I made it home just in time for the rain to cut loose. Literally. I ended up walking through the thunderous downpour from the garage to the back door.
As I strolled through my house, flashes of her there replayed in my mind, and I enjoyed her sexy ghost as I walked from room to room. Then my memories turned into fantasies of things we hadn’t done there yet.
The thought of texting her began nagging me nearly the second I’d come through the door, but I managed to leave my phone in my pocket. Additionally, I’d turned the sound off earlier in the day when Nolan had wanted me to join him for the game. I hadn’t wanted to lie, so I didn’t answer. It felt just as shitty as if I had.
A little over a month. That was it.
If she was still interested, there would be no holding me back. Until then, I had to be subtle. Although I didn’t mind the idea of taking my time with her, I hated feeling like it was a secret.
After another shower and a call to my mom, I flipped through the television. The next few weeks were going to feel like years because after just one weekend with her, I wanted more. Not more from her or anything like that. I couldn’t expect her to want everything I did the second I wanted it, but I craved her time.
Bored and uninterested in anything on TV, I went to bed only to wake up even earlier than normal. Of course, it wasn’t until I got to the gym that I realized she wouldn’t be there at that hour. In fact, I was the only one there at five am.
I pushed myself through two circuits to kill time, but found myself at the office before six thirty. I proofed a budget for an upcoming project, answered a few emails, and drank a pot and a half of coffee. By the time Lance got there, I was already heading out to make my way around a few jobsites.
Then only God knew what.
All of the sudden, I had no fucking clue how to occupy myself.
Things with Dana were so fucking new, but it was like, out of nowhere, I had all this extra time that I’d never had before, and it lagged on and on.
I wanted to do something for her—like any man should when he’s interested in a woman. Trying to figure out what that was made me restless.
What did she like? It was too soon to know.
And since it was too soon to know, wasn’t it too soon to do something?
Annoyance with myself grew with every step I took down the aisles of the store, where I’d ended up milling around. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of the spice shelf scrutinizing cinnamon. I wasn’t sure if that kind of thing went bad, but I knew the small container I had was old.
I also bought more cheese, three kinds of popcorn, the kind of wine she liked, extra tooth brushes, floss, and a cart full of other shit. I even swung by Kohl’s to buy stemless wine glasses.
I’d be damned if I didn’t make good use of the extra time I had to kill. Even if buying a lot of that shit was way fucking premature. Being prepared never hurt.
When I arrived home, there was a gift bag on my back steps. Inside it was the Royals shirt I’d let her borrow. She’d returned it along with a note.
Cord,
Thanks for a great weekend, but I think you still owe me one.
Dana
I didn’t want the shirt back. Not only did it not fit me, but I’d loved seeing her in it. And it sucked balls that I missed her. So I finally allowed myself to pull out my phone.
ME: You should have kept the shirt, hummingbird.
She was going to shoot that name down, but it kind of fit her too. She was small, and it was like sometimes I get a flash of a different side of her, but then it was gone before I knew it. Much like how she’d washed and returned the shirt to my house in lightning speed.
DANA: I have plenty of shirts. Can’t you just call me DANA?
There was no reason to argue with her on either issue. Especially since there were more important things to discuss.
ME: How was your day?
DANA: Good. I can almost walk and sit normally again.
She teased me, stroked my ego, and I liked it. As we text, I carried things inside and put them away.
Back and forth, we volleyed messages that didn’t really say anything, but, I’d admit, it was the best part of my day. Repeatedly, I reminded myself that the week before I’d have been happy just to see her at the gym and get a random glance out of her. But now I knew what she tasted like. Sounded like. How her body moved and felt.
So, for as slow as things seemed, in reality things were moving pretty fast.
I plopped down into my recliner and kicked off my shoes.
ME: Big plans this week?
DANA: Just trying to organize Becca’s bachelorette party. Her sister was going to do it, but Jyl’s in medical school and it’s kicking her ass right now.
ME: Pick a place yet?
DANA: Yeah, we were supposed to go to the Ozarks next weekend, but the place where we were staying had some major water pipe break disaster. Anyway, it’s all fucked up. That’s why I’m scrambling to rebook us somewhere.
DANA: Sorry. That was a lot.
ME: Don’t be sorry. I have a cabin in Osage Beach. How many people are going?
DANA: You do? I don’t even own my car yet, and you have a vacation property? Damn, big shot. There’s only four of us.
Quickly, a plan formed in my head. I changed the subject.
ME: The lake is always fun. No gym today?
Had she missed me?
ME: I think I might start going in the evenings.
Nolan worked mornings and afternoons. If Dana changed times too, that would make things easier. I wouldn’t have to hide anything. Maybe I could make at least a few things work in my favor.
DANA: Yeah, evenings might be better for me too. There’s nothing new to watch on Netflix anyway.
Still, I didn’t want to leave too much up to chance, so before I went to bed that night, I replied one last time and put the ball in her court.
ME: I’ll be at the gym at eight tomorrow night, DANA.
I still worked out the next morning; it was part of my routine. Plus, Nolan was an excellent spotter.
“Lift it, you tit-sucking pussy,” he taunted. “Push it. Go six.”
Okay. A good spotter who was trying to kill me.
Through gritted teeth, I exhaled as I pushed to full extension for the last rep. Then Nolan steadied the bar and helped me rack it.
“Six, dude. You’re a beast.” He lunged forward hyped up on my progress, which was made mostly from him trying to murder me. I’d hit three hundred and fifteen pounds before, but never six reps.
“Yeah, I’ll be feeling that later.”
He snapped at me with my towel. “Nah. It shouldn’t be too bad. You’ll survive.”
I got up, stole the towel away from him, sprayed the bench, and wiped it off.
“Are you going to tell me what you were doing that was so fucking important you couldn’t take any of my calls Sunday?” He removed the plates I’d used and put them where they belonged.
“I was busy.”
“Busy?” He nodded. Obeying man code, he accepted my vague answer. “Fine. Want to get a beer one night this week?”
“Sure.” I’d have all the beer he wanted, but not that night. I had a debt with a pretty woman that I hoped I’d be repaying. “Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, that sounds good. We’ll go to Trevor’s last game of the season, and then grab a few.”
“That’s right. A senior next year. Goddamn, he grew up fast.”
“Tell me about it.”
They’d practically grown up together. Often, I wondered if Nolan would ever find someone. Things hadn’t worked out with Shauna, but he was a hell of a guy, and next year he’d have an empty nest at the ripe old age of thirty-four. Trevor had never been a burden to Nolan—to any of us really—and he’d be lost without the kid around.
Life is funny like that. Nolan was in a position to start over, from the beginning, when it felt like I was still warming up for the first time. Additionally, Reuben was getting married, and they’d probably start a family right about the time Nolan’s was leaving home.
Good thing life wasn’t a race. Or maybe it is, but everyone is on a different track. Whatever the case, it finally felt like I was at the starting line, and I was raring to go. It was truly ironic how, now that I was ready to make a move, I had to wait.
But not that day.
And what a long ass fucking day it was.
After the gym, I showered and headed to the office where all hell broke loose. Call after call about bids and changes to different jobs.
Even Cheryl was feeling it. “Are we drinking at lunch?” she asked from the door of my office after I placed the phone on the receiver again around one that afternoon.
“Can you chug?” I asked, knowing I wouldn’t be leaving. I’d be in that chair refreshing my email until revisions on my quotes came back—correctly. We were up to our eyeballs with last minute addendums.
Cheryl was going to both bid openings that night, but I wanted to make sure I was sending her in with the most solid proposals possible. With her experience in construction and mine in business, Taylor Properties was taking a giant plunge into general contracting. Only we hadn’t expected the two biggest projects in our area would finalize on the same day. That’s how it goes though.
Loosening my tie, I cracked my neck, definitely feeling that morning’s workout. “Can you grab me a sandwich while you’re out? Anything is fine.”
“Cord,” Lance announced through the intercom on the phone. “I have Bruce at Stanton Electric on the line. Something about metering? What’s he look like? His voice sounds burly.”
My hands flew up in mock exasperation. Although I was under pressure, and wore the fuck out at only midday, my mood wasn’t in the shitter because at the end of it all, I’d see her.
Touch her.
Hopefully hear her laugh.
Kiss her.
Those things kept me motivated to get through the day from hell.
Cheryl laughed; both of us were used to Lance. One of the reasons he was so good to work with was that he added levity when things got stressful. The down side was, now I had a mental image of him with the sales man waiting for me on the telephone. The fact that I knew how to answer Lance was a mere side effect of him working there.
“You wouldn’t like him. He’s an otter-type.” I chuckled using his term.
“Aw. My man is all grown up. You said otter. But, ew. Gross. Never mind.”
Cheryl waved and left.
“What line?” Because, by that time, two were blinking.
“One. You know you’re a wolf, right?” he asked quickly as I pressed the button to take the call.
I made a note to look up what a wolf was later.
Wasn’t that the hairy one?
It was ten after eight by the time I pulled into the parking lot at Fit Club. I hadn’t even been home yet. With Cheryl in meetings, when a crew had needed someone to run and pick up materials, the burden had fallen on me.
Had it not been for the idea of Dana, towing me through the day, I would have gone straight home, taken a hot shower, and then gone the fuck to bed. But it was too late to ask her to change plans, and I didn’t think she’d agree to coming over to my house. I had to see her.
With the truck in park, I climbed out. I’d had a few different scenarios thought up for how that night would go. Only, I wasn’t sure if I was capable of doing any of them in my current condition.
I was exhausted, but prayed for a rally.
There were a few younger guys lifting, but, other than that, the main room was empty. Her car had been outside, so I knew she was someplace. There was a chance she was in one of the ladies’ rooms, but my instincts said she was somewhere else.
I unlocked the office and decided to find her a different way. The gym had classrooms, a Pilates room, and a few other common areas she might be. Since I didn’t want to waste any extra energy on searching, I pulled up the security cameras.
Save for any private areas, all the other rooms were displayed on the screens and I looked for anything moving. It took a few seconds, then I finally spotted her.
One of the aerial yoga hammocks swung as she hopped out and walked to the wall. She picked something up, and then tossed it onto a bag. When she began to pace, I realized I was getting later by the minute, and she looked disappointed.
I shouldn’t have liked it, but I did. Not that I’d disappointed her, but that she’d obviously wanted to see me.
After clicking a few things, I disabled the camera to that room, and then found the key I needed. It seemed like so much work just to see someone I was interested in.
I hated that we were sneaking around, and it drove me nuts that I couldn’t send her flowers because Becca would see them. I hated that we were meeting somewhere neutral and not just in one of our beds.
But all that shit was also worth it because I loved the way her face looked when she first saw me walk into the room—relieved and pleased. It only lasted a split second before she stole the expression away and replaced it with a cooler one.
She was within reach, so I didn’t give a good goddamn.
“I’m sorry I was late.” It hadn’t been long, but it wasn’t my style. I didn’t want her to think her time wasn’t important to me because it was, and that had nothing to do with how we spent it. “I’m glad you’re still here.”
“Whatever,” she said. “Don’t worry about it.” She had a flair for making her voice sound unaffected, but her eyes told me what I needed to know.
I locked the door and flipped off all but one row of overhead lights in the windowless room. Phone in hand, I walked to the wall and plugged it into the stereo system. I gave my music a quick read-through and landed on an album I’d only recently found. Nothing but Thieves was the band, and all their songs were good.
Adjusting the volume down to the right level, I welcomed the feeling of her arms wrapping around me from behind. For the first time that day, the tension inside me lessened.
All that mattered, at that moment, was that moment, and who I shared it with.
I lifted her right hand to my mouth, took in the floral smell of her skin, and I kissed her wrist. The fingers on her free hand clutched my suit jacket at my chest.
Revolving to face her, I said, “I didn’t mean to make you wait.”
“Well—I must admit—I have waited longer for worse.” Somehow the desire in Dana’s voice sounded more authentic than ever before.
Her hands slid inside my jacket, slipping it off my shoulders onto the floor. She wasn’t shy with me, and when her small hand lightly pulled on my tie, silently requesting for me to bend and kiss her, she looked into my eyes—a new familiarity was present that hadn’t been there previously.
“Hi,” she whispered against my lips.
“Hi.”
Her tongue traced the edge of my mouth. “How are you?” she asked.
“Better.” And better. And better. And better by the second.
“Better? What happened?” Her words were a mix of sexual sympathy, sultry concern.
“It was just a long ass day, and I missed you,” I confessed, too weary to hide much.
She softly took my bottom lip between hers and kissed me. “I might have missed you too.”
Hearing she’d missed me started a revival inside my body. Suddenly, I was cured of my anxieties, roused from my exhaustion—still sore to the verge of death—but I was ready and willing to do whatever it took. I’d die trying to please her if it came right fucking down to it.
While bent over to kiss her, I took advantage and reached the bottom of her tight-fitting workout shirt.
She accommodated by letting me pull it off her body. Accommodated, by deftly unbuttoning and removing my shirts, then worked on my belt. Accommodated, by hiking her leg up mine to get closer to me, making me even more determined to use those precious minutes wisely.
She was light, and I was strong. So I should have been able to easily lift her—had it been any other day—but, considering we were in an aerobic yoga room with swings that could hold the weight of three thousand pounds, I’d take advantage of them.
Arm day be damned, I wouldn’t be stopped. I had the will, and now the way.
Breaking apart from her, I said, “Come here.”
Grasping both of her hands in mine, I walked her a few steps away to the nearest fabric hammock. It was the only black one in a room full of red ones, set up for an instructor to use nearest the mirror that flanked the wall.
I didn’t know how long my second wind would last, and, after being late, I didn’t want to let her down again.
Positioning her between myself and the swing, I knelt in front of her. My head was level with the space between her navel and her breasts. I kissed her stomach as the soft muscles beneath my lips trembled against them.
She was so fucking made for me.
One hand cupped her through her sports bra, the other wrapped around her and palmed her round ass. My fingers, tucked into the back of her form-fitting pants, only paused a beat when I learned she wasn’t wearing underwear. I worked her pants down her legs, then over her bare feet. I held her by the hips as my mouth wandered, my lips saying hello to every warm place they found.
Her hands began working over my shoulders, firm thumbs pressed smoothly into my achy muscles.
“You don’t know how good that feels,” I praised as my forehead pressed into her abdomen. She was tending to me so completely and without even trying.
“Here,” Dana said quietly, pulling me to stand. She switched places with me, turning us as she went. She toed at my pants and underwear, which were gathered at the tops of my shoes. I kicked them all off as she unzipped her bra down the center and tossed it.
“Sit in it,” she instructed.
Without arguing, I did what I was told and held the fabric in place as I put my weight into the middle of the swing, but something was wrong.
She stepped closer to me and straddled one of my legs, her small hands held my jaw.
I couldn’t do it. Something had to be done before we went any farther.
“Wait.”