“And how is your son doing?” she asks as her eyes cut over to where he’s being held by Kate. “Is he adjusting well?”
My eyes flash a warning at her, but she just looks back at me expectantly for an answer. “My son is off-limits,” I growl, completely uncaring how this comes across. She just fucking crossed a line.
Eliza is completely unfazed, and she leans forward to look over at Kate and Ben again. “And it appears you’ve started dating again?”
“What the fuck?” I curse at her viciously, completely aware that if this is played on the news, they will be bleeping that part out.
Eliza doesn’t even flinch and actually steps past me toward Ben and Kate. I spin around and am grateful when Kate immediately turns her back on the woman, puts her hand to Ben’s head to tuck him down onto her shoulder so his face is concealed, and starts walking away.
“Ma’am,” Eliza says into her microphone as she starts to pursue Kate. “What’s your name? Are you dating Zack Grantham?”
The cameraman tries to sneak past me, but I stick my hand over the lens of the camera, grab the end of it, pull it out of his grasp, and sling it to the floor.
He starts screaming at me that it’s a seven-thousand-dollar piece of equipment, but I’ve already forgotten him. I spin, take one large stride, and grab Eliza by the elbow, halting her in her place. She stops, turns her head over her shoulder to look at me in irritation, then drops her gaze to her cameraman picking up the equipment from the ground. Over Eliza’s shoulder I see one of the assistant coaches take Kate by the shoulder and lead her down the hall and to the family lounge.
I squeeze Eliza’s elbow until her eyes come to mine. Leaning in to her, I snarl, “That was completely unprofessional and why you’ll never fucking make it in this business. Our GM is going to have words with your news station and you had better not air any of that shit about my son or that woman.”
“And just who is that woman?” she asks, like a fucking dog that won’t give up that bone.
“None of your fucking business,” I hiss at her. “You ever come after me or mine again, I will end your career, do you hear me?”
She rolls her eyes and shrugs, turning away and jerking her arm out of my hold. I start to go after her, but that’s when Coach Pretore steps in and puts both hands on my chest. “Easy, big guy. Get to the locker room, I’ll handle this.”
My eyes slide from Eliza, who is glaring at me, back to Pretore. His face is hard and I know he’s not happy about what just happened. I can’t tell if he’s pissed at me or her, but I really don’t care. Worst case, I just bought myself an overpriced camera. Best case, he’ll pull that clip from the news.
Turning away from him, I walk down the hall and bypass the locker room, heading into the family lounge. Kate is still holding Ben, and talking to Mely Bressard, the wife of our team’s captain. As I approach, Mely pats Kate’s shoulder in commiseration and shoots me a smile as she starts to walk away. “That reporter is such a bitch,” Mely says over her shoulder.
I nod at her with a grimace. “Agreed.”
My gaze goes to Ben first, who seems oblivious, his little hands gripping Kate’s shoulders as he gives me a grin. I smile at him and cut my eyes to Kate. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she says, but her face is a little pale.
“I’m really sorry about that,” I tell her quietly, resisting the absolutely stupid urge to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ear.
She gives me a very Kate-like snort. “Don’t be sorry. I wanted to punch that witch when she started asking about Ben. If I hadn’t had my arms full of the little rug rat here, I think I would have, but I figured it was best to remove him from that situation rather than duke it out with her. Plus, that wouldn’t have set a very good example for the little man.”
I blink over the look of fierceness on her face and the protectiveness in her voice, followed up by the splash of humor to relieve the tenseness of the moment. She couldn’t care less that that reporter was coming after her. She was worried only about Ben, and that causes something warm to unfurl in my chest. Now I have the insanely stupid idea to pull her in to me and kiss the fuck out of her.
Shaking my head, I take a quick step back. “Yeah…well, you handled that great. I’m going to go get a quick shower. Just hang here and then we’ll be ready to go.”
“Okey dokey,” she says with that sweet twang and then turns away from me to go sit on one of the couches. Mely starts walking back over to her, and I’m thankful that she took Kate briefly under her wing. She’s sort of the team mother hen and was an amazing support to me right after Gina died. I know that Kate and Ben are going to be fine while I go get changed.