He dipped his chin, eyes flickering in my direction once more, then disappeared into the office.
As soon as it was just Amy and me, I gestured to the edge of the boxing ring that dominated the center of the main room. She sat first, and I followed.
“I didn’t …” She paused, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean for it to happen this way. To take you by surprise like this.”
I didn’t trust myself to answer just yet, and even worse, I felt my eyes burn at the thought of not working for her.
And Amy, because she’d known me for so long and knew me so well, just kept talking.
“Aiden came in last year. I don’t know if you noticed.”
I snorted, which made Amy laugh quietly under her breath.
“Of course you did.” She shook her head again. “He genuinely wanted a training session, but he was doing some research, too. And when he approached me a few months ago to start negotiating, Iz, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
The air hissed slowly from between my pursed lips. “How did he know you wanted to sell?”
“I mentioned it to a neighbor because he knows a lot of former athletes. Thought he might have insight as to how I could go about finding someone who would be a good fit.”
My hands tightened into fists. “You could’ve asked me.”
Amy glanced at me in surprise. “For your input?”
I swallowed. “To buy it.”
She nudged me with her shoulder. “You got that much cash laying around, Isabel Ward? I know I haven’t paid you enough to be able to afford something like that.”
Lifting my eyes to her, I nodded. “I have a trust fund from Paige that I’ve never touched. Maybe I’m underestimating how much this place is worth,” I admitted quietly, “but I could’ve probably made you an offer.”
Amy sank back against the ropes, mouth slack. “The hell, Ward? You’re loaded, and I didn’t know? I should’ve been letting you pay for the coffee all these years.”
I smiled. “Maybe. She put the money aside for us, but none of us could do anything with it until we were eighteen, and even then, we needed Logan and Paige’s signature to release anything until we turned twenty-five.”
She hummed. “Well, maybe you could’ve made an offer, and maybe not. But his offer was more than what it’s worth.”
“Why do you think he did that?” My eyes wandered back to the office where he sat quietly, waiting for us to finish talking.
“He’s got a huge family, like four or five siblings or something. They all live in this area, and it’s close to his daughter’s school. It allows him to take what we’ve already built and just … make it even better.” She glanced sideways. “And I think he will. He’s passionate about this, and he doesn’t want to come in and redo everything, I promise.”
I nodded.
The sleepless night was perfectly clear now.
Change had come knocking again, and yet again, it was digging a foothold in the one place I felt the safest. The one place, outside of my family, where I felt the most comfortable.
This was the one thing I worried would test any of the metal-strong barriers I’d put up.
He was.
But because I respected Amy, and I wanted her to be able to get an offer so good she couldn’t refuse and be able to travel the world with her wife, Renata, like they’d always dreamed, I nudged her shoulder back.
“I trust you,” I told her.
“Thank you.” She sighed. “I dreaded telling you the most.”
That had me smiling. “Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because you’re stubborn as hell and don’t think I don’t know you probably had his matches memorized because you watched every single one, and you’ll hate that now that he’s your boss and you feel like you did something wrong.”
Cue me choking on the bubble of hysterical laughter trying to push up my throat.
She had no freaking idea.
My stupid cheeks burned stupid hot for the eightieth time since I walked in the door, and I refused to look at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Amy snorted. “Like you’d share if you did. Promise me you’ll give him a chance, all right? He’ll need you more than anyone else here if he’s going to pull this off. I already told him you’d be his biggest ally.”
His shadow, tall and broad, moved in the office, visible behind the closed shades, and the sight of it—the sight of him—had the knots pulling tighter and tighter in my stomach.
Give him a chance.
To what, exactly? My options were slim. Either he was nothing like I imagined, or he was better. I’d already tripped over myself in front of him, so this whole boss/employee dynamic was off to a fantastic start.
“Iz?” she prompted when I didn’t answer.
“I promise.”
And I’d keep it. But it was the scariest promise I’d ever made because the feeling it gave me made it perfectly clear that my sleepless night was just the beginning. Change was here, and his name was Aiden Hennessy.
ISABEL
“Y
ou’re acting weird, and you’re hiding, and I don’t know which of those two freaks me out more.” Kelly’s voice came from over the large stack of boxes I was sitting—i.e. hiding—behind.
Ladies and gentlemen, the unfortunate side effect of knowing my co-workers incredibly well was that they had no problem calling me on my shit—even if I was their manager.
Without sparing her a glance, I pushed aside a stack of sweat towels and marked them on my inventory sheet. “I’m working, Kell.”
“You’ve been back here since the minute he walked in the door.”
The top of her blond ponytail poked up over the tallest box in the stack, but I couldn’t see her entire face.
What Kelly McKendrick lacked in height, she made up for in boundless energy and enthusiasm. So much so that I wanted to dislike her for it, but I quite literally could not because she was one of the nicest people I’d ever met. “Normally, you work in your office on Wednesday mornings. But since your office is empty … I figured you were avoiding him, and I wanted to make sure you were okay in case you needed to talk about it.” She sighed. “Not that you ever want to talk about what’s bothering you, but there’s a first time for everything.”
When I rolled my eyes, she climbed behind the boxes with me, bracing her back against the wall and stretching her pink legging-clad legs in front of her as she started folding the towels. The gym had a handful of part-time employees, and Kelly was the one who’d hung around the longest of that group. “I’m quite sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I murmured. Before I reached for the next box, I handed her the inventory sheet.
“I couldn’t believe how sad I was after the meeting yesterday.” She sighed. “Amy is such a good boss, and he’s so …”
In her pause, I found myself holding my breath. I could certainly think of a few words to fill in the blank, but I wasn’t entirely certain how I wanted Kelly to answer.
“So what?” I asked. I took the clipboard back as she began unpacking the box of new gloves.
“Serious,” she whispered. “I don’t think he smiled once yesterday while she introduced him.”
Kelly’s comment, which was totally accurate, had me serving myself a stern mental pep talk.
Yes, she and I were the same age.
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.