Page 22 of Scoring Chance

She spun and faced me with a nervous smile. “Oh, hi, Derrek.”

I moved forward and raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

She glanced down at the garment bag hanging over her arm. “Nikolay forgot his suit for tonight, and Elena has meetings so she couldn’t bring it over.”

Seeing her again reminded me of how beautiful she was, even more so than in the dark light of the balcony. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold, and she looked a bit uneasy.

“Do you want me to grab him?”

She ran her bottom lip through her teeth, drawing my attention. “I don’t want to bother him, I just didn’t know where to put this.”

I pulled my attention away from her perfect mouth and headed into the open locker room. “You can put it in here.”

She followed behind me looking wide-eyed. “I didn’t think I was allowed in here.”

I laughed. “Maybe not while we’re all changing, but it’s fine right now.” I walked over to his locker and reached out to take the bag from her.

She offered it and looked relieved it was out of her possession. “Thanks.”

“Do you have to get back to work?”

“Yeah, this is my lunch break.”

“Wow. That’s nice of you to run back here to help him.”

She blushed, and I couldn’t help but smile to myself. I’d done that. “It’s not that big of a deal. He’s already helped me out so it was the least I could do.”

She turned to leave and something told me to stop her.

“Hey Amelia?”

She paused and met my eyes, waiting.

I hesitated. As much as I enjoyed the night talking to her, I felt vulnerable with her knowing my secrets. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

She looked confused. “About what?”

I glanced around to make sure we were still alone. “What we talked about the other night.”

Her eyebrows knit together. “That’s no one’s business.”

I was surprised. “I really appreciate that.”

She gave me a shy smile. “Of course.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you have to hurry back to work?”

She shrugged a shoulder. “Um, I have a few minutes.”

“Do you want to grab something to eat? With me?”

Her mouth dropped open just barely before she recovered. “Yeah, sure.”

It took me a second to realize she hadn’t turned me down. “Okay. Great. Let me just shower and change. I’ll be out in five.”

She nodded and backed up. “I’ll just be…,” she held her thumb out over her shoulder, “out there.”

I watched her walk out, then hurried through the fastest shower in history and pulled on my clothes before the guys began to trickle in. The last thing I wanted was for Nikolay to see Amelia and me leaving together. I might be turning a new leaf, but the Russian still scared me.