Evan woke up the next morning to find his bed empty. He felt groggy, stuffed with cotton, and vaguely sticky. He smelled like perfume, and if glitter had a smell, he smelled like that too. He had scratches from Tanya's chrome nails on his arm and back. His hair was a mess. He stood up and went to the small kitchen to get a drink of water.

Tanya was not in the bathroom, the bedroom, or the main room of the cottage. Her dress lay where it had been thrown on the floor. Pulling on a pair of sweatpants and a clean shirt, he went next door to go find her.

What he found was Tanya painting Gran's nails, chatting with her in Vietnamese. She glanced up at him as he came in, and they were familiar enough with each other that a nod from Evan was all she needed. She didn't even stop talking to Gran. Isobel was still there, scrambling a huge skillet of eggs. Hot bacon was stacked on a plate, and bread was in the toaster. She was too short for the kitchen, and her hair was thrown up in its usual messy bun.

Charged with a comfortable confidence he hadn't had with Isobel last night, he walked up to her and tugged on a single curl that stuck out from her bun. She let out a little squeal, and he chuckled, opening the fridge to find Gran's special November coffee creamer. He deserved the calories, after last night's performance.

"I'm sorry," said Gran to Tanya. "I can't actually remember what that means. You gotta remember, I'm like forty years out of practice, kid."

Tanya laughed, and said, "Oh, no, you're fine. It means 'ignorant white woman.'"

Gran cackled merrily.

Isobel caught Evan's eye and stared at him dead-on, then bobbed her head in the direction of the garage. Evan followed her, gesturing to Tanya that he would be back. Tanya kept entertaining Gran. When he found Isobel, she was rummaging around in the freezer. Suddenly, he felt terrible for last night, and he wasn't used to feeling terrible for anything. Tanya knew what that had been, but Isobel might not have, although her good girl act belied an understanding about people and sex that made it difficult to tease her.

"Glory fell last night," she said, getting straight to the point as she picked up a box of frozen waffles. She looked at him as she closed the freezer door. Evan felt his heart pound.

"How?"

"Well, she stood up and was all sorts of dizzy, but insisted she was fine. She walked about halfway to the bathroom and just fell. She wasn't hurt, in fact she wasn't even dazed. She just . . . Got dizzy. I don't know. She wasn't hurt though, so I didn't call 9-1-1, it seemed unnecessary."

"And you didn't come get me then?"

Isobel bristled. "You were busy. She didn't want me to tell you anyway, she didn't want you to worry."

Evan straightened up and crossed his arms. "Thanks for letting me know. And what the hell do you mean I was 'busy?'"

Isobel blushed bright, hectic red. She crossed her arms too. In her sweater and bare feet, she looked adorable and ferocious. She was covered in freckles. She didn't say anything, and Evan began to grin. "What's the matter, Izzy, are you jealous?"

In a very low voice, Isobel said, "Don't you dare call me that."

Evan stepped closer to her, backing her against the freezer. She didn't look afraid, but her breathing got faster and shallower.

He said, "Why not? It suits you. A little name, for a little girl."

"Okay, one, I'm twenty-three. Two, my ex used to call me that, and I hated it. I still hate it. My name is Isobel. Use my full name."

Evan said, "I'm sorry," without sounding very sorry. His voice was low, and rough. He saw Isobel react, shuddering. He should have stopped. He should have backed off. But she hadn't told him to, and usually that was a good sign they didn't want him to. He got right up close to her, towering and muscular.

His arms were still crossed when he leaned in close to her and whispered, "Are you jealous, Isobel? Of Tanya?"

Isobel gripped the box. She shuddered, and looked down. His heart pounded in his chest. He was being a jerk. He was being a bastard. But he couldn't stop.

Isobel looked up to meet his eye. When her hazel eyes met his, he was struck, suddenly, with a desire he couldn't hold back. He tucked a stray curl roughly behind her ear. He could only do things roughly. Tenderness was as foreign a language to him as Vietnamese. Their mouths were close, so close. Isobel's breathing was rough, and fast.

"I could get fired," she said. "For getting too close to you. So it doesn't really matter if I'm jealous. It also doesn't matter because I'm not sure what it is that you do, but I know bouncer isn't one of them. I'm gonna bet you're doing something illegal. I'm also going to bet that you hurt people, Evan. I won't be handing my heart over to someone who hurts people for a living."

She pushed past him and walked back through the garage door. He watched her go. He crossed his arms again, trying to catch his breath. Being so close to her had snapped something inside of him.

When he went inside after her, he was able to put that swagger back on like a coat. Tanya's eyes met his, and her eyebrow quirked. He realized she was wearing his clothes, an overlarge shirt and a pair of his boxers. Of course she was, she didn't have any clothes other than that dress and her shoes.

Suddenly, he felt like an idiot, and a jackass. Isobel had disappeared, and when he sat at the table, he saw that it had been laid with breakfast.

"Where's Isobel?" he asked.

"She went home," said Gran, giving him a look as she carefully held a piece of bacon. Her nails were still tacky. "She has class today."

"It's Sunday."

"You don't know how college works."

* * *

Evan couldn't ditch the feeling that he'd messed up with Isobel. Once they'd eaten—he'd never seen Tanya eat before—they showered and dressed. Then they climbed into his fancy red car and headed back to the club for Tanya's car and things. The drive out of the ‘burbs was silent, but then Tanya found a whole lot of things to say.

"So, what's going on with that gal?"

"Who, Isobel?"

"Yeah. She's cute."

"She's a kid. She doesn't exactly get out much."

Tanya smiled privately to herself. "She was nice to me."

Evan frowned. He didn't look at her, but he did turn his head a little. "Really?"

"Yeah. She told me about her work and her yarn. She gave me a cup of coffee. She even asked me what I wanted for breakfast. I told her not to worry about it, but she insisted. The bacon was me. You're welcome. Also, your grandma's cool as hell."

Evan almost made himself feel nauseous. He remembered the way he had treated Isobel earlier. He remembered her smell. Her hair. Her eyes, hard and accusing. Her words that cut deeper than they should have.

It wasn't a mystery to Evan that he wasn't a great guy. His work was criminal, but he liked his life. Or at least, he thought he did.

"Since when are you this chatty?"

"Since you need to be spending more time at home."

"I'm home all the time! Since when do you care about my personal life?"

"I think I just became part of your personal life, dude."

"I didn't really realize that I had signed up for that."

"Why, am I taking Isobel's spot?"

Evan sighed. "Okay, Tanya. I get it. You think I have a thing for Isobel—"

"No, Hun, it's not just me. It's everyone."

He gritted his teeth. "I'm done talking about this."

"I'm not. What did Isobel even want this morning? It was obvious that something happened."

"My Gran fell last night. That's why Isobel works there. She's supposed to be there in case Gran falls and to let me know when she does."

"Oh my God, she even takes care of your family?"

"It's her job."

"So? She could be stripping right now. That's how I put myself through school."

"You went to college?"

"Yeah. I have a bachelor's degree."

"What are you doing nails for?"

"My mom needed help at the shop. My older sister couldn't do it, she's a doctor and she was already busy. I didn't have a job yet, so I stepped up."

Evan frowned and furrowed his brow. He was tired. His muscles ached a little. He couldn't stop thinking about what an ass he'd been to Isobel, and every time he thought about it, he struggled not to cringe outwardly, though he felt his insides buckle. Why was he reacting like this?

They pulled up to the club and Tanya climbed out. Evan did not, and he watched her from the driver's seat with the engine idling. She searched through her purse for her keys, and pulled them out. She drove a forest green SUV, and the lights blinked when she unlocked it. Bending down to peer into the car, she said, "Look, Evan, I'm not the boss of you, and I don't actually give a rip what you do with your life, but it's worth considering that this line of work isn't forever. You're gonna get old someday."

Tanya slammed the car door shut, although it was more of a passive action than an aggressive one. As she walked to her car, Evan slowly drove through the parking lot and out onto the main road.

He wasn't sure where to go from here. Usually, he went to the gym, to take advantage of all the extra testosterone. Reluctantly, he did so.

His gym was full of meat heads like him. It was all the usual sorts of things, weight lifting, jogging machines. Posters of gleaming, athletic models hung on the walls to guilt the less committed into working harder, or to inspire the hard working to keep going. He didn't really feel like doing any of the usual muscle-toning exercises.

Thinking back to the fight the night before, he remembered that he hadn't lasted very long before he'd gotten tired. His endurance was down. He needed endurance training.

The gym had a big track with three lanes that you could run, jog, or walk around. He slipped in his ear buds, and started jogging. He wasn't alone on the track, and he wasn't exactly happy to see who else was there. Unfortunately for him, the other guy had already noticed him.

Evan's equal in every way, Rodney was just as tall, muscular, strong, and quick as Evan. He was just as handsome, and got just as much attention from both the girls and the boss. He was also just as much of a jerk, or possibly more. He was a few years younger though.

Rodney jogged a bit faster to catch up, and shouted, "Hey! Lockwood!"

Evan rolled his eyes before Rodney could see, then took out one ear bud.

"How's it going, Lockwood?"

"Can't complain."

"Sure you could! After that nasty shiner I gave you last night."

Evan turned his head so that Rodney could see that he had not, in fact, given Evan a shiner. "Nice try, Rod, but not this time."

"Damn, just missed. Oh well. It sure didn't stop you from getting any action, huh? How is Tanya? Any good? You know what, don't answer that. I'll find out for myself. Maybe tonight. The boss sure was impressed though. He said all sorts of nice things."

"Well, you did drag it out to impress him."

"We! We dragged it out. It was a team thing, man. Don't sell yourself short. I'm sure you did the best you could."

Evan wanted to punch him again. Rodney didn't have a scratch on him, as usual. The bruised cheek had been a fluke thanks to Evan's lowered endurance.

"Maybe we should coordinate again next time? Except maybe before the fight. Maybe you'll even get the big cut, eh?"

Rodney's gleaming demeanor faltered for just a second. It didn't matter how impressive he had been, Evan was still the boss's man. He had received the biggest cut, as usual. It was the one way in which they weren't equals—Rodney was lower down the totem pole.

At least for now, and Evan was planning on it staying that way.