Playing Hard by Melanie Scott

was suddenly painfully aware that his hand hurt like hell. He set his teeth, looking at the clock on the wall. He’d told himself it would be at least four hours before he asked for something. He wasn’t quite there yet.
    “So, who was that?” Maggie asked, walking into the room.
    “You don’t know her?”
    “Should I?”
    “Her name’s Amelia Graham. She’s one of Castro’s friends. His sister’s best friend or something.”
    “Amelia?” Her brow crinkled for a moment. “Was she at the party? I think Finn introduced me to someone at some point.”
    “It’s not like you to forget a name.”
    “There were over two hundred people at that party, Ollie.”
    “Finn calls her Milly.”
    “Oh? And what do you call her?” Maggie asked. Amusement danced in her eyes. It was the first time he’d seen her looking happy since he’d woken up in the hospital. But he wasn’t about to try to explain his strange fascination with Amelia to Maggie.
    “Nothing. I met her at the party. We talked for a couple of minutes but that was it.”
    “Yet she’s bringing you gummy bears in the hospital?” Maggie asked skeptically.
    “Finn told her about the accident. I think she was just being nice.” That sounded unconvincing even to him.
    Maggie shrugged out of her coat. “I see. And has her niceness rubbed off on Finn? Has he come to see you yet? Or even called?”
    He shook his head.
    Maggie sighed. “He should. I’m going to get Dan to talk to him.”
    “Don’t push it, Maggie. The kid needs to figure out how to do the decent thing himself. Or decide if he’s going to be an asshole his entire life.”
    “The kid is nearly twenty-six,” she pointed out.
    “He’s still a kid, though.” Amelia’s kid brother, kind of. If he was going to try to get to know her, then he was going to have to find a way to get along with Finn.
    “Yeah, well, if he doesn’t want to find himself traded again, he better start growing up.”
    Her expression had turned fierce. Maggie had grown up with the Saints; her dad had owned the team before Alex, Mal, and Lucas. Now she worked as Alex’s right-hand woman. She didn’t like players who caused problems. Which Finn did. Ollie got the feeling that Finn might just have stepped over a line with Maggie. Not a good idea.
    “You have the play-offs to focus on. Finn can wait.”
    Maggie looked suddenly stricken. “I hate that you don’t get to play.” Her hand curled around his left hand. His good hand.
    “Yeah. Me too.”
    She looked away. Looked down. Swallowed. “I shouldn’t have asked you to drive him home.”
    Her voice sounded one step away from tears. Christ. He didn’t need Maggie crying over him.
    “I didn’t have to say yes,” he said. “It was an accident, Mags. Nothing you or I can do about it.” He squeezed her hand then let go. “Now, how about you see if you can find out when Lucas is going to let me out of this place?”
    *   *   *
    “Got a minute?”
    Amelia looked up from the currency outlook report in her hand and manufactured a smile. Her boss, Daniel Carling, wasn’t the type to come to his underlings’ offices very often. “Of course,” she said, rising a little in her chair. “Do you want me to come to your office?”
    He waved a hand, the gesture a little too magnanimous to be casual. “No, we can do it here.”
    She sat back in her chair, stomach rolling. Do it? What on earth did he want? “If that suits you.” She waited for him to settle himself in the chair opposite her. Her office was tiny but it was still an office. One she’d worked hard for since she’d joined Pullman five years ago.
    “How was your meeting earlier?” Daniel asked.
    She blinked. “The one for the Australasian currency model?”
    He nodded, one hand straying to the immaculate French cuff of his shirt. “That’s the one.”
    “It was good,” she said briskly. “The IT guys are confident they’ve fixed the critical bugs so now they’re just fine-tuning