I’ll say one thing about doing meal prep—it’s easy to clean up.

Nolan rinsed out the divided container and put it alongside the other divided containers in the dishwasher. It might be all the rage and great for portion control, which he definitely needed, but the sight of all those little containers lined up in his dishwasher depressed him and made him think of little old ladies who shared their meals with their cats.

Not that there was anything wrong with that.

With a heavy sigh, Nolan shut the dishwasher door. He looked around the small galley kitchen and tried not to be glum.

A large tuxedo cat hopped up onto the kitchen counter and sat up on his hind legs. He yowled piteously, and Nolan scratched him on the chin.

“I know, Iggy. But you’ve got to lose some weight, too. It sucks, though. I’d much rather be eating fried chicken.”

The cat sat down and seemed to sigh. Me, too, Iggy. Me, too.

Nolan picked the cat up off the counter and carried him to the living room, where he plopped both of them down onto the couch.

“So what are we going to do for the rest of the evening, Iggy?”

“Mrrrowp.”

“Too hot still. We’ll go for a walk when it gets closer to sundown.”

“Mrrrowp.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The phone’s ringing interrupted their conversation.

“Hello?”

“You were talking to your cat, weren’t you?”

Nolan closed his eyes and sighed. He loved his eldest brother, but the man never called unless he had something to badger Nolan about.

“Hi to you, too, Toby. What do you want?”

“Wow. You taking lessons from Cal?”

Nolan snorted at the reference to the middle Harper brother. No one would ever accuse Calhoun Harper of being subtle.

“No, I just know you. What do you want?”

“Hell, I was just checking in to make sure you were doing all right.”

“I’m fine, Toby. I’m always fine.”

Nolan could hear Toby grunt and then sigh on the other end of the line.

“Good, then you’ll be up for my show on Friday.”

“I don’t get off until six, and you know Atlanta traffic. I won’t be able to get up there until later, and then I have to be up and at ’em early on Saturday.” Nolan crossed his fingers and hoped his brother would accept his excuse.

“Not going to work this time, Nolan. I’m playing in midtown, just a few blocks from where you are. You’ll have plenty of time to make it to the show, which starts at nine, by the way. You’ll be home by eleven. You’re not getting out of this one.”

Dammit.

“Nolan, man, you need to get out more. Meet some people.  Life’s too short to do nothing but work.”

“Boy, that’s the pot calling the kettle black there, Toby.”

“That might be the case, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. And my job forces me to be social. How many people do you talk to at this new gig of yours? And I’m not talking about the people you talk to for your job, because I know you spend all day on the phone. I’m talking about pure socializing.”

Nolan sighed. His brother had a point. Since he’d stopped working at the restaurant and taken an office job, he didn’t interact with many people.

“I talk to people at the fight club,” Nolan fibbed. He talked to Colin Carmichael, his personal trainer at the fight club. And today, he’d talked to that woman fighter, Bridget.

“Oh yeah? How’s that going?”

“It’s going well. I can tell I’m getting into better shape. It’s tough, but it’s good.”

“I bet there’re a lot of good-looking women at that gym. You talked to any of them?”

“I talked to one today.” Not exactly a lie.

“Was she cute?”

Nolan paused. He wouldn’t use the word “cute” to describe Bridget, mostly because he had the distinct feeling that she would not take kindly to it. He generally tried to avoid pissing off women who could kick his ass.

“She’s good-looking, yeah. Very fit.”

“Well, I would think so, seeing as she must spend her free time at a fight club.”

“Well, actually she was subbing today. My regular trainer’s wife was having a baby, so . . .”

“So, in other words, you haven’t really talked to anyone.”

It was Nolan’s turn to grunt. “I’m fine, Toby. I’m happy. Hell, I’m alive, aren’t I? That’s something we didn’t know I was going to be not too long ago.”

“Nolan . . . man, I’m sorry. We all just worry about you, you know? We don’t ever want you to get to that place again.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ll come to the show on Friday. Text me the particulars, okay? I wanna take Iggy out before it gets a lot later.”

“You still taking that cat out on a leash?”

“He likes it.”

“You can’t convince me that any cat likes to be walked on a leash.”

“Iggy does. He’s more like a dog than a cat.”

Toby snorted. “If you say so. He’s about as big as a damn dog.”

“We’re both working to get healthy.”

“And you’re doing a great job, Nolan. I know we don’t tell you that enough, but Cal and I are really proud of how far you’ve come, with everything.”

Nolan swallowed the lump in his throat. “Thanks. Um, I’m going to take off, okay?”

“Sure, Nol. See ya Friday night.”

“See ya, Toby.”

Nolan clicked off the phone and tossed it onto the couch, barely missing the cat, who gave him a dirty look.

“Okay, Iggy, let’s go. I could use some fresh air.”

Iggy hopped off the couch and ran to the front door, where he waited patiently for Nolan to get the harness and leash. Nolan put the harness on his seventeen-pound cat, and then they headed outside for their nightly walk.

The evening was clear and warm as they made their way down the sidewalk toward the pool. Nolan had chosen the apartment complex because it was close to work and featured a green space that ran adjacent to the river. Situated almost in the middle of the city, the location, which had all the advantages of city life, still seemed like it was out in the country, which was where he grew up. He could still hear frogs singing and watch the flickering of fireflies, but he didn’t have to fight traffic to get those things. It was pretty perfect.

As he and the cat made their way down to the river, Nolan let his thoughts wander. In a former life, he would have just been starting his work shift, as the dinner rush was just beginning. He couldn’t say he missed the hectic pace of working in a restaurant, but he did miss the excitement, that heady rush of almost being in the weeds.

Chasing that rush almost killed him when ten years of rich food, excess weight, and too much stress triggered a massive heart attack. Nolan ran his fingers over the unseen scar than ran down the middle of his chest. He shouldn’t even be here enjoying this evening stroll on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. But he was. And even though he might not be living it up right now, he was alive, and that was enough.

“Mrowp.”

“Yep. Let’s go home, Iggy.”

When Nolan arrived back at his apartment, his phone flashed with notification. He flicked the screen to wake it up and checked his messages. The first message was from Colin, who rambled on deliriously about the baby. The second was a terse message from the woman he met today. She sounded hesitant on the message, like she wasn’t quite sure what she should be saying. Very different from her training, which was rigorous but well paced. He sensed she didn’t talk much on the telephone.

Was she cute? Toby’s question stuck in his mind. No, she wasn’t. She was stunning even with no makeup on and her hair pulled back into a sleek ponytail. And she was strong as hell. She’d had no problem partnering with him for a resistance exercise pattern, and that was something. Nolan was a big guy, and he knew that some people would be uneasy working with him, but Bridget didn’t seem to think a thing about it, which was a really nice change.

Maybe someday he’d get up enough nerve to ask someone like her out.