Page 11 of Ruthless Edge

"She still came to the rink today."

He shakes his head, but he's smiling now, actually smiling. "Go shower," he says. "She'll still be there."

“Right!”

“Unless she came here for someone else…”

He’s grinning. I’m not.

“That would be one unlucky bastard, because I’d have to, well, mess them up. I mean, badly.”

He laughs. “She’s here for you, idiot! Go get clean!”

I set a personal record getting through a shower and into clean clothes. Noah says something about my concept of hygiene on the way out. I tell him I've been clean for years, I'm very clean, I'm the cleanest person on this team, and I push through the door to the arena before he can answer.

She's still there.

I feel the relief of that more than I expect to. For a second, when I was walking through the tunnel and seeing her still sitting in the third row, notebook in her lap, pen moving, something in my chest actually loosened.

She stayed.

I take the stairs two at a time.

Emma looks up when she hears me coming, and for just a moment, less than a second, something crosses her face that isn't hostility. I don't know what it is. But it's there, and then it's gone, replaced by the composed, professional expression she's had since she walked into that conference room yesterday.

I drop into the seat beside her.

"You came," I say.

"We have eight weeks," she says, like this is obvious. "I can't afford to waste time."

"You could've texted."

"I thought this would be faster."

"It’s definitely faster."

"I know. That's why I came here."

I look at her. She's looking at the rink, and her pen is clicking absently against the edge of her notebook, and her jaw is set like she's running through something in her head.

"You came to find me," I say.

"Could you sound any more arrogant?"

“I could,” he says smoothly, “and I often do.”

“Know…”

"That's interesting is all."

"It's practical." She finally looks at me. "We have eight weeks until this gala. We need sponsorships confirmed, bachelors recruited, venue arrangements, catering, marketing materials, ticket sales, and probably fifteen things I haven't listed yet. We need to meet regularly and actually work, which means I need to know when you're available and how seriously you're going to take this."

"I'm very serious," I say.

She looks at me. "You just abandoned a drill to bang on a sheet of glass."

"That was enthusiasm."