Offside (2 page)

Matt shifted in his chair. Hell, that
was fucking rude when Honey was talking, even if he too was
doubtful of her contributions there. Her gaze slid to them, then
back to the group at large, her voice faltering only a little. “I
also have some ideas for some fundraising events. It would be
awesome if we could get not just Matt, but some of the other
players to attend to raise the profile of the events. I think I
have some connections that would be very valuable and help in our
fundraising efforts.”

“No doubt,” someone at the table
muttered.

Matt watched as hot color flooded
Honey’s cheeks. With a jerky movement she tucked that same strand
of hair behind her ear again then resumed turning the pen over and
over in her fingers. Still she smiled. But yeah, she’d overheard
that comment.

“Honey,” the guy who’d been whispering
drawled. Who the hell was he? Oh yeah, Aaron Bukowski, Programming
Director. “What qualifications do you have for this
job?”

The question everyone was thinking,
including Matt.

Honey stared back at Aaron and
blinked. Then she lifted her chin and said, “I graduated from
Berkeley with a BA in Social Welfare. I did field work with Golden
Gate Children’s Hospital, the Boys and Girls Club, and Bay View
Middle School. My education combined with my field work and my
personal experience and connections should be a valuable asset to
the foundation.”

Whoa. Matt leaned back in his chair.
Then he gave his head a shake. Was this really Honey
Holbrook?

A degree in social welfare. So that’s
what she’d been doing for the last few years. Huh. That was a bit
of a shocker.

“Personal experience,” a sarcastic
voice whispered somewhere. “Yeah, right.”

More color washed her face and Matt
saw her knuckles go white gripping the pen. Her smile appeared
genuine, but he could see the tightness in it. He might’ve been the
only one at that table who could see that, though. Because he’d
seen her genuine smiles. A long time ago. But still…

When Honey really smiled, the whole
fucking world lit up.

*

Honey’s insides tightened and her
heart thudded hard in her chest. She worked to keep her face
composed and pleasant. Why had she thought she’d walk in and
everyone would be happy to have her there? Why hadn’t she
anticipated that her past was going to come back to bite her on the
ass?

And that totally included Matt Heller.
She had in no way anticipated seeing him there this morning. Or
working on a project with him.

She ignored the whispers and snide
comments she couldn’t help but overhear and continued talking about
her fundraising ideas and the list of charities she was going to be
checking out to see if they’d be suitable to work with—the
Foundation had criteria, of course. She fought to keep her voice
steady and a smile on her lips.

“Honey,” Trent said with a patronizing
smile. “Don’t worry about jumping into things yet. You can just
take your time learning the ropes here.”

She paused. Was she making a fool of
herself?

“I think expensive charity events for
rich people have been overdone,” Celina, another Programming
Coordinator, said dismissively. “We’ve been doing them for a while
now. The Sweet Affair gala has been dying the last few
years.”

Honey lifted her chin. “That may be,
but the reality is, this is Los Angeles, and there’s a lot of
wealth to be tapped into. I think I can tap into some connections
and hopefully renew interest in the event. But there are other
events we can discuss as well. There are ways we can raise money
and at the same time raise the profile of the team and the sport of
hockey.”

“Working for Daddy,” someone
whispered. At least she was pretty sure that’s what she’d
heard.

She directed a cool gaze to Aaron with
his hand over his mouth. “Excuse me? Did you say something, Mr.
Bukowski?”

His eyes narrowed but he dropped his
hand and gave a short laugh. “No. Not a thing.”

“Oh, I thought I heard you make a
comment about my father.”

The air in the room went very
still.

Honey pulled in air through her nose
and sat up straighter. “Perhaps we should just get that out in the
open,” she said pleasantly. “Yes, my father is Steve Holbrook. Yes,
he owns the Condors. Yes, he’s the chairman of the board of
directors of this foundation. Yes, I got this job because of him.
But I
am
qualified. And you
do
need someone to
replace Dulcie. So perhaps we should just get past that and get on
with business.”

She’d been trying to avoid looking at
Matt this entire time, but now she swept her gaze around the table.
He sat there looking as dumbfounded as everyone else, his mouth
open. Then he grinned.

She blinked.

“Great idea,” Matt said, leaning
forward with his elbows on the table. “What are you thinking about
doing with the kids’ charities?”

For a moment, all she could think
about was how freakin’ gorgeous he was. His dark shirt stretched
across big shoulders. His thick brown hair was cut short, his
square jaw shadowed with beard stubble, and his dark eyes focused
intently on her with a warm gleam in them. His smile tugged at
something inside her. Attraction.

She also felt gratitude that he’d been
the one to refocus on business after her little speech. She took a
breath and forged on. “That depends on a few things.”

These were things she was passionate
about, so it wasn’t difficult for her to lay out all her thoughts
and ideas. She tried to ignore the cool reception she was
getting.

She hadn’t really been prepared for
that and was now kicking herself. Why hadn’t she realized people
were going to look down on her? She’d been trying so hard to put
her past behind her. Now they thought “Daddy” was giving her a job,
probably just to keep her out of trouble.

Maybe she should have turned down
Dad’s offer. Taking his offer of a job and the deposit on an
apartment now seemed like a big mistake. But she’d heard stories of
graduates who couldn’t find jobs, or ended up making sandwiches at
Subway, and she’d been scared. She’d done well in school and in her
field work, but sometimes she couldn’t imagine who would actually
hire her. For real.

So here she was.

And here was Matt.

Ignoring the rude attitude from others
was hard, but ignoring Matt was…impossible.

She couldn’t do this. Despair washed
over her. She was going to have to quit this job before she’d even
got started. But she had to get through this meeting.

Finally the meeting ended. She rose
from her chair and hugged her leather folder. She forced herself to
meet Matt’s eyes as he spoke to her.

“So I guess we need to set up another
meeting. Just the two of us.”

Clearly that idea did not make him
happy. Her insides fluttered wildly.

She stepped aside so others could pass
behind her to leave the room. Trent paused next to her. “Come to my
office when you’re done here.”

“Okay.” She mustered up a smile. She’d
tell him then. She’d tell him she couldn’t do this and had to quit.
She had no idea what else she’d do, but she’d find
something.

Then it was just her and Matt left in
the boardroom.

“Um,” she said about his comment on
meeting again. That wasn’t going to happen. “Probably we should
include Dulcie until I get up to speed.”

He nodded. “When?
Tomorrow?”

“There’s no rush…”

“I know,” he said impatiently. “But
there’s no reason not to get moving. I’m not playing right now, if
you didn’t know, so I have time to do these things.”

She did know he wasn’t playing. God,
the whole world knew after the horrible hit he’d taken months ago,
even people who didn’t Google-stalk him like she might have once or
twice or sixty times over the last few years.

“Let me check with Dulcie,” she said.
“Can I give you a call…?”

“Let’s talk to her right
now.”

“Sure. Okay.” They walked out of the
boardroom and she led the way through carpeted office cubicles to
Dulcie’s at the back against a window.

They made arrangements for a meeting
the next morning, and then Matt left with a smile for Dulcie and a
hard, curious look for her.

She resisted the urge to press a hand
against her belly as she stood next to Dulcie’s desk.

She blinked a few times then turned
herself to go back to her cubicle. She had to put Matt Heller out
of her head and focus on business.

She used the ladies’ room and
freshened her lipstick, then back at her desk she logged onto her
computer to check email. She had none. She grabbed her leather
folder and a pen again, and hiked down the hall to Trent’s
office.

She gave a knock on the open door and
he looked up from his computer. “Hi, Honey. Come on in.”

She entered the room. He had a window
that overlooked Santa Clara Boulevard. A palm tree just outside
swayed gently in the midday breeze, sun gleaming off the green
fronds. “Door open or closed?” she asked, pausing.

“Open’s fine. Have a seat.” He nodded
to the round table in the corner of the office and she pulled out a
chair and sat. She opened her folder.

He joined her at the table.

“I’m sorry about this morning,” she
said, right off the hop. “I don’t want to cause problems
here.”

He sighed. “I’m sure you don’t,
Honey.”

“I really think I can
contribute.”

“Look,” Trent said. “Since we’re being
frank here, I agreed to this because your dad asked me to. I don’t
have much choice here.”

Her heart dropped to her
toes.

“I did have concerns about your
reputation and the impact that could have on the credibility of the
foundation, but on the other hand, anything that gets us attention
and hopefully puts money in our coffers to do the work we want to
do is a good thing.”

Of course he had his doubts. Who could
blame him? But she lifted her chin. “I intend to do my very best to
make sure that happens. I’m not the same person I was a few years
ago.”

He gave her what she interpreted as a
doubtful look, but he nodded. “Sure. But don’t worry about getting
involved in things right away. Take your time. Dulcie will give you
some things to look over.”

“Okay.” She nodded. “But I’m eager to
get to work.”

“Well. We’ll just see how things
go.”

She gazed back at him, resisting the
impulse to frown at his non-committal response, instead shaping her
mouth into a smile. “Sure. Great.”

She returned to her desk, and sat
there for a moment. That hadn’t gone so well. She didn’t exactly
feel like a valued member of the team. But she had so much to
contribute! Ideas! Connections!

Shit.

“Hey, Honey.” Dulcie appeared beside
her desk. Then she laughed. “That sounds funny. It sounds like I’m
calling you honey, like an endearment.”

Honey smiled. “Yeah. I
know.”

“What’s your real name? Or is that
it?”

“My real name is Honoria.” Honey
grimaced. “I thought about trying to start using it, but honestly,
that’s just a ridiculous name. So Honey it is.” She gave Dulcie a
bright smile.

“It actually suits you,” Dulcie said.
Honey spent a few seconds searching out any hidden insult in that,
but Dulcie continued, “So, Trent told me not to give you too much
work to do. He says you can spend your first day going through some
files.”

Honey blinked. “Oh. Okay,
sure.”

“Trent doesn’t want to overwhelm
you.”

He didn’t want her to actually do
anything. She’d suspected that and now she was sure of it. “I’m
here to work,” she said quietly. “They’re paying me to do a job,
and I want to do it.”

“Of course.” Dulcie nibbled her bottom
lip. “But it takes time to get to know the organization. Come on,
let’s get some coffee and get started.”

Dulcie sat Honey at her desk and gave
her some files to look at, but it only took Honey about half an
hour to go through them and she wasn’t sure what the point of that
had been, since she’d learned nothing.

She sat there for a few minutes, a
sick feeling burning inside her. So. Dad had gotten her this job,
even though they hadn’t wanted to hire her, but since they pretty
much had to, they were going to pay her to sit at a desk and look
busy.

The corners of her eyes stung and she
blinked hard.

This wasn’t what she wanted. She’d
thought this was going to be a real job, where she’d use her
education and skills, as she’d told them in the meeting. She really
was qualified. She wanted to contribute and have a feeling of
accomplishment.

She didn’t have to show the world that
she was a different person now, because she understood now that the
rest of the world didn’t matter. But it mattered to her.