Offside Read Free

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