I hid a pleased smile. Just barely. It’d felt like my place since the first day I walked in.
“All the same.” I kept my reply even, professional. “It’s your name on the building, or it will be soon enough. You can make your mark on it without my say-so.”
After I said the words, I wanted to take them back. Or for a moment, I did. Because I’d known so many athletes, ego-driven, prideful, who preened obnoxiously under any spotlight they were given. And still, I wasn’t entirely sure how this particular former athlete would respond.
“All the same,” he responded. “I want you to trust me, Ward.”
My eyes could hardly meet his, not with the way he said my last name. If he looked hard enough, he’d see goosebumps rise along my bare arms. The impulse to smooth them down with the palm of my hand was almost impossible to ignore. Before I could react, Anya popped her head out of his office.
“Daddy, my iPad froze. Can you help me?”
With a slight lift of his chin, he walked toward his office, and I breathed out slowly, my cheeks puffing with the loaded exhale.
Back to work. It was the only way I’d survive it.
Soon enough, as I’d told him, the building would bear his name, and the thought had me wandering to the front area.
As I faced the shelves of merchandise by the desk, I thought about what the hell we were supposed to do with all the stuff labeled Wilson’s Gym when I knew Aiden had already ordered the new signage to make the switch to Hennessy’s. Fortunately, he wasn’t champing at the bit to slap his name over everything. He wanted to handle the transition publicly in a way that was smooth. Staring at the racks of T-shirts, sweatshirts, wraps, gloves, all of it, I started thinking through ways to clear the inventory as quickly as possible.
I took a seat at the front desk and yanked open the bottom right drawer.
“There you are,” I murmured, tugging on a clear container that held bright-colored round stickers. I eyed the racks of shirts and wondered if Aiden would have an opinion on starting with half off everything or maybe a BOGO sale to see how much we could move.
There it was again, the pause in my entire body when I thought about going to his office to ask him.
This was ridiculous.
I set my elbows on the desk and covered my face with a groan. While I sat in that dejected position, the gym phone rang. I picked it up, but before I could say anything, I heard Aiden’s voice coming through the handset in his office.
“Wilson’s Gym, this is Aiden.”
Gawd, his voice. I rolled my lips between my teeth and allowed, just for one moment, my eyes to fall closed so I could just … listen to him speak.
“Mr. Hennessy, this is Chandra at the Seattle Youth Sports Foundation. Thank you so much for your call. We were thrilled to receive it.”
Slowly, I started setting down the phone even though there was a nagging, naughty whisper in the back of my mind that wanted me to keep listening. Because the way he formed words, the way something simple and innocent came out of his mouth, had me picturing him behind me, whispering in my ear. Things I’d never imagined someone telling me to do.
If I were to text Amy where she was currently exploring Greece, I didn’t think this was the kind of trying she’d had in mind.
The front door opened just as I had the phone set back down on the receiver, revealing the smiling face of our newest college hire.
“Emily, how’s it going?”
When she sucked in a deep breath, I knew the answer was going to be very, very dramatic. The word vomit started immediately about her boyfriend and another girl, and I’m sure my eyes were so wide in my face that it looked like I’d just been smacked over the back of the head.
“So, you’re stressed then,” I said when she finally took a breath.
Emily plopped into the chair that I’d vacated behind the front desk. “I just know he’s cheating on me.”
Early arrivals for my six o’clock class started filtering through the front door, and I greeted them with a smile.
“But you can’t be sure,” I told her. “You just suspect based on a couple of … vibes, right?”
My sisters always came to me for no-nonsense relationship advice, and honestly, sometimes I thought my ability to be no-nonsense was because I’d never gotten myself tangled up in any of the dramatics. Or any body parts, really.
Vibes had never been my forte, or at least … not until Aiden walked through the door. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was creating all sorts of those in my own imagination.
Emily paused to swipe a member’s card as he struggled to check in with the scanner on the desk. He thanked her with a smile, nodding to me as he passed. I pulled my favorite black and pink wraps from the top drawer and unraveled the tightly wrapped ball.
“They were strong, though,” she said, leaning against the desk. “
Heavy eye contact.”
Yeah. Heavy eye contact. I shifted uncomfortably. “What else?”
Emily hummed. “Really loaded subtext in the things they said.” Her face got serious. “They were saying one thing, but you knew they meant something else.”
“And that’s a sign of …?” My voice trailed off.
“Sex, for sure.”
Sweat popped along the back of my neck because check, check, and check. One-sided vibe, courtesy of me.
Someone else walked in, and I stifled a groan at the sight of him. I know, customer service and all, but this guy was the bane of every female trainer’s existence. He stood too close, talked too much, stayed after class too late, and had a seriously annoying tendency to stare at either our tits or ass through the entire class.
Talk about getting a vibe from someone. This guy was the absolute king of inspiring douchebag feelings.
“Mike,” I said politely. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
He slicked his tongue over his teeth. “Where’s Kelly? I didn’t know you were teaching tonight.”
Not surprising. Mike did not seem to stay too late or talk too close with me. He favored Kelly, probably because she was petite, and he could stare down at her chest from his lofty five-foot-six.
Also, Kelly was friendlier than me.
In her absence, he did a thorough examination of the bubbly blond behind the desk. The way he looked Emily up and down had me clearing my throat. I held his gaze steadily when his attention was back on me.
“She hurt her ankle.” I continued wrapping my knuckles, angling the wraps around my wrist, and then back around my palm. Flexing my fingers, I gave him a tiny smile. “You’re stuck with me tonight.”
“You’re new,” he told Emily.
She gave him a friendly smile, but not quite as friendly as the one she’d given everyone else. Emily, apparently, was a very good reader of vibes and heavy eye contact. “Started a couple of weeks ago.”
He nodded. “Sweet. Another reason to love Tuesday nights.”
Because he wasn’t looking, I rolled my eyes. “You better go stretch, Mike. I have my angry rock playlist, which means you need to be all warmed up and ready to get your ass kicked.”
He snorted as he walked past, and I had to grit my teeth.
Someone was going to get a lot of extra burpees tonight, and it wasn’t me. As the manager, I might not be able to be outright rude to him, but I could make him curse the day he was born.
Emily shook her head. “So creepy.”
I finished wrapping my other hand and sighed. “He is. Unfortunately, he’s never done anything blatant that would get him kicked out. Next week, if you’re here with Kelly, and he’s the only one left, don’t leave until she does. That’s one of our unspoken rules. No female trainer here alone with someone new, or someone like jackass over there who’s just kinda slimy. Got it?”
She nodded. “Got it. Thanks, Iz.”
I picked up my bottle of water and tipped it back to take a drink. That was when I saw her eyes widen again and her back straighten. Mid-swallow of cold water was when he decided to speak from right behind me.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.