I laughed softly and tucked my hair behind my ears. “Well, I won’t take up too much of your time. I was just stopping by to get that video footage we were talking about on the plane.”
“Oh! Yeah, of course. Come to my office, and I’ll grab it for you. I saved it to a flash drive.” She started through the center, and I followed half a step behind. “I was actually going to pop it into the mail, but this is nice. I’m glad you could stop by.”
We reached her office, and I glanced around from the doorway as she rounded the desk. It was a small space, a lot smaller than I’d pictured, but it was still filled with Lacey. Artwork that looked like it had been painted or drawn by some of the center’s more talented little artists hung on her walls, a homemade looking clay bowl was on the corner of her desk and held a set of keys, lip gloss, bobby pins, and an elastic band.
“To be honest, we were expecting to see you last night. What happened?”
“I uh—I had a work thing pop up at the last minute.”
Lacey’s eyebrows rose over the frames of her glasses. “Work? On Sunday?”
“Yeah,” I said, sinking down into one of the two plastic chairs in front of her desk. “He’s another attorney and has been offering advice on Hudson’s case. We’ve been emailing back and forth and were supposed to meet in person today, actually, but he called yesterday and told me he was going out of town and wanted to move it up.”
“Gotcha.” Lacey straightened and handed over a silver flash drive.
“Thanks.”
“Did you get the answers you needed?” she asked.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Not exactly.”
Lacey lowered into her own chair and leaned forward. “What happened?”
“He was an ass,” I said, meeting her large blue eyes.
She straightened in her seat. “What?”
I pinched my eyes closed and nodded. “I guess he thought after all the emails we’d struck up some kind of connection. Thank God, Mr. Bennington was there.”
“Mr. Bennington?”
“My boss. He didn’t want me there alone. Especially on a Sunday when no one was around.”
“Does Ross know?”
“Yeah, and I think I messed up. He was so…” My voice cracked and tears filled my eyes. “Lacey, he sounded crushed when I told him I missed the game. I told him it was a work thing, and he was devastated.”
“I can imagine, he thought you were there.”
“I know. But this case is so important to me.”
“Yeah, so is the Super Bowl.”
“I know. He wasn’t mad or anything, just really sad.”
“Which is worse,” Lacey said, more to herself than me.
“Much worse.”
“I’m sorry, Shelby. Is there anything I can do to help?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not even sure I know what I want. My career—the one I’ve been working on for so many years—is finally happening and Ross’s is too. This is his big shot. Hell, this is my big shot. And the fact that other teams are looking at him, I just can’t see it working.”
“So you’re giving up before you even start?”
“I’m not giving up. It’s hard enough now that I’m working full-time and he’s in the playoffs. And with the Super Bowl coming up—I don’t know if I can meet his expectations of a real fangirl girlfriend. He could end up in a different city, halfway across the country, and we’d never be able to see each other.”
“Yeah,” Lacey made a tsk sound. “This lifestyle isn’t for everyone. I’d hate for you to miss out. But if I may, you and Ross are good for each other. I know we don’t know each other all that well, but we don’t have to for me to see how happy you are together. It’s obvious. Chance told me that before Ross met you, he was shut off. The quiet one hanging out in the corner—by himself. Now, he’s more involved and opening up. I’m sure some of that comes with the confidence of crushing it the past few games and leading the team forces him to open up some, but I also think a lot of it has to do with you.”
I sighed and sagged back in my chair. “I just don’t know.”
“I’m not saying that to put any pressure on you. Obviously, you have enough of that. It’s just my two cents. Or really, four, since Chance thinks so too.”
I smiled at her and we laughed together. “Thanks, Lacey. I really appreciate your honesty. I’m sure we’ll figure all of this out. I just…I’m scared. That’s what it boils down to.”
Lacey gave me a wise nod. “Fear makes us do a lot of stupid things. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
I held up the flash drive. “And thanks for this. I’ll see what I can dig up.”