Nicole smiled and held out her arm. “Let’s do this.”
They left the dressing room and made the walk into the arena. As they walked towards the table, both teams were warming up under the eyes of their watchful coaches. Nicole stopped to talk to the coaches on both teams. She’d been in the game long enough to know most of the coaches, some of the support staff, and even the owners of the teams.
Nicole set her bag under the table and took out a notebook full of comments on players and coaches for this game. She sat down to make sure her chair was comfortable and gazed around the court assuring she had an unobstructed view.
“Everything okay?” Keith asked. He had been their equipment handler for the past several years and knew what she and Shealyn liked in their area.
“Looks good, feels good,” Nicole replied.
“Jeannie is in the booth and I’ve tested both of your headsets,” Keith said. “You should be good to go.”
“Thanks, Keith,” Nicole said. She held out her closed fist and bumped his.
“Here’s to a good season.” Keith smiled.
Nicole returned his smile and stood up to gaze around the arena. The seats were beginning to fill as excited fans added to the already charged atmosphere.
“All set?” Shealyn asked, walking up next to Nicole.
“Keith has everything ready.”
“Okay, here’s to another year of successful broadcasting bringing the game to the masses,” Shealyn said, grabbing Nicole’s hand.
Nicole smiled and squeezed Shealyn’s hand. “Let’s make them feel like they’re courtside with us. That’s what we do.”
Chapter Three
Ariana took a final warm-up shot then walked towards the New York bench. Cameron was waiting to give her a high five.
“Your crush is not hard to look at,” she said.
“What?” Ariana asked. “You don’t look at her, you listen to her.”
“No, Ari,” Cameron said. “Look!”
Ariana followed Cameron’s gaze. Nicole Neal was standing in front of the table. She was wearing black pants and a white button down with wide cuffs turned up affixed with cuff links. Instead of a blazer she was wearing a black vest that was fitted at the waist. Her high heeled shoes made her legs look long and lean.
“My God,” Ari gasped. She didn’t think she’d ever seen such a sexy woman. She continued to watch Nicole walk around the long table to her seat. With each confident step, Ariana watched and thought, that is a woman in command of herself and anyone who crossed her path. She couldn’t take her eyes off Nicole as her thick reddish-brown hair fell just to her shoulders with aslight curl at the ends. It swung in rhythm with every step, giving her the appearance of refined grace.
Ariana shook her head and couldn’t believe she was having these thoughts when she was about to play such an important game to begin the season. A ball whizzed by her head, bringing her out of the trance Nicole Neal had just put her in. Ariana blinked and brought her focus back to where it should be.
“You okay, captain?” Cameron asked.
“What? Of course I’m okay,” Ariana replied. “I’m ready to go.”
Cameron gave her a slow smile. “It’s okay, Ari. She’s hot. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating the beauty of a woman.”
Ariana furrowed her brow. “Since when do you appreciate the beauty of a woman?” she said, using Cameron’s words. “You’re practically married to Terrance.”
Cameron smiled. “He’s my man, but that doesn’t mean I’m not on the lookout for a woman foryou.”
Ariana dropped her head and looked at the floor. This was not the conversation they should be having with the game about to start.
“Cam, we’re about to be introduced. Get your head in the game!”
“Sorry,” Cameron said. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Ariana smirked.
