Chapter Thirty-Six
Tyler
The kiss didn’t amount to much, but she did come back home with me. The two of us talked for a little while and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask her to help me train for the competition.
I felt like such a fuckin pussy for being happy when she said yes, but I also couldn’t deny that she was one of the best trainers I ever had; not that there were many. I basically trained myself for the majority of my competitions, but for me to stay with her and allow her to help me, beyond just working toward the goal myself was a big damn deal for me.
Usually, the only person that I considered, especially when I was training, was myself.
However, for the next two weeks, Ashley stayed by my side. Every morning, without fail, we were both up at four-fucking-thirty and running down the beach by five.
Once we ran, which was more of a light jog for me, but a real workout for Ashley, we made our way toward the gym, where my actual workout began.
I would lift weights and do pretty much whatever I could to improve myself, both physically and mentally, while Ashley kept tabs on my progress.
Finally, a few days before the competition, on our way back from the gym, dead tired and ready to return home just to fall into bed, I felt like I should say something to her. She had worked so hard to get me into shape.
“Hey, Ashley, thanks for being there for me.”
She smiled back at me. “It’s been fun and you are far less moody when you’re working out…” She shrugged in a teasing way and answered, “You talk less too, which is really nice.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” I barked before I added, “I’m trying to be fucking nice to you.”
“Yeah, well, you suck at it,” she teased back and I shoved her playfully.
She giggled and moved forward with all her might, trying to plow into me, in order to move me the same amount that I had moved her, or at all, but she just hit me and stopped.
I chuckled as I grasped her arm so that she didn’t fall down. “Uh…I didn’t think I had to tell you this, but you shouldn’t do that. I am a brick fucking wall. There is nothing that is going to get past this shit,” I said in a cocky way as I smacked my perfectly formed abs with my large hand.
I was proud of my body and throughout the training, I had actually grown in my ability, more than I had in years, which I was sure would give me even more of an advantage.
“No, you’ve been doing really well!” Ashley exclaimed.
We hadn’t heard any more of that asshole who had tried to take Ashley from me and I was glad, but the experience had made her a lot more comfortable around me. In a strange way, I thought that shit had brought us closer together. It was weird, but I wasn’t complaining.
I was beginning to feel closer to Ashley then I had felt to anyone in a long time. Even though we had our arguments and neither one of us was completely sure what we were to one another, I was still enjoying that journey, wherever the hell it might lead.
The night where I had to beat the shit out of the asshole had proved to me that I could be decent and that there were a lot of men who were worse than I was. That, in a strange way, gave me hope that I could end up not being such a dickhead.
Just don’t fucking kill her and you should be good, I thought whenever I would contemplate where our relationship was going. This thought haunted me, but there was no way in hell, even as close as Ashley and I had gotten, that I would share something like that with her.
I hadn’t pressed to have sex with her, because I knew that might only make her uncomfortable. However, for once, I realized that just spending time with her was enough, at least for now.
Over the past two weeks, my mother and her father had pretty much left us alone; once again extremely happy that they didn’t have to entertain us in any way. They could go and fuck to their hearts’ content and they wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.
“Your carrying has improved a lot and if you could just get your deadlifting flawless, your performance would truly be unbeatable.”
“Shit, my performance is unbeatable now. There is no way any of these dick-less pussies in this beach town know anything about a strong man competition.” Even though I bragged, I knew that she was right.
Another thing that I liked was that she was taking the time to learn what it was like to be me. She didn’t stop at the exterior and run away; she was really getting into what I was into and learning more about the man behind the curse words and muscles than anyone had ever either cared or had a chance to learn.
Even in the short time that we were hanging out, I wasn’t even sure my own mother had looked past my act of defiance, and although it was new to me, I was quickly learning that it meant a great deal.
She laughed and answered, “All right. That’s fine, but you aren’t competing to beat them, you are competing to beat yourself and so you need to always be getting better. You can’t just be some complacent lump on a log.”
“Excuse me?” I demanded. “Do I look fucking complacent to you?”
“No, but you also had better never get that way.” She smiled at me and I rolled my eyes.
“Complacent my ass…” I grumbled.
“Just remember, even if you beat the whole world, internally, you will still have to strive to beat your own best.”
“You sound like a fucking sports shrink. Don’t give me that pansy sports pep talk. You’re a trainer, not a cheerleader.” I glanced over her body and allowed my eyes to rest on her breasts, before I picked my head up and answered, “Even though you might look the part.”
“Eat your heart out,” she spat back, glaring playfully at me.
“That’s not the only thing I’d like to eat out…” I said under my breath, just loud enough for her to hear.
I watched with pleasure as her face grew slightly horrified. This time, she really did throw herself into me enough so that I stumbled a few inches to the side.
When I recovered, I laughed outright and answered, “I’m sorry, was that not fucking romantic enough for you? It’s not like we’re…”
She glared at me now and smacked my arm. I stopped speaking, realizing that we were in the middle of a town where virtually everyone knew who she was, if not who both of us were, and I would really hate to get caught just by something that I said; especially if I wasn’t even getting any at the present moment.
So, I just chuckled at her extreme reaction and continued toward the beach house.