Page 85 of Rookie Move
“It’s quarter to ten, Dad. You can take me to brunch anytime you’re ready.”
“Okay,” he said, getting up off the couch. “I’ll take all my roommates out. Where do you like to eat, Becca?”
Her roommate snickered. “Oh, I didn’t realize you meant me.”
Georgia glared.
“Right. Of course you meant me,” Becca said. “Let me just get my handbag.”
***
The next week was both wonderful and exhausting.
Georgia was still buried by work, and Leo had every player’s relentless schedule of practice and home games. The team tied Boston and beat Washington, D.C., with Leo earning a goal and two assists.
In the PR office, things hummed along. The interview with Nate and her father went live on the front of theTimessports section. “A Young Billionaire and His Young Hockey Team.” Nate seemed pleased enough with it, so Georgia was counting it as a win.
Even though it wasn’t easy for Georgia and Leo to find time together, they solved this problem by staying up late into the night. The only fly in the ointment was Georgia’s exhaustion. She wasn’t used to staying up until the wee hours with Leo to catch up on six years of lost sex and then getting up early to catch up at the office on six days of lost work.
And even when Leo slept beside her, Georgia fought to stay awake. The sound of him breathing quietly in bed beside her was precious, too. The comfort of sharing a bed with the man she loved was an entirely new sensation. She looked forward to the warmth of his sleeping form, whether they were at her place or his.
On Thursday night Silas had gone out drinking, so sheand Leo had the run of the loft. They watched about seven minutes of television on the big screen before attacking each other on the leather sofa.
Later, Georgia had set her phone alarm for an early Friday wake-up. When it went off, she was very disciplined. She only spent one or two minutes admiring the godlike body asleep in the big bed beside her before tiptoeing off to the glamorous glassed-in shower stall in Leo’s en suite bathroom. She washed and shampooed, but then the bathroom door opened and Leo appeared, naked. He stepped into the shower, then, without a word, dropped to his knees.
“Good morning,” he rumbled, before reaching up to palm her backside in two big hands.
“Good...” she got out before he leaned forward and placed an open-mouthed kiss right at the juncture of her thighs. “Unnnngh,” she said, splaying her hands out onto the tile wall for stability.
“Mmm,” Leo said, the sound vibrating right in the center of her suddenly needy body. He pressed forward, his tongue making a pass right where it counted, and she dropped a hand into his wet hair and moaned.
She hadn’t gotten to work today quite as early as she’d planned, after all. And she was still tired from their late night frolicking the night before. That’s why coffee was invented.
But even better than caffeine was the spark of possibility each day now held. Even if she rarely glimpsed Leo at work, just having him nearby filled her with excitement. Who needed skydiving when your secret boyfriend just might turn the corner in your office corridor and give a secretive wink that made you blush? And since it was Friday, and all the bullpen kids were chattering about their weekend plans, nobody expected her to be sharp as a tack anyway.
She worked late, of course, because the media invite list for their upcoming charity banquet for a Brooklyn women’s shelter was not going to organize itself. But bysix it was quitting time, thank God. She’d finished the most dire items on her to-do list. Finally. Before she left for the night she had to return a file of information on Nate’s foundation to Becca’s desk, so at least her own desk would be a clean and orderly place when she sat down there Monday.
Once again, Georgia had stayed later than any of the minion mob. As she passed the outer office, all their computer monitors were dark, except for one still displaying a screensaver of O’Doul scoring the winning goal in a game against Detroit last year.
Her Chuck Taylors made no sound in the corridor as she crossed to the C-suite. Becca was long gone—her computer dark, too. But just as Georgia set the folder on Becca’s desk, she heard Hugh Major’s voice coming from behind his closed door. And she heard him say, “The call was Vancouver. They want to talk about the rookie. Trevi.”
Georgia froze like a thief in the night. She ought to just turn and go, but there was no way she could stop herself from eavesdropping now.
There was a pause, and she assumed that Hugh was on the phone, listening to someone else talk. But then she heard her father’s voice. “Yeah? They want to show us a trade?”
Goose bumps broke out on Georgia’s neck.
“Yeah,” Hugh confirmed, and her heart seized. “Might be a shit trade, though. If they read the blogs, maybe they think you have issues with that player. They’re probably going to show us a crap deal just to see if we’ll bite.”
The next silence was lengthy.Please don’t, Georgia begged inwardly. She didn’t know if she was begging her father, the universe, or Leo himself. But Vancouver was really, really far away. She held her breath.
“Let’s see what they’ve got,” her father said. “Might be something we need.”
Georgia’s heart staggered, then fell down on the floor.
“You heading out?” Hugh asked. A shadow moved behind the frosted glass of the office door.
That unstuck Georgia from where she was frozen in place in the middle of the room. She slipped out and went back to her office alone.
