Playing to Win

Wedding. Must fit into my dress.”
    Savannah gave her a smile. “Just one piece?”
    “Don’t enable me. I’m resisting carbs until after the wedding. After that I’m going to devour an entire loaf of French bread. Possibly an entire bakery of bread. Poor Gavin. He might have to take me to a bakery on our wedding night.”
    Savannah laughed. “You’re a stronger woman than I am. I wouldn’t be able to do it.”
    Cole frowned. “Why can’t you have the bread?”
    “You’re such a guy. You don’t understand. My dress fits me. I mean really fits me. I have to watch everything I eat right now.”
    He shook his head. “Women.”
    “It’s only a few days,” Liz said, then turned to Savannah. “I’m dreaming of bread and pasta, though.”
    “I would be, too,” Savannah said with a sigh. Then reached for the bread. “Sorry.”
    “Bitch. I hate you. I’m going to watch you eat every bite.”
    Women were odd creatures. He wasn’t even going to try to figure that out. Instead, he ate his salad, glad to be eating something and ignorant of the female species.
    “So let’s talk media interviews,” Savannah said after they’d all filled their stomachs.
    Content after the giant hamburger he’d devoured, Cole pushed his empty plate to the side and took a drink of iced tea. “What media interviews?”
    “One of the local news stations wants to do a piece on your coming to the Traders for their ten o’clock sports cast.”
    He looked at Savannah, then shook his head. “Me and the media don’t mesh.”
    “They’re going to have to,” Liz said. “You can’t avoid PR forever just because a few guys with cameras have pissed you off in the past.”
    “This is true,” Savannah added. “The whole purpose of me working with you is to get you media ready. You’re going to have to do interviews.”
    He leaned back in the chair. “The media makes up shit about me. They’re going to go into this with preconceived notions about me. You know they’re going to bring up everything that’s happened in the past.”
    Savannah nodded. “That could be. I’ll coach you on how to handle those questions, downplay the negative and accentuate all the positive aspects of you being with the Traders this year.”
    “This doesn’t sound like a good idea.” He’d never volunteered for media interviews. Not since they started going south on him.
    “It’s necessary,” Liz said. “The sooner you get started working with the media and turning your image around, the better it will be for you.”
    “Maybe we could feed them the questions to ask.”
    Savannah shook her head. “You can’t limit the media. That will only make them suspicious and more difficult to deal with. It’s best to be an open book. The more honest you are, the less negative they’ll be.”
    Before he could object, Liz piped up with, “This is why we brought Savannah in. She’s an expert in this area.”
    He knew he was going to get ganged up on. Good thing he’d already eaten lunch because just thinking about sitting down with sports media had his stomach clenching. “Fine. When?”
    Savannah checked her phone. “In about two hours. They want it for the broadcast tonight.”
    “You set me up so I wouldn’t have time to think about it.”
    “Of course we set you up,” Liz said with a sly grin. “What kind of an agent would I be if I didn’t maneuver you into doing my bidding?”
    He turned to Savannah. “How long have you known about this?”
    She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
    “That date we had last night. Was that to mellow me out and make it more likely I’d be cooperative?”
    She frowned. “I didn’t know anything about the interview last night. Liz called me this morning about it.”
    Liz glanced from him to Savannah. “What date?”
    Savannah waved her hand. “It was nothing. An exercise.”
    “Uh-huh. Whatever. I’ll leave you two to work on the specifics of the interview. I have wedding stuff.”
    Liz kissed Savannah’s cheek and stood, glaring at Cole with her fiercest agent look. “Behave and don’t fuck this up.”
    “Yeah, yeah.”
    “I’m serious. And I need you to take this seriously.”
    “Jesus. I said I would and I will. You two are like my grandmother. Nags. Go play bride-to-be and leave me alone. I’ll be good.”
    She laughed. “See you later.”
    After Liz left, he turned to Savannah. “Okay, get me the hell ready for this inquisition.”
    She stood. “Let’s go to the