“Oh, sorry,” she said, a bit breathless as she tried to balance the box. She teetered again, this time the rattling amplified as her eyes shot wide and she saved the box before it tumbled to the ground. “I… I didn’t think anyone would be here.”
I hopped up, rushing to the door to take the box from her hands. It was surprisingly heavy, and I laughed a little as I grunted and carried it to the desk I’d just been sitting at. “No one should be at this hour. What the hell is in this box? Bricks?”
“The trophies for the Skate for Change event,” she said, her cheeks pink, hands hanging on her hips now as she caught her breath. “I accidentally had them shipped to our house instead of the arena. Classic ditzy move. They showed up earlier tonight and Nathan didn’t want them cluttering our…”
Ariana’s words faded, and she cleared her throat, smiling like she thought better of finishing her thought. My attention was stuck on the fact that she’d called herself a ditz.
She was so far from that, it was laughable. Why would she insult herself that way?
“Anyway, we needed them here, so I just thought I’d bring them up myself,” she said.
“At nearly midnight?”
She shrugged, and her eyes finally met mine. “Couldn’t sleep, so I figured now was as good a time as any.”
Time slogged when she looked at me like that, her diamond eyes piercing straight through my battered soul. She hadn’t looked at me in weeks, and I savored that gaze like it was a hard-earned championship title.
Why couldn’t you sleep?
I wanted to ask so badly, but I had a feeling by the way she watched me that her words weren’t an invitation to pry.
I let myself indulge in my greed instead, soaking in everything about her — the matching lounge set she wore, mustard yellow, the color bringing out the gold in her hair and setting off the blue in her eyes. I wondered if yellow was still her favorite color. The fabric hugged her curves and fell around her silhouette, the image one that had me flashing back to her in her dorm in college. She wasn’t wearing makeup, and her hair was unkempt, like she’d literally rolled out of bed and thought,“Well, nothing better to do, so I guess I’ll just run this heavy ass box of trophies up to the arena.”
She looked so damn cozy I had to stuff my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching for her just to see if she felt as soft as she looked.
Ariana’s cheeks burned a deeper shade of red the longer I looked at her, and I was ready for her to frown and snap at me and storm out of the room.
Instead, she folded her arms over her chest and cleared her throat. “What areyoudoing here so late?”
I shrugged, nodding to the screen that was still playing the Detroit game. “I’m always here late. Watching video.”
“You don’t do that in your office?”
“Sometimes I do,” I said. “Sometimes I need a change in scenery. Or a bigger screen,” I added with a grin.
“It doesn’t hurt your eyes to stare at this thing?” She pointed to the monstrous screen behind me.
“Oh, everything hurts my eyes at this point in the day, but I’m a masochist, I guess. I just… I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to leave when I feel like I’m missing something, or like the team needs something from me that I haven’t delivered yet.”
“And what is it you’re missing tonight?”
You.
The thought shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I opened my mouth, shut it again, and laughed, blowing out a breath before I ran a hand through my hair. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Ariana smiled, looking down at her feet. “Well, I should leave you to it.”
“You don’t have to go.” The words shot out of me so fast I should have been embarrassed. “I mean, you’re probably tired. You probably want to go home. But if—”
“I am tired,” she said on a sigh. “But I’m having a hard time sleeping.”
“Why?”
I couldn’t help but ask this time, and she leveled me with a gaze like I should know.
Should I?
Stupid hope ballooned in my chest.
