Offside (6 page)

“Yeah.” She hitched a shoulder.
“Twenty-four. Finally got my shit together.” She gave him a tight
smile. “Like I said in the meeting yesterday, Dad pulled strings to
get me this job. But…” She sank those pretty white teeth into her
bottom lip. “I’m wondering if it was a mistake.”

“Bah.” He waved a hand. “Haters are
gonna hate. I’ve learned that. The people in that meeting yesterday
were douchebags.”

She blinked. “Ah…”

“Ignore them.”

“I thought I was.”

“Yeah. You did a good job.” He
hesitated. He’d been knocked into the boards when he’d seen her
appear in that meeting, but he had to admit… “You impressed me,
when you stood up to them. And when you didn’t let them stop you.
And you impressed me with how smart you sounded.”

“You don’t think I’m
smart?”

He scowled. “That’s not what meant. I
mean, you sounded like you know what you’re doing.”

“You came to that conclusion from a
one-hour meeting?”

He tipped his head to one side. “And
from this morning’s meeting. I’m a pretty good judge of people. And
I know you’re smart. I never thought you were stupid,
Honey.”

“Oh no? I got a different impression
when you ratted me out to my dad.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Ratted
you out? What the fuck?”

“Hell yeah.” She met his gaze head on.
“That was what you did.”

His forehead tightened. “Fuck, Honey…”
He leaned forward. “You needed to smarten up.”

Her eyes flashed at him. “Proving my
point about what you thought of my intellectual
abilities.”

“Christ,” he muttered. “Wrong word
choice. You were doing stupid things. You were hanging around with
stupid people. But I never thought
you
were
stupid.”

“Whatever.” She didn’t seem to want to
accept his praise. “You were right.”

“I just never got why.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Why
what?”

“Why you were hanging around with
stupid people, doing stupid things.”

She sighed. “Long story. Took years of
therapy to understand. It doesn’t matter.”

Weirdly, he felt like it did
matter.

“Anyway, I’m not so sure I do know
what I’m doing. Last night I was ready to quit this
job.”

“What?” He gaped at her. “Just because
a few people were being dicks? You shouldn’t let them chase you
away. I mean, those are good people, I’ve met some of them before,
but they’ll get over whatever it was that was up their
asses.”

“It’s not just that.” She bent her
head. Then she sighed and looked at him again. “They only gave me
the job because of my dad. They don’t really expect me to do
anything. Except maybe sort paper clips.” She gave a short
laugh.

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“I’m pretty sure it is. They think
they know me,” she said quietly. “They’ve formed opinions about me.
They don’t think I can do the job. They probably think I’ll be more
of a liability to the foundation than a help. And they might be
right.”

Shit. He stared at her. He got what
she was saying. And there was some truth to it. “If you want to do
this job, then do it. Show them.”

Why was he encouraging her when it
meant he was going to have to see more of her?

Fuck me.
The truth was, he
wanted
to see more of her. He also found he didn’t want to
see her looking so doubtful of her own abilities.

She lifted her eyes again and met his
briefly before her gaze skittered away again. Then she asked in a
low voice, “What if I can’t?”

He studied her face, her pretty lips
pressed together, her eyes lowered once again. He gave his head a
small shake. “You said it yourself, Honey. You’ve got the
education. You’ve got experience through your field work. You’ve
got connections in L.A. You’re smart. If you’re willing to work at
it, there’s no reason in the world you can’t do it.”

He saw her throat move as she
swallowed, using her fork to move lettuce and cheese and tomatoes
around in her salad bowl, but not eating any of it. Then she lifted
her eyes and met his.

“You don’t even know me,” she said
quietly. “How can you be so sure of that?”

He wasn’t sure how to answer that. It
was true; he didn’t really know her any more. But hell. He believed
in her. He shrugged. “I don’t know. But I am.”

She nodded. “Well. Thank
you.”

*

Honey was kicking herself for
confessing all that shit to Matt, putting her insecurities and
vulnerabilities out there for him. She didn’t do that with anyone,
so why she was spilling her guts to Matt Heller she had no
idea.

She’d just moved into an apartment
that she needed to pay the next month’s rent on. She’d met Farrah
and Mia—not that they were best friends or anything, but Mia was
cute and she liked hanging out with her. And if she didn’t do well
at this job, she’d just prove everyone right—she was nothing but a
spoiled party girl. Those were all good reasons to stick it
out.

But most of all, it was Matt’s faith
in her that cut right to her core.

Because in all her life, she didn’t
think anyone had ever believed in her like that.

It made her feel weird, all squishy
and warm inside, a feeling that seemed to swell inside her. It made
her want to leap across the table into his arms. Which was
ridiculous. It also made her even more determined to go back to the
office and prove herself. To prove Matt right about her.

She was going to do it,
dammit.

She stabbed a piece of lettuce and
lifted it to her mouth.

“Tell me about you,” she said, when
she’d swallowed. “Are you happy to be back with the
Condors?”

“
I’m happy to be healthy,”
he said. “And yeah, sure, happy to be back. Last year when I was an
unrestricted free agent, I had a feeling St. Louis wasn’t going to
sign me again, or they weren’t going to offer a good enough deal if
they made an offer.” He shrugged. “I’d had a few injuries but I
felt like I had lot to contribute. My agent Alvin worked hard for
me and the deal from the Condors sounded right. I was glad to sign
with them and I felt like shit that I ended up out right at the
start of this season.”

She eyed him, her insides tightening.
“You’re okay? After…” Crap, she couldn’t even say it. It had been a
devastating injury.

“You knew about it.”

“Who didn’t?” She feigned casualness.
“The whole hockey world was worried about you.”

“Yeah. But I’m good. I feel really
good.”

You look really good.
Whoops.
She’d almost said that out loud. When he’d been talking about
keeping weight on, she’d all but drooled when she’d studied his
body. He was more muscular than he’d been at nineteen, but even
then, he’d been totally ripped. She could only imagine how good he
looked now with his clothes off.

She’d already noticed that his left
hand had no ring on it, although she was pretty sure she would’ve
known if he’d gotten married. “No wife?” she asked casually. “No
kids?”

“Nope.”

“Girlfriend?”

He grinned and leaned forward. “Nope.
I’m all yours.”

She dropped her chin and looked at him
from beneath her eyelashes. “Yeah, right.” He hadn’t wanted her
eight years ago, so there was no way he’d want her, now, after the
stupid shit she’d done. He was totally joking. But his words made
her stomach do a slow, heady roll of lust.

Matt started talking more about the
charities they’d discussed in the meeting earlier and some of her
ideas for fundraising, and she was happy to move the conversation
off personal stuff and back to business. Then she glanced at her
watch. “I should get back.”

He nodded, his burrito finished.
“Okay.”

They walked back to the Coliseum.
Honey paused at the small side door they could only access with
their security fobs. “Thanks for lunch,” she said.

“I’ll come in,” he said. “Gotta get
some things from my locker.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They passed through security then
paused. The offices were upstairs and he needed to go down to the
lower level to the dressing room. They faced each other and their
eyes met. Something stretched between them, something warm and
magnetic. Her body wanted to move toward him. She wanted to feel
him, smell him…oh god, taste him.

This was not good.

“Okay!” she said brightly. “I’ll get
back to you by the end of the week on the things we talked
about.”

He lifted a hand and gave her a smile
that crinkled up the skin around his eyes so attractively her knees
went weak. Then he turned and headed in the opposite direction to
the lower level.

She bit her lip and walked back to her
office. After dumping her purse in her drawer, she headed to
Dulcie’s desk. Dulcie was sitting there, looking at her computer,
hand on her mouse.

“Hi,” Honey said. “Do you have a few
minutes?”

Dulcie glanced at her and Honey sensed
her inner sigh. “Sure.”

Honey rolled her lips in briefly then
straightened her shoulders. “I know what the deal is here. I know I
was just hired because my dad asked Trent to hire me. I know no one
really expects me to do anything and you all have been trying to
keep me busy. I’ve bugged you with questions because I want to
learn and I want to contribute and I think I can.”

Dulcie’s eyes went wide and she sat
back a little in her chair. “You heard us talking.”

Honey didn’t bother to acknowledge
that. “I know everyone is thinking I’m a spoiled princess. I don’t
blame people for judging me on my past behavior. I did stupid
things and I admit it, and I’m trying to move on from that. I
busted my ass the last three and a half years at college to get my
degree so I
could
move on from that. I busted my ass on my
field placements, and the references I gave Trent when I started
did not lie. I did a good job for them. I wanted this job to be a
next step in my life.”

Dulcie blinked.

“I
really
wanted this job to be
a next step,” Honey continued, emotion starting to swell in her
chest and thicken her throat. She cleared her throat.

Dulcie sighed. “I’m sure we all wish
we had your problems.”

Honey’s eyes bugged, then she closed
them and nodded. “Yeah. I’ve heard that before. I’m not going to
give you a big, long, poor little rich girl sob story. I know how
lucky I am compared to a lot of kids I’ve worked with. I know I
didn’t appreciate what I had, compared to them. But there are
things you don’t know about me. And I want you to know that this
job is important to me. I’m here. I’m ready to work hard. I just
want a chance.”

She met Dulcie’s eyes, and the other
woman’s gaze slid away after a few seconds and her lips pursed. She
nodded. “I’ll talk to Trent,” she finally said.

Honey nodded too. “Thank you,
Dulcie.”

*****

The rest of her week passed much the
same. She still felt like her co-workers didn’t really expect her
to do anything, but she began to make phone calls and set up
meetings, consulting with Dulcie and Trent on various issues. She
managed to solve a problem with one of the groups involving a
scheduling mistake that had set an appearance by several of the
players at a school when they were in the middle of a road
trip.

Assistant Director Rick Tanner, and
the other two Programming Coordinators, Aaron and Celina, did not
go out of their way to help, but at least there was no overt
hostility from them. And when Dulcie learned about the scheduling
mistake and started cursing then found out Honey had already dealt
with it, she’d been taken aback. She’d muttered, “Well, good,
then.” And moved on. It wasn’t much, but it was better than
nothing.

Chapter Five

Honey’s last task of the day on Friday
was to call Matt and let him know she’d set up an appearance for
him the following week. The Condors were going to be on the road
next week and she knew he’d have time since he wasn’t travelling
with the team yet.

She called his cell phone and he
answered after two rings. “Hey,” he said, his voice deep and a
little rough. “Honey.”

She melted a little inside at how he
said her name. “Yes, it’s Honey.” She tried for a crisp tone. “I
said I’d follow up with you by the end of the week.”

“Yes, you did. And it’s nearly five
o’clock on Friday afternoon.”

“Um. Yeah.” Had she procrastinated on
making the call? Maybe just a bit. But it wasn’t as if he’d been
sitting there waiting for her call, for shit’s sake.

“Meet me for a drink,” he said. “We
can talk then.”

She scrambled for an excuse.
“Uh…”

“C’mon. It’s happy hour.”

She snorted. “For some people. People
who work in corporate nine-to-five jobs. Not hockey
players.”