Moonlighter (The Company, #1)(113)

Half the room stands up now. My neck is on fire.

“That’s what I thought,” Coach says. “Now stand up if you’ve ever taken the seat next to Bayer’s on the jet, or in the bar, because you knew that he wasn’t going to poke you about some dumbass thing you did. Or because you knew he wasn’t going to bring you drama. Stand up if you ever looked at Eric and said—that guy is solid. If I have to be trapped in an elevator, I hope it’s with him.”

Every single person in the room is on his feet, now. Including the coaches and support staff. I’m pretty sure I haven’t cried in twenty-five years. I don’t plan to start today.

But it sure is tempting.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Coach says. “Guys, Eric will be hanging up his skates for a while. But I don’t think we can get along without him. I can’t tell you how it’s going to work, or exactly what Eric will do with us going forward. But I will figure it out, because you don’t lose a man like Eric Bayer. Not without a fight. So please put your hands together for our teammate, Eric Bayer.”

The cheering, the applause, and the whistles are deafening.





Red-faced now, I slip out the back of the room as soon as I can. Coach doesn’t need me to stay for the meeting, so I go into the locker room alone to remove my skates and my personal items.

It doesn’t take long, honestly. I don’t want to linger, and I don’t need to wallow. So I’m just zipping up my gym bag when my phone buzzes with a message from Bess. How was it? Did he offer you a job?

Basically, is all I say.

At the risk of being an asshole, take a look at this.

The next thing to light up my phone is a photo—it’s me sitting with Bess at the restaurant, eating an avocado taco.

I like tacos, I tell her. So I guess you’re an asshole for making me hungry?

Nah, she replies. It’s an I-told-you-so. I told you that this photo would remind you that you have a lot going for you.

Okay, you win. She’s right. I do have a lot going for me.

Don’t take the job with Coach, she texts next.

Bess, I love you. But can I have an hour to myself before I plan my life?

Sure thing.

I shoulder my gym bag and walk out of the room, purposely not looking back as I go. I don’t know when I’ll be back. But I will be. As a coach, maybe. As a therapist? Or maybe a commentator.

Nah, not that.

I walk down the quiet hallway. Everyone is still in the meeting. But now Bess’s message has piqued my curiosity, and I text her a question.

Who do you want me to work for if it’s not Coach?

My phone rings immediately. I answer it.

“For me, dummy,” Bess says. “I’ve been toying with the idea of taking on a partner. And you’d be an amazing agent. You’re smart. You’re easy to talk to. You know the sport so well.”

And I’m speechless. An agent. Working with players and talking to management? I could do that. I’d love doing that. “You are messing with my head right now.”

“I know,” she says cheerfully. “And guess what? I’m sitting at the avocado taco restaurant right now. Think of it as our office. I just ordered the appetizers. Get down here, okay? I can feed you while I blow your mind.”

“Okay,” I say, because when a woman offers you food, you say yes.

And then I walk out of the practice facility. Into the sunshine, and into the next chapter of my life.

The End





Acknowledgments and Further Reading





Thank You!


Thank you Dr. Mark Kraus for explaining various knee surgeries! (It’s not your fault that every time you mentioned ligaments and tendons, I wanted to dry heave.) You were super helpful! And all mistakes are my own.

Thank you to Jo Pettibone and Claudia Fosca Stahl for solving my proofreading emergency! I’m so grateful and I’m so impressed with both of you. I’d say “I owe you my firstborn” except my firstborn is a teenage boy who eats a lot. So it’s better if I owe you something else instead.

Thank you to Hang Le for putting up with my last minute cover change, and with me in general! Your work always amazes me.





What’s Real and What’s Not?


Well, there’s some creepy tech in this book, and unfortunately most of it is real!

The least realistic things in this book are: 1. Handing your keys to a valet for a lunch at The Modern on East 5rd and 2. Bingley’s impressive sense of humor.

However, the hardware hack that Max describes to Alex is not a figment of my imagination! I wish it were. The potentially true story about the server hack was reported here in Bloomberg Magazine. You can draw your own conclusions. It’s a good read.

As for Max’s pork bun discount app that allowed him to read Tatum’s emails? That’s barely stretching the truth. In July 2018 it was reported in the Wall Street Journal that some app developers on a major phone platform had read thousands of user emails without their explicit permission. But their Terms of Service (that thing you click through without reading?) gave them that right. So they say.

Be safe out there! And stay tuned for more craziness from The Company!