CHAPTER11
Calista squeaked, and her pulse picked up. Not that she was scared of the dark or couldn’t handle flipping a breaker. It was the unexpected nature of the change, and the totality of the blinding darkness that surprised and pulled the weak sound from her.
Calista stood very still and felt for her phone. She whirred on her flashlight app and directed the beam on their feet. Her sneakers looked small beside Ronan’s skates. She roamed the light the length of his skate blade while mentally calling herself creepy like Artie. She couldn’t help it though, she wanted to know his shoe size. Dang, instead of learning skills from her friends, Artie was rubbing creeper off on her. Blech.
“That’s new,” Ronan said. “Did you pay the light bill?”
His teasing comment took away the eerie atmosphere, and Calista relaxed. “Nope.” Her phone whirred off. She hit the power button again and got a few seconds of illumination before the light wavered. “I have a low battery. Where’s your phone?”
“My locker.” Ronan’s answer came to her in the darkness. He shifted and his skate guards clattered on the floor as if he were going to turn and walk away. One stupid fall and he’d be ruined for the season.
“Wait.” Calista moved and got in front of him. She kept hold by keeping one arm stretched behind her. “I’ll go first, just tell me which way.”
Ronan put his free hand on her shoulder. “Why?”
Calista appreciated the weight of his grip, as if he were steading her. She’d lain in bed every night since the Mer-bar thinking how easily he’d plucked her from the tank. She’d have to watch him workout sometime to see what he benched. That would be normal for an owner, right? She couldn’t stay in her own head, she needed to answer him. He wanted to know why she was leading. “If we hit a bench or something, I don’t want you to fall and injure yourself.”
“Is that the owner speaking?” Ronan’s voice was tight again.
“The fan.” The sincerity in her own words was unmissable. Calista wanted them to go back to how they’d been before. Not that she could put a word on their earlier interactions, but they’d been easier, as if he’d wanted to move closer to her, not farther away.
“Well, that’s sweet. But not happening.” His voice softened a degree.
Calista valued that small change and shifted to face him, though she couldn’t see him. They breathed together in the dark, and neither of them moved.
The lights flashed on, and they both blinked against the biting fluorescence. They were standing closer than she expected, but neither backed up.
“Sorry, wrong switch, I’m not peeking.” Dahlia’s voice came from the door. “I’m looking for Calista.” Dahlia didn’t wait for a reply. “I know you’re in there. I have some more mockups of dancer’s uniforms ordered.”
Calista toyed with the idea of not answering. If she moved behind Ronan, Dahlia wouldn’t even see her, he was that big. Where would that reaction fall on the good communication scale? A zero. Calista sighed and couldn’t help the small pout forming on her lips, but she let her feet carry her away from Ronan and toward Dahlia. She rounded the corner with a small goodbye wave his way. Better set her cousin straight now, so she didn’t miss practice later. Calista followed along the benches to the exit. “I’m not modeling them for you.”
Dahlia came into view just outside the doorway. She wore a pretty wool business suit in Snowers blue and grinned her bright smile. “That’s not what I need from you. The order status reads delivered, but I can’t find the shipping box.” Her voice dropped to teasing. “Did you hide my package so I wouldn’t make you try them on?”
“No, I do need stadium blueprints though, for a separate reason, not to find out where to hide your stuff.” Calista joined her cousin in the hallway, and the locker door snapped closed behind her. “Nice suit, great color.”
“Thanks.” Dahlia tilted her head. “I’ll look into getting you the blueprints.” There was a pause, and then Dahlia said, “I actually will need you to try the suits on when I find them.”
“Nope.”
“I’d ask Piper, but she’s staying out of the changes for Mikah’s sake, at least until all the ownership questions are settled.”
Complex mechanical breakdowns were much easier to solve than the problem of how to resist the plea in her cousin’s voice, and Calista found she couldn’t tell her straight up no. “I’ll think about it.”
Dahlia’s phone beeped, and she tilted the screen toward Calista. “Dodo copied both of us.”
Dodo’s message read, “The office is fielding tons of emails with questions regarding ownership. Let’s put that down with a team meeting this afternoon, 2PM, men’s conference room. Calista Amvehl can explain her position to the players.”
Nope, Calista shook her head though Dodo obviously couldn’t see her.
“I don’t know about this, but we’d better go because it won’t look good if he documents his attempts for us to work together, and we’re no-shows.” Dahlia chewed on her bottom lip, marring her peach lipstick. “I don’t like it though. Can you get your lawyer here?”