“Oh yes, Jack, in this world it is,” she replied irritably. “Anything that differs from the norm is bad. Being a woman in a leadership position is bad. Forgetting one name out of the dozens of Hawks players is bad. Having a wild phase years ago is bad and liking you is bad too. So, stop making it difficult for me. It’s hard enough not to freak out and be labeled crazy again!”
“Again?” he echoed, confused.
“Come on, didn’t you google me, Jack?” she said, annoyed.
He opened his mouth in surprise before slowly shaking his head. “No.”
She appeared to be genuinely baffled. “You haven’t read about all the crazy things I’ve done in the last ten years?”
“No,” he repeated, confused. “Should I have?”
She opened her mouth, blinked, and closed it again. “Well, I bet your teammates did, so if you wanted to, then…”
“But I don’t want to,” he said firmly. “Why should I look up information about you on the internet when I see you every day and can just ask you myself?”
She laughed and he felt her shoulders vibrating under his touch. “God,youare the crazy one here! You know that our agreement at the airport is no longer valid, right? We can find out who the other person is.”
Jack snorted and slowly let his hands fall from her shoulders before reluctantly letting go of her completely. “Sure. Because Google is the best way to find out what kind of person the other is. Honestly, Penny, if our past determines what kind of person we are today, I wouldn’t be saddled with the nameSaintbut wearing an orange jumpsuit. I thought that despite everything, we wouldn’t judge each other.”
She swallowed, and when her gaze met his this time, he felt as if he could see a sea of emotions in her eyes, so many that a bad swimmer could drown in them. Anger, hope, doubt, joy…everything. Her emotions were as contradictory as her character.
“Everyone judges, Jack,” she whispered. “Always and all the time.”
“Then let them judge,” he replied calmly. “You know who you are. They don’t.”
“Iknowwho I am?” she asked doubtfully. “That’s nonsense. I’m starting to think that nobody knows who I am.”
I know.
The words were on the tip of his tongue but never came out of his mouth. They were silly. Ridiculous, really. Incorrect. Or were they?
Penny sighed long and hard. “It doesn’t matter. Being crazy makes my life more difficult. If there weren’t so many absurd stories about me circulating on the internet, your fellow players and management might have more respect for me. But what is the situation again? Oh yes: They would only be interested in me if I were a puck or a stripper.” Despite everything, a smile threatened to engulf the last words.
“The others didn’t think that bothered you much,” he noted.
She waved it off. “God, no. To be honest, it was a little funny. I always compare myself in that way.”
“To a stripper?”
She laughed and some of the tension seemed to fall from her. “No! But thank you for that. I meant to a puck.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, haven’t you noticed? People like to push me around. And if I don’t go where they want, they keep hitting me.” Her voice was calm and cheerful, but her drawn face didn’t match. “Seriously: Everyone wants me to lie to the team and say that the transition will be easy and won’t affect you guys in the slightest. How stupid does Lyle think you are? And since when did telling the truth becomeeccentric?”
He eyed her thoughtfully. It seemed absurd that her last name was Clark, because the richest family in California had certainly been lying for several decades.
“Penny, may I ask a question?” he asked quietly. It was a question the whole team had been wondering about for a week. “Do you even want to own this team?”
For a moment, she raised her eyebrows in surprise before looking at her furry slippers and kneading the M&M’s packet in her hand. Ultimately, she said, “I want to do something right, Jack. Not be seen as a crazy failure in the eyes of my family. And I would be a fantastic owner.”
He nodded slowly. He understood that well.
“The problem is that the players don’t know me and to be honest, they won’t give me a chance,” she continued. She shifted her jaw from one side to the other before her gaze landed on his face again. “Unless, of course, one occasionally lets me know when the team is going out for a drink. Or simply invites me out in front of everyone else,” she said casually. “That would help me alot, obviously. I just wish I knew someone willing to do that…” She looked at him with hope.
Jack snorted in amusement. “So, you want a stranger to do you a favor? Or am I suddenly not a stranger when it comes to helping you?”
She frowned. “Can’t you make it a little easier for me?”
