some stupid new T.V. show, right?”
London makes a face. “Well, it wasn’t a Nigerian Prince, at least.”
I snort a laugh before I remember that I’m freaking out and drop my face back to my hands.
“This means you’re leaving, doesn’t it.”
I look up somberly, not ready to answer that question.
London smiles wryly. “It does, I know.”
“London-”
“Hey, it’s okay,” she says, reaching across the counter and grabbing my hand.
“Look, I know it’s not like you’ve got a choice or anything. I get it.”
“This sucks,” I mope, giving my best friend’s hand a squeeze. “This seriously sucks.”
“Oh, yeah,” she laughs, rolling her eyes. “And exactly how many gazillion dollars are you worth now?”
I snort.
“Zero. I am worth zero gazillions. Actually, between my credit card debt and my student loans, I’m worth negative gazillions.”
London grins. “Well, you will be worth all the money.”
“Not if they don’t okay this whole thing.” I sigh before taking another big slug of Chardonnay. “If the Rattlesnakes board vetoes this, my ‘voter shares’ are worth diddly.”
London makes a face as she nods and looks down.
“I can’t believe you’re going to the Rattlesnakes.”
“I know,” I grumble. “Your dad is going to lose it.”