Icing (Aces Hockey #1)(74)

“Hey, Amber. I could use another Ice draft.”

“You bet. Anyone else?”

She got their orders, then disappeared again while Duncan nursed his second and last beer of the night.

Now he knew why she’d been so paranoid about him driving drunk. Jesus. Her dad had been lucky he hadn’t killed himself or someone else that time he’d crashed his car into a bridge. And yet he hadn’t seemed to learn his lesson, because there’d been other incidents too.

Christ. Deke Johnson’s fall from grace had been epic. It was sad how someone with so much talent could have pissed it away like that. Pathetic. Now he was a convicted felon.

He remembered Amber saying she’d played a little soccer in high school. Ha. She was probably as talented an athlete as her father. And her mother…maybe Amber had gotten her looks from her. But no modeling career. No sports career. No, her goal in life was to make Chicago a better place to live, one neighborhood at a time.

That was her choice and he respected her for it. He wanted her to be happy. The scary thing was, she probably had a better chance of that away from him.

Fuck.

—

“Our grant money came through, so now we can offer you the position.”

Amber gripped her cellphone. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her dream of working full time for the Chicago Communities Program was coming true! “That’s wonderful.” She tried to keep the fact that she was literally jumping up and down in her living room from showing in her voice.

“It’s only a one-year term,” Naomi cautioned her. “But there’s a good chance it could become a permanent position after that. Are you still interested?”

Yes! “Yes, I am.” She kept her voice casual. A one-year term was a whole year, and that was more than she’d had from any of the other places she’d applied to. And this was the one she wanted to work at, where she’d interned, a place she knew, an organization whose mission and goals she supported. Worst case scenario, she’d have a year of experience under her belt if she had to go job searching.

They discussed salary details. Amber was able to negotiate a little higher than their first offer, but she didn’t push things too much. She knew the budget constraints nonprofits worked within. They hammered out a few other details.

“As for a start date, I know you’re just finishing your degree. When’s the soonest you could start?”

Amber double-checked her schedule, but she was pretty sure her last exam was April tenth. Her thesis presentation was the eleventh. The Monday after that was…“April fourteenth?”

“Excellent! That’s earlier than I was expecting. Welcome back, Amber. We wanted you for this position all along but didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves until the funding came through. I’ll have the written offer couriered to you tomorrow.”

“Thank you so much, I’m really excited to be joining you again.”

She ended the call and jumped up and down again, clutching her cellphone. “Yes!”

The first person she wanted to tell was Duncan. Excitement jittered through her as she tapped the screen on her phone to call him. He was in Montreal, dammit, but she might catch him.

He did answer. “Hey, gorgeous. Whassup?”

She grinned. “I got a job! I got a job!”

She heard the smile in his voice as he asked, “Which one?”

“At CCP! They just called. They were waiting for some funding to come through to offer me a full-time job as program manager. It’s only a one-year term, but still…it’s just what I wanted!”

“Awesome. Congratulations, sweetheart.” His tone warmed even more. “Wish I was there to congratulate you properly.”

“When do you get back?”

“We’re flying back right after the game tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She bit her lip. “Okay. Good. How’s the trip? Where are you?”

“At the hotel. We’re leaving for the arena in a few minutes.”

They chatted more and he was still talking when they were on the bus to the arena, so she let him go.

She should call her mom and tell her the news. Somehow she wasn’t as eager to make that call. But she did. Mom didn’t show much interest in the job, but was happy that she was going to be making more money. Then she called Easton to give him the good news.

“Yay! We’ll celebrate tonight! What do you want to do?”

“Um…watch a hockey game?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope.”

“Okay, fine. But we’ll go to a sports bar and watch it while we eat wings and drink beer. I know—Hooters!”