“Long time no see. How’ve you been?”
He continued to look for Amber. “Good. You?”
“Okay.” She paused. “I hear you have a new girlfriend.”
“Uh…” He hoped Amber was still his girlfriend and he hadn’t fucked that up irretrievably.
“I saw the picture on the Internet. I know her, sort of. Amber Johnson. I didn’t know she had such an interesting past, though.”
Duncan narrowed his eyes at Melissa. “I gotta go. Nice seeing you.”
He joined the others.
“Melissa.” Lovey gave him an unhappy look.
“Yeah.” He slid onto a stool, bummed that Amber wasn’t there. He was gonna have to sack up and call her. If she’d answer his call. Well, if not, he’d hunt her down like the deer stalker he was. Heh.
—
She should probably quit this job.
Amber returned from her break at the Sin Bin. So far no sign of any Aces players, but the possibility of running into them here—including Duncan—was very high.
She still hadn’t heard from him. Not that she wanted to. She tossed her hair back as she strode into the bar. After he’d walked out yesterday all pissed off, she kept thinking he’d cool off and come back. He got angry, but he got over it fast. But even after leaving the car at his building, she hadn’t heard from him with an apology. At which time she was going to break things off with him, because if he thought so little of her, they had no future together.
So even though she still needed the money from this job, she glumly contemplated quitting.
As if things weren’t messed up enough, sitting at one of the tables in her section were Melissa Cayne and Indie Sandhu. Greeeeaaat. She approached them to take their order, even as she wished for the ability to teleport and reappear in Azerbaijan. Or perhaps shift into someone else’s body, like…The Rock. No, wait. Heidi Klum.
“Hi, ladies.” She flashed a big smile. “What can I get you tonight?”
“Amber!” Melissa gave a wide-eyed smile. “I didn’t know you worked here.”
Hopefully Melissa didn’t plan on going into acting, because that was bad. “Yeah, another part-time job,” she said cheerfully.
“Is the modeling career not going well?” Melissa asked with saccharine sympathy.
Ergh. “I don’t really have a modeling career.”
“Aw, honey, it’s a tough business. Not everyone makes it.”
“No, I mean I only do a few jobs from time to time. I’m about to graduate from college.” She kept the smile firmly in place. “With a degree in Sociology and Urban Studies. Starting my first full-time job next month.” The fucking blog post hadn’t mentioned that.
“Oh.” Melissa blinked. “I’ll have a Cosmopolitan.”
“Same,” Indie said.
“Sure thing.”
Amber hoofed it back to the bar.
“Did you just growl?” Jack asked.
“Ha. Yeah. Two Cosmos, please.”
Jack grabbed the bottle of vodka. “Bitchy customer?”
“Oh yeah. She totally knew I worked here. Probably saw it in that stupid blog post.”
Jack gave her a mystified smile. Apparently he hadn’t seen the blog.
Amber watched Jack mix the cocktails.
Melissa Cayne. Duncan’s ex. The one who’d only been interested in him for his money. Bitch. And he thought she was like that? Ha! That was just…
Crap.
No wonder he’d thought she was like that. Just as she was terrified of getting let down by someone she cared about, he was probably wary of puck bunnies who only wanted to be with him because he was a hockey player. And had money.
Jesus. No wonder he’d been upset when he’d heard her mother say that. But still. He hadn’t let her explain. She could still be annoyed at him about that. She bit her lip. Maybe she owed it to him to make sure he knew the truth. She hated…hated…to think that he might be hurt because of her. She wanted him to know that she loved him because of who he really was…kind and generous and caring.
She loved him.
But her insides seized up at the thought of telling him that. It was fucking terrifying.
Cowardly.
Her mom’s words returned to her.
Mom was right. She was a total coward. A wuss. A gutless, spineless scaredy-cat.
She loved him. She may already have lost him, so what did she have to lose by telling him that? Maybe it was more important for him to know the truth than for her to save her pride.
Jack slid the drinks across the bar to her. Amber set them on her tray and turned around to deliver them.
“Hi, Amber.”
She froze and stared at the man in front of her. Oh, dear sweet Jesus. How much worse could things get?