The three dots on the screen bounced, then disappeared. One day at a time. No matter how impatient I could be, no solid relationship—regardless of the type—was built out of thin air.
Me: We’ll take care of everything here. Tell Anya I hope she feels better.
Aiden: I will.
Aiden: Thank you again.
Me: Just doing my job.
Aiden: Glad to hear it, Ward. Even if my back still hurts.
I was still smiling when I let myself into his office a couple of hours later. The piece of paper was easy to find, and my eyes widened when I saw the name of his new client. The gym already boasted a number of former athlete clients, simply because of my connection to the Wolves and Amy’s reputation.
Current elite athletes—including the one I’d watched play US Women’s soccer for the past few years—was new.
The connection clearly came from Aiden, and it sent my wheels spinning about what his plans might be for the gym. The day went by in a blink. As did the next.
It wasn’t easier without him there because I felt a strange urgency to see if I could act normal around him now. Or as normal as I was capable of after our sexually charged sparring match.
On day three, I came in to work with another drink holder in my hands. One for me, one for Emily, and another black coffee for Aiden.
When his typical arrival time came and went without a sign of him, I set the coffee on the corner of my desk as I got to work. Emily popped her head through the door.
“Call for you,” she said. “And the delivery guy is here with a huge delivery. Where should they go?”
“How many boxes?”
“Probably twelve or so.”
I glanced at my office. “Stick them right outside my door. I don’t want to crowd the front. I’ll see what they are.”
She left with a nod, and I tapped the button on my desk phone to pick up the call.
“This is Isabel.”
“Ward.”
My eyes closed briefly at the sound of his voice. So maybe I wasn’t doing so hot keeping that reaction in check. “Hey, boss. How’s Anya?”
He sighed. “A bit better, still not back to normal, though. Her fever’s gone but …”
Leaning back in my chair, I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder. “We can hold down the fort here if you’re worried about that.”
“I’m not. I trust you.” He paused. “The new merchandise should arrive today or tomorrow.”
“So that’s what’s getting stacked outside my door right now,” I said.
“It came?”
“Just now.”
“Good.” But he sounded disappointed. I probably would’ve been too, if I’d bought the gym and was putting my name on everything.
“Want me to leave them for you to open?” I asked carefully. “It’s a big deal.”
He was quiet. “Would you mind?”
“Not at all.”
“Thank you, Ward.” Aiden sighed. “I wish I could sneak out and do it today, but I can’t leave.”
My eyebrows lowered. “She’s still that sick?”
He hesitated before answering. “Anya hasn’t really been sick like this since … since Beth. She doesn’t really want anyone but me right now.”
There was a strange fist closing around my heart at how carefully he said it. Like he didn’t want to divulge too much. Like it gave something away.
I licked my lips. “My brother used to buy us these special sticker books when we got sick. He’d put them on a tray with a big glass of 7 Up with a fancy straw and a little bowl of saltine crackers.” My skin felt hot sharing the story, and I rubbed absently at the side of my neck. “I didn’t even like stickers that much, but we never got them because my twin sisters once put hundreds of them all over his bed frame, and he couldn’t get them off.”
Aiden made a sound that could’ve been a laugh, but I wasn’t quite sure. “How old were you?”
“Twelve.” I shook my head. “Maybe it won’t work for Anya. But I know, for us, it was just enough of a distraction.”
“From what?” he asked quietly.
“Everything.”
Aiden was quiet, and in that quiet, I felt naked.
“I’ll see if my mom can find one,” he said after a moment. “Thank you.”
“Do you drink coffee?” I asked suddenly. My eyes pinched shut in mortification.
“I don’t,” he answered, and I heard the confusion clear in his voice.
My hand found the bottom of the cup, still sitting on my desk. “I was … I got you coffee on my way in this morning.”
Again, Aiden was silent. Oh, silence was bad for me when I wasn’t sure how to proceed. It made for all sorts of awkward babbling impulses.
“I mean, I got some for me and Emily too,” I said. “I just … I wanted to repay the favor. Because I shouldn’t have dumped the one you got me. That was rude.”
He hummed, low in his throat. I found that I liked the sound. A lot.
“Forgiven,” he replied. There was a smile in his voice, and I wished I could see it.
But that was it. Nothing further. It wasn’t the first time that Aiden didn’t react the way that I expected him to. Maybe, like Paige said, he was just as much of a mystery to me as I was to him.
I exhaled lightly. “Good luck with the stickers.”
He said my name by way of a goodbye, and even if it wasn’t much of an olive branch … it was something.
The next morning, I had an iced tea sitting on the edge of the front desk when his truck pulled in. There was no way I was capable of breathing normally when he approached.
Maybe it was because I’d only known him—the real him—for such a short amount of time, but the four days without seeing him seemed like a month. In his absence, the old gym signage had been removed from the building, and watching him pause to stare up at the blank space with an inscrutable expression on his face, I desperately wished to know what was going on in his head.
With one last look at the area where the new lighted sign would go, he pulled open the door.
“Ward,” he said in greeting. But he was slower to speak, his voice lower in pitch, and his eye contact was … a vibe all of its own. The phone call had been such meager practice. This was the real test after our sparring match.
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.