Tied Together (The Cade Siblings Duology #1)

Chapter One

Charlie

“Bottom line, you’re going to get traded if you don’t make the people love you. You’re a storm cloud of grumpy and mysterious, and while that was intriguing to the public for the first few years, they’ve forgotten about you now.”

Sophie is the best agent money can buy, and trust me there’s a lot of money involved, but right now I want to wring her neck. I’m coming up on a contract year with the New York Rangers and she seems to think the only way I’ll stay with them through the end of my career is if I brush up my public image.

She isn’t wrong, I guess. I would say the state of my image right now is…nonexistent. I don’t have one. I don’t go out, I don’t have friends besides my sister and Cami, I don’t join the team for post-game bar crawls, and I don’t date. If I can stay out of the tabloids, I’m happy. There’s nothing to talk about because I do nothing. It’s easier that way.

Except now, if I want to be a part of the elite group of players in the National Hockey League who stay with the same team their entire career I need to step it up. Not being traded at some point within a player’s career is not the norm, but when I signed on with the New York Rangers in my senior year of college, I knew I had to defy the odds.

I had found a solid organization with a solid coaching team and from what I experienced, the guys weren’t bad. I wanted to get comfortable there, but not too comfortable, and do what I needed to in order to stay under the radar. Not only from the media, but from my team as well. The last time I got close with my teammates, it didn’t end well. I promised myself I would never put myself in that position ever again. If I get traded, I might get stuck with teammates like them , and that can’t happen.

So as much as I wish what Sophie was saying wasn’t true, I know it is.

“And how do you suppose I do that, Soph? I don’t like the people .” I use my hands to put quotations around the words and Sophie rolls her eyes, done with my drama.

“Charlie, we both know you aren’t this grumpy, surly, mean man that you present to the world. Underneath it all you’re just a giant teddy bear.” She reaches up and squeezes my arms. I swat her hands away. “To the world you’re just another big scary hockey player with a nice face, and we have to change that. We need to make you one of the faces of the Rangers, that way there’s no way to separate you from them. When people think of the Rangers, they think of you.”

She’s not wrong, I don’t let anyone see the softer side. I used to, but once someone takes advantage of your kindness and vulnerability and uses it against you…it’s hard to come back from that.

Sophie is one of the few people who get this version of me, this more open and lively version, and she’s earned that place in my life. When I graduated college I had lots of men in their forties and fifties wanting to work with me as my agent, but the barely five foot blonde in a kick ass pantsuit caught my attention immediately. She’s young, in her thirties, and beautiful, but that isn’t what caught my eye. The way she held herself and spoke about her craft showed confidence and maturity, plus she was a woman in a male dominated field. That in and of itself was impressive.

“I guess you’re right.”

“My two favorite words,” Sophie says with a wink. I scoff.

“So what do I do?”

“You need to start dating someone.”

Excuse me?

“ No . Dating someone? How is that the first solution you jumped to?”

“Charlie, come on.” She says the words like it’s ridiculous that she needs to explain it to me. “Love sells, I mean look at Taylor and Travis. If the media starts to see you with a girl that’s charismatic and spunky on your arm, you are sure to catch their attention. Especially because you never date. It’ll be front page news and then, once they’re hooked, you can keep showing them the softer side of you. They’ll love you.”

That is my problem. I don’t want anyone else to see the softer side of me. My soft side is reserved for a very small group of people who have earned their way there and the media is nowhere on that list.

“Sophie, I don’t think this is the best solution. Plus, you know I don’t date. I don’t even know where I’d start with trying to find someone to date.”

“Okay, so I’ll make you a few profiles on dating sites,” she says, completely ignoring my first comment. “ Honey Love apparently is doing really well right now. Their success rate is a solid thirty percent.”

“You do hear yourself, right?” She smacks my shoulder with the back of her hand. “ Honey Love ? A success rate of thirty percent?”

“Well, it’s better than Grab n’ Go ,” she scoffs.

“There’s a dating app called Grab n’ Go ?” She nods her head solemnly. “I don’t even want to know what that is referring to.”

“Don’t go to their website. You don’t want to know.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

I run my fingers through my hair and swipe my palm down my face, releasing a frustrated groan. It’s irritating that this is my current reality, but I can’t help but feel grateful. I’ve been with the Rangers for seven years now, which is really unheard of. Hockey players don’t stay in one place for long. There are only around 120 something guys that stay with the same team their whole career and I’m determined to be one of them.

Not only do I want to stay with teammates I’ve grown comfortable with and somewhat trust not to turn their backs on me, I don’t want to leave my sister. Alana and I had an interesting childhood with parents who did the bare minimum when it came to loving us. They showed their love to me far more than they did to my sister, and the more they showed me favor the more I resented them. Now, she’s the only close family I have and it’s the same for her. If I move away from the Rangers, I’d also be moving away from her.

I groan realizing that, with those things in mind, I know I need to do this. Sophie is the expert and if she thinks a girlfriend will keep me in New York, then I need to do whatever she says.

“Okay. I’ll do it.” I breathe in deeply and let it out. Sophie starts bouncing up and down on her toes and clapping. “But I’m not dating someone for real, just until I get another contract. And she’s going to know it’s for show from the start. I don’t want to loop someone into this and have them think it’s something that it’s not. I’m not doing this to get into a long term relationship and I don’t want someone expecting that.”

“Aww!” She reaches over and playfully pinches my cheeks. I pull my head back and push her hands away with a laugh. Sophie has turned into family in the seven years we’ve been working together. She’s not as close as a sister, but I’d say she’s definitely in cousin territory. “You’re such a good guy, Charlie. Some woman is going to be very lucky to fake date you.”

“Whatever. You’re just saying that because you’re my agent. You have to.”

“Not true, you’re a stellar guy. Once you let someone see every side of you and you let them all the way in, they don’t have any other choice but to love you.”

I smile at her placatingly, but she’s wrong. No one knows every side of me, and no one ever will, not even Alana. But I can smile and keep up appearances while I fake date someone. Once I get signed again everything will go back to normal.

“I’ll find someone, I don’t need to get on a dating app.”

“Have you seen the current dating scene, Charlie?” I just stare at her. She knows how long it’s been since I’ve tried to date. “Here look at this.”

She shoves her phone at me, a screenshot of a guy’s profile lighting it up. The man is in his late thirties and standing in one of the dirtiest bathrooms I’ve ever seen. There are stains all over part of the countertop and behind him the sheetrock in the wall is completely torn apart, so there is a gaping hole in the wall. The shower curtain is pulled back to reveal a grimy tiled tub and a broken shelf. The guy himself has one arm out of his shirt, leaving that side bunched up around his shoulder. He’s flexing his (imaginary) muscle, but really it just looks like he got caught in the middle of taking off his shirt.

His bio says he’s married.

“Married? What the hell?”

“I know. If men have anything, it’s the audacity. You haven’t even seen the worst of it, this was the second photo on his profile.”

She scrolls up and shows me a photo of the guy in his bedroom. His disgusting bedroom. He has Among Us! sheets on his twin sized bunk bed, let me remind you he’s in his thirties, and there’s trash everywhere. Without saying anything, Sophie reaches over and zooms in on a box sticking out from the top of the bed. A box that absolutely should have stayed in his side table drawer where no one would have ever seen it. I want to puke.

“Sophie, did this guy like you?” I ask, alarm clear in my voice. I have to cover my mouth to keep from gagging.

“Just one of many. You’re sure you don’t need any help?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Whatever you say, boss man.”

This whole thing is extremely overwhelming and makes me uncomfortable, but I don’t have a choice. I have three months to work on my public image and while I don’t want to pretend to date someone just for some bogus media stunt, I know I need to. I just need to figure out who.