Six
On Monday morning, Julianne was setting up for her 7:00 a.m. class when Brady walked in. “Hey, Brady! I didn’t know you had any sessions this early.”
He shrugged and walked slowly into the room. “I’m starting with a new client this morning and saw you in here so I thought I’d stop and say hello.”
“Oh…well…hi!”
“Are you going to come by again tomorrow night for more lessons?” he asked casually.
“I was planning on it. If that’s all right,” she said as she put out her bottles of water. “Although, I think I can probably manage on my own if you’re busy. I mean, I know what I’m doing now and honestly, it’s just nice to get up there and sort of let go of all the crazy shit swirling around in my brain for a little while.”
He laughed softly. “I know what you mean. It is a great way to get out…frustrations.”
Maybe it was her, but she had a feeling Brady was trying to say something without really saying it.
“So um…yeah. I was planning on going up there after class tomorrow night,” she said lightly and did her best not to look directly at him. She didn’t know why but suddenly things felt…weird.
“Will you be coming alone or will your…what did you call them the other night? Your squad? Will they be joining you?”
Oh, God. Was Brady hitting on her? Was he trying to get her alone? Crap! What the hell was she supposed to do? She hadn’t planned on asking the girls to join her but…
“Kayla’s leaving to go out of town for work but Natalie and Harper will be here for class so they’ll probably come too. I know Natalie seemed to really enjoy it.”
His smile fell a little and all he said was, “Oh. Okay. Great. I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow night.”
She smiled brightly at him and made a mental note to tell the girls that they had to come with her. It wasn’t what she wanted and maybe she should just go up and do the workout when she knew Brady wasn’t in and just handle it like that.
It was so weird because he knew she was engaged. They’d talked about it that first night and she didn’t get any kind of weird vibe from him then. Or maybe she was just so out of touch with what it was like to have a guy flirt with her because she and Gavin had been together for so long that she missed all the clues.
Dammit!
Now she was going to have to find another time to kickbox and that was completely messing with her perfectly planned schedule!
Not the best thing to add to her rage – especially when it was the one thing that was helping to alleviate said rage!
“Gah!” she growled with frustration and turned to check out the room to make sure he was gone. So not what she needed right now. Brady was a nice enough guy but…she was engaged and getting married and not even remotely unhappy about it. Next time she saw him, she’d have to make sure he understood that.
Poor guy.
Voices alerted her that people were starting to arrive and she pushed all thoughts of Brady aside and focused on her students and getting them psyched to kick off their day with a little bit of dance.
“Good morning, ladies!” she called out. “Make sure you claim your spot because you know Monday mornings are always packed!” She was just about to turn away when she spotted a familiar face. “Penny!”
“Hey, Julianne,” Penny said as she stepped forward. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup but still looked adorable. “This is my first Zumba class and after listening to you and your friends talk about it, I thought I’d give it a try.”
“I’m so glad you’re here! You’re going to love it. I know you will. And know it’s okay if you mess up or if you don’t feel coordinated; that all comes with time.”
“I took ballet for a couple of years when I was younger and then switched to gymnastics – much to my mother’s chagrin…”
“Been there, done that.”
Penny smiled. “Anyway, I’m in a slump right now with my workouts so meeting you was the perfect thing for me.”
“I love hearing that! Go find a spot and we’ll get started in a bit. I need to finish setting up.”
“Thanks, Julianne!”
Fifteen minutes later, the room was full to capacity and she noticed that several people never made it through the door because of it. Good. She loved that. Not disappointing people, but the fact that her class was in such demand that they had to turn people away. It meant she was doing a good job and word was getting around.
This was what she was meant to do; it’s what fueled her. She loved creating the choreography, picking the music, having control of it all and not having to answer to anyone to get their approval.
This was her happy place.
If she could plan her wedding the way she planned her classes, Julianne knew she’d be a very happy woman. Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way. She had to consult with far too many people for this wedding and deal with everyone’s tastes and budgets and it was all so damn frustrating!
Her dinner with her parents fell through because her father had come down with some sort of stomach bug which her mother believed was food poisoning from the takeout they had on Saturday night. When she got the call, Julianne had been too concerned about her father to really focus on how disappointed she was about the canceled dinner because it meant she’d have to wait at least another week before she could sit her mother down and talk to her about Harper and the rest of the wedding plans.
Gavin assured her it would all be okay – especially since the dress shopping part of the planning was done. There wasn’t going to be a whole lot they had to do as a group for a while so maybe it would help ease the tension.
Julianne wasn’t so sure. They were still family, after all. And while the wedding planning brought out the snarkier comments toward Harper, the more Julianne thought about it, the more she realized that her mother had been doing it for a while – pretty much ever since Harper’s first failed engagement ten years ago. And it had only gotten worse with each one. When Harper called off her engagement to Steve two years ago, Julianne was relieved and she thought the whole family felt the same way because none of them particularly liked him. But it didn’t seem to be the guy, per se, that fueled the snarky comments. It wasn’t even about the marriage itself.
No…it was more about the wedding.
So their mother wanted to plan a wedding and felt robbed of that, so that was why she was picking on Harper? Could it really be that trivial? And if it was, why couldn’t she just let it go? She was helping Julianne plan hers so…what was up with that?
“Um…Julianne? It’s seven-fifteen,” someone called out, and that’s when she realized she had totally zoned out on her class. That was something she never allowed to happen. Ever.
So with a big smile on her face, she called out, “Sorry! I totally zoned there for a minute!” Then she picked up her remote and started the music and her spiel.
“Good morning! I’m Julianne and this is Zumba! Do we have any first-timers here today?” Julianne asked just as she did at the beginning of every single class. Several people raised their hands. “Awesome! I am so glad you decided to join us today! This is a cardio dance class but don’t worry if you don’t have any dance experience – you don’t need any. And don’t worry if you don’t pick up the steps right away because we’ve all been there!”
And once she started moving, everything else just faded away.
****
Kayla looked at her travel itinerary for the hundredth time and frowned.
She had an early morning flight tomorrow morning and she had zero enthusiasm for this trip. Not every assignment was exciting, but normally she could summon up a little bit of enthusiasm for them.
Not this time.
Freaking Nevada.
There were going to be dozens, if not tens of dozens, of amateur photographers all over the desert taking pictures of the meteor shower and planetary alignments. It wasn’t a big deal at all. She doubted that any serious photographers would be out there.
Most photographers on her level sort of laughed at assignments like these. If they did happen to go out and take pictures, it was for their own enjoyment and not for a paycheck. Adam must really think poorly of her if this is the assignment he gave her.
Normally they’d be on the phone every day leading up to a trip, with him telling her what he was looking for in the pictures and they both knew it was just an excuse to call and make plans. He came with her on some of the more exotic trips. And while their first trip – the one to Ireland – would forever be her favorite, she saw that Adam had definitely been more than a sex buddy.
And now he wasn’t.
Was he dating someone already?
Had he thought about her at all in the last week?
“This is crazy,” she murmured as she closed her laptop. “I can sit here and speculate, or I can go and confront him.” She stood up and went about getting showered and dressed. There was no way she could go on this stupid trip while her head was this messed up. It might be a mindless assignment but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t give it her all and make sure she got the best damn pictures possible.
And none of that was going to happen if all she could do was fixate on what Adam was doing or thinking. She had to have some answers before she left.
Thirty minutes later she was out the door. The trip to downtown Raleigh didn’t take long – finding a place to park took longer – but it was good. She had everything she wanted to ask ready in the forefront of her mind and knew if too much time passed, she’d lose her nerve. As she rode the elevator up to his office, she focused on simply breathing and when the door opened on his floor, she stepped out and felt one-hundred-percent confident.
You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.
Down the hall, she kept up the chant and when she pulled open the door, she smiled at his receptionist Doreen. “Hey!” she said, pasting a smile on her face that she hoped looked sincere. “Is he in?”
They’d done this enough times before that Kayla knew she didn’t have to clarify anything and when Doreen looked at her funny, she chose to ignore it.
“Um…he’s just finishing up with someone. Did Adam know you were coming? I don’t have you here on the schedule,” Doreen said and yes, there was a hint of pity in her voice.
Dammit.
“No, actually,” Kayla replied, trying to sound confident still. “I had some questions about this trip tomorrow and I was in the neighborhood and just thought I’d swing by and talk to him in person.”
“Oh,” Doreen said with a smile. “Okay. I’m sure he’ll be done in a minute.”
Taking a seat, Kayla looked at her phone and saw that it was almost noon. Adam never scheduled anyone between noon and one because he liked to have his lunch hour free. It was also the time they used to grab a quickie if they planned it right. There had been more than one quickie in his office a mere ten feet away from Doreen and just the thought of that made Kayla’s cheeks heat up.
What she wouldn’t give for a quickie right now…
One minute became two minutes. Two became five. Five became ten. She was starting to think Doreen had sent him a message letting him know she was here and he was purposely making her wait. She knew he was a stickler about this time of day, so whoever was in there was blatantly rude or…
Oh. Shit.
Jumping to her feet, Kayla quickly slung her purse strap over her shoulder and started to make her way toward the door. “Um…you know what?” she said to Doreen. “I’ll figure this stuff out. No big deal. And uh…you don’t even have to mention that I was here, okay? Great. Thanks.”
Her eyes stung as she willed herself not to cry. She was out the door and walking as fast as she could to get to the elevator. Once there she slammed the down button and begged and pleaded and prayed for it to get there quickly.
“Kayla?”
Shit. Adam!
She frantically looked around and opted to take the stairs. She couldn’t face him right now. Not like this. Not with tears in her eyes and feeling like her heart had been ripped out of her chest for the second time in a week.
Damn bastard was already using his lunch hour with another woman? Well fine. She couldn’t wait to tell the girls how they were all wrong – she didn’t mean more to Adam. If anything, she meant less to him than he meant to her so…take that!
Talk about a sucky I told you so moment, she thought as she pulled open the door to the stairwell and began walking down quickly. With every step she took, she berated herself for even coming here. What made her think this would be a good idea? No matter what, it wasn’t going to erase what had happened – the breakup, the shit assignment.
“Kayla!”
Seriously? Now he was going to follow her down the stairs?
She pretended not to hear him and hoped he’d think it was someone else going down the stairs. At the next landing, she contemplated going through the door and throwing him off her track but really, how realistic was that? She had nowhere to go on the third floor, so what would that prove?
Breathless, she made it to the first floor but knew Adam wasn’t far behind. Her hand was reaching out for the door handle when he slammed on the door to prevent her from opening it. Seriously, she was almost thankful because she was out of breath from running down six flights of stairs and judging by how hard he was breathing behind her, he felt the same way.
“Dammit, Kayla,” he said in between breaths. “Why didn’t you stop? I called your name several times.”
Twice.
He called it twice.
She rested her forehead against the door and swallowed hard. She took Zumba three times a week, climbed mountains and kickboxed like a champ, so why was she so damn breathless now? It was almost too much – it made her want to stomp her foot at the unfairness of it all.
And then she felt Adam move in closer and rest his head on hers. The warmth of his body, the feeling of his breath on her skin…she was on sensory overload and had to fight the urge to turn and press up against him. She heard him swallow as his breathing evened out.
“I know you heard me calling you,” he said gruffly. “Why did you take off?”
Clearing her throat, she said, “I realized you were busy and got tired of waiting.”
It wasn’t a total lie.
“That explains why you left,” he reasoned, but made no attempt to move away from her. “But it doesn’t explain why you kept on going when I called out to you.”
Damn. He had her there.
“I…I shouldn’t have come by,” she said weakly. “It was stupid.”
This time he did move and she immediately missed him. He said her name quietly and she knew he was asking her to turn around. With a steadying breath, she did.
Why did he have to look so good? His hair was a mess, he hadn’t shaved in days from what she could tell and he looked sexy as hell. All mussed up and…
Oh yeah.
Because someone was mussing him up in the office.
Stiffening her spine, she met his gaze. “You were obviously busy with someone…on your lunch hour,” she added for emphasis. “And I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to be on the other side of the door waiting for you.” She paused and forced her voice to sound stronger, steadier. “I thought I had some questions about this whole Nevada trip, but I figured them out so…no big deal.”
Adam raked a hand through his hair and let out a sigh of frustration. “Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?” she asked incredulously.
He leaned in close. “Bullshit. You came here for something and got in a snit because you thought you knew what was going on in my office.”
She rolled her eyes. He was seriously going to deny it? They’d been doing all kinds of things in his office for years!
“Think what you want, Adam…”
“And this Nevada trip is fucking elementary for you so I highly doubt you had any real questions and concerns, Kayla. Why don’t you just be honest with me and tell me why you were here?”
“You’re going to stand here and tell me you didn’t have someone in your office right now? A woman?” she demanded and wanted to kick herself for coming off like a jealous shrew.
He frowned down at her. “What the hell difference does that make? Why do you even care?”
Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“You know what?” she responded defiantly. “I don’t.”
Adam went completely still and silent. For a minute, Kayla forgot to breathe.
“Are you sure about that?” he asked stiffly, lowly, and she knew what he was really asking. If she said yes, that she didn’t care, this would all be over. He wouldn’t give her another thought, another chance. But if she said no, that she wasn’t sure, then what?
Her heart began to race again, beating so hard it was almost painful, and all she could do was shake her head.
Closing the distance between them, Adam walked her backwards until her back was against the wall. He reached out and anchored a hand into her hair and without a word, kissed her. God how she missed this, him, and she dropped her purse and shifted until Adam lifted her up. Her legs wrapped around his waist and it was so damn good.
This is what she loved about them – the urgency and the desperate need they had for each other. And that’s how Adam was kissing her, like he desperately needed her. He wouldn’t be doing this if he’d just been with another woman. He wouldn’t. He…
Kayla lifted her head and took a minute to catch her breath. “Adam…”
“I knew you were out there,” he said, reading her mind. “Doreen messaged me. I was going over payroll with Janet in accounting.”
“So…you were…what? Testing me? Punishing me?” she asked as she squirmed out of his arms. When her feet touched the floor, she immediately reached for her purse. “What the hell, Adam?”
Now she was pissed off.
Like seriously pissed off.
And from the look of him, so was he.
“That’s my question, Kayla! You come here unannounced and then make me chase you…”
“I did not make you chase me!” she corrected. “No one asked you to follow me down the stairs. And why would you? What difference does it make if I left? You dismissed me, remember? You decided that we were done and as a consolation prize, you gave me a shitty assignment!”
“Kayla…”
“No,” she cut him off. “You know what. You were right. We want different things. Because when I think about five years in the future, I don’t see myself with someone who plays childish games and gets off on punishing me.” Turning, she pulled open the door and looked at him over her shoulder. “Goodbye, Adam.”
****
Harper was stretching and feeling pretty good about tonight’s Zumba class and kickboxing. Sure, tomorrow her limbs would feel like wet noodles, but she’d worry about it then. For now, she was ready to bring on a good sweat, dance and then practice kicking some ass.
Kayla had left on her trip so it was Harper and Natalie standing side by side waiting for Julianne to begin.
“So…um…I never got to talk to you about…”
Oh, God. The text.
Harper looked at Natalie and cut her off before she could say any more. “Don’t. It’s okay. I get it. You texted by mistake. I already deleted it and no one will ever know. Okay?” She smiled and was relieved when Natalie did the same.
“Thank you,” she said with a big whoosh of breath. “You have no idea…”
Harper held up her hand. “I get it. Really. We don’t have to talk about. Ever.”
“Understood.”
Thank God.
“How are things going?” she asked, bending to the side to stretch some more.
Natalie blushed as red as a tomato. “They’re good. They’re good.” Then she paused. “I mean…I think they’re good.”
“You don’t know? What happened when you got home on Saturday? Did you tell Jayce how pissed you were?”
“I started to,” she replied. “I got home and the place was a disaster and I…I freaked out.”
Harper’s eyes went wide. “Wow! Good for you! Did you yell at him?”
She nodded.
“And what did he do? Did Jayce apologize?”
“Not…right away…”
“So you fought it out? Does he get it now, about why you’re so upset?”
Natalie looked away and then pointed to the corner of the room. “Can you…can we…?”
Ah. She wanted a little privacy. Okay, whatever. When they got to the corner of the room, Harper saw Julianne look at them curiously. She gave her a shrug as if to say “No idea” and the next thing she knew, Natalie was explaining, in great detail, about her sexcapades!
Harper had no idea what to do…what to say! It was…it was…way more information than she ever wanted to know about Natalie and Jayce’s sex life, or anyone’s sex life! Where the hell was Julianne and why wasn’t Natalie spilling all of this to her? While Natalie continued to talk, Harper looked over frantically and tried to get her sister’s attention. Luckily they made eye contact and Julianne came over.
“Everything okay? I’m about to get started….”
“Natalie was just telling me about how things went with her and Jayce Saturday night,” Harper blurted out. “I thought maybe you should be here too.”
Natalie looked between the two sisters. “I was going to tell Julianne after class. I knew she didn’t have time right now.”
Great. So Harper had to be the one to throw herself on the grenade and listen to this X-rated story? Wasn’t it enough that she’d gotten Natalie’s sexy text? Now she not only had to have that picture in her mind but have the stories of married monkey sex too? Why was she being punished?
“I promise we’ll talk after class,” Julianne said, smiling. Then she gave Harper a smile that bordered on evil and Harper wanted to punch her. “Let’s get ready to sweat!”
“Okay, so…we’ll just talk about this later,” Harper said and quickly turned to go back to her spot. She didn’t bother to look and see if Natalie followed. Hopefully, Julianne would cue the music and they wouldn’t be able to talk anymore.
Crisis averted.
“Did you save me a spot?” someone called out and Harper froze.
Oh sweet mother of God, what fresh hell was this? Looking to her left, Harper saw her mother walking toward her. Closing her eyes, she counted to ten and then did a silent prayer begging for patience. Her mother came to stand next to her with a big smile on her face.
“Mom,” she finally forced herself to say. “What are you doing here?”
“You girls are always talking about how great this class is and your father is making me crazy with that stomach bug so I thought I’d get out of the house for a little while and come here and dance with you!”
If there was anything sharp to impale herself on and die quickly, Harper would be on it like white on rice.
This was the one place–the one place!–that was a safe zone. No mothers. No boyfriends or husbands or significant others. She was even going to kick and punch the bag tonight.
And it looked like she was going to need it.
“Plus, I really want to make sure I’m in good shape to go shopping for my mother-of-the-bride dress. We’re going to go this weekend. I made the appointment with Hailey when we were there on Saturday,” her mother went on as she reached down to touch her toes. As she rose, she looked at Harper. “You’re coming with us, right? I thought it would be nice – a girls’ day. Just the three of us! Won’t that be fun? We’ll go to lunch afterwards and…”
Once again, Harper caught Julianne’s eye and conveyed the panic she was feeling. The music instantly turned on.
“Good evening, everyone! I’m Julianne and this is Zumba! Do we have any first-timers here today?” Julianne said as she went into her spiel. As usual, several people raised their hands. “Awesome! I am so glad you decided to join us today! This is a cardio dance class but don’t worry if you don’t have any dance experience – you don’t need any. And don’t worry if you don’t pick up the steps right away because we’ve all been there!”
“Oh, listen to my baby up there!” Melinda cried excitedly. “And look how fit she is in her little exercise outfit! She’s going to make a stunning bride, isn’t she?”
Was Harper seriously supposed to answer that?
“Even though her gown isn’t really going to let her show off how toned her arms are…” Melinda turned and looked at Harper’s arms and gave one a light pinch. She frowned. “Maybe you can ask Julianne to help you with some toning exercises for your upper body, Harper. Your gown isn’t very forgiving, you know. Sleeveless isn’t a good look on you if your arms aren’t in good shape.”
“Let’s start with our warm-up!” Julianne called out and everyone started to move. Harper was thankful because it would mean her mother would have to be quiet and pay attention.
That lasted all of ten minutes.
Once the music really picked up and they started on the more complex steps, her mother leaned in close again. “Remember when you tried to take jazz dance in middle school?” Then she chuckled. “Oh, you had two left feet! I remember the day when your dance teacher asked me to take you out of the class and she’d return our money.” She paused and did a little cha-cha step. “It’s good to see you’re not still as clumsy.”
Backhanded compliment? Check!
Right then and there, she wished Kayla was there so the two of them could make their move and dance their way to a couple of rows back. Just when she was ready to accept her fate, Natalie nudged her shoulder and winked right as she danced around her in an exaggerated cha-cha! Before she knew it, Natalie was next to her mom and Harper was free to move away.
“One, two, three steps back. Five, six, see the door,” she sang quietly. “Seven, eight, save yourself.” Yeah, it didn’t rhyme, but it worked and before she knew it, she was in the doorway and giving her sister a thumbs up as she made her exit.
Turning, she walked out to the lobby and thought…now what? Dammit, she really wanted to take that class tonight! Looking back toward the studio, Harper considered going back in and just staying toward the back…
“You look lost,” a deep, male voice said from behind her.
Gasping, she turned and looked at Brady, her hand over her heart. “Oh, God…you scared me!”
He grinned. “Sorry. But seriously, you look lost.” He nodded toward the studio. “Weren’t you taking Julianne’s class?”
“I was but…” she paused. “Never mind. Long story. I just needed to step out for a minute. I’ll probably go back.”
“Probably?”
“Okay, I’m definitely going to go back, just…in a minute.”
He motioned for them to move over by the wall so they weren’t standing in the middle of the lobby in everyone’s way. She followed and wondered why she didn’t just go back to class.
“Your sister teaches one hell of a class, huh?” he asked.
Harper nodded.
“She has the highest attendance rate of any instructor. It’s pretty impressive.”
She looked at him warily. “Yes, it is.” Then she remembered how he had acted with Julianne last week, right before they’d started to argue. So she was right! Brady was totally into her sister! “Her fiancé is really proud of her,” she said, feeling smug. “He really encourages her and because he’s in such great shape too, they work on some of her routines together.”
Nodding, Brady watched her. “That’s a good thing. It’s important to have a supportive spouse.”
“I agree. And Gavin’s the best. Like seriously…the best. The two of them have been together for so long and we were all so excited when they got engaged. Not surprised, mind you, but really excited because we all love him.”
“Excellent,” Brady said, smiling.
“It is,” she agreed. “They’ve been completely in sync throughout the entire engagement and with all of the wedding plans. Jules found her dress last week and I know Gavin’s going to love it. He’ll…”
“Harper!”
Oh for the love of it!
Letting out a weary sigh, she turned. “Hey, Mom. What are you doing out here?”
Her mother walked over and immediately began to eye up Brady. “You disappeared from the class and I wanted to make sure you were all right.” She looked at Harper. “And are you?”
“I’m fine, Mom. I just…I needed something to drink.”
Melinda nodded and looked at Brady again. “Hi, I’m Melinda Burke, Harper and Julianne’s mother.”
“Brady Bennett,” he replied and shook her hand.
“Are you a friend of Harper’s or do you work here?”
“I’m a trainer here,” he replied.
“Oh, how nice! And what were the two of you talking about?” she inquired.
“Engagements,” Brady said before Harper could answer.
“Oh, yes. Poor Harper’s had three failed ones,” she said and then made that annoying tsking sound and Harper wished the floor would simply open up and swallow her. Melinda patted her on the arm. “We’re so happy Julianne’s found the right man and that their relationship is so solid. If only this one…” she motioned to Harper.
“You know what, Mom? It looks like Julianne is looking for you. See? She’s looking out here from her stand. You should probably go back inside,” Harper said hastily and gave her mother a gentle nudge toward the door. “I’ll be back in a minute. I just…I need to get that drink.”
“Oh. Okay, great! I’ll see you inside. Nice to meet you, Brady!” Melinda said with a wave as she walked away.
Mortified.
It was the only word she could think of to describe the way she felt.
Without making eye contact with Brady, she excused herself and began to walk toward the locker room – her eyes watching her feet as she went. She made it all of three paces before Brady was beside her and guiding her down a hallway. Harper didn’t even question it. She figured he was going to give her the same sympathetic look everyone did when they heard about her life. She braced herself for it.
They stopped and Brady opened a door and ushered her into an office. Lifting her head, she looked around at the tiny space. It could barely hold the desk and chair that was in it and now with the two of them standing there, it was uncomfortably crammed.
Harper forced herself to look at him and waited for it.
The pity.
The sympathy.
“Can I ask you something?” he asked quietly.
She nodded.
“Did your engagements fail because you’re secretly in love with Gavin?”
Um…say what now?
“What?” she cried. “Why would you even ask such a thing?”
“Because of the way you were gushing over the guy while we were talking,” he said defensively.
“I was gushing because he’s a great guy for my sister,” she said emphatically. “And I wanted to make sure you understood how happy they were so you’d quit hitting on her!”
Now it was his turn to look shocked. “What the hell are you talking about? Hitting on who?”
“Julianne! You seriously need to back off! I get it. I know Julianne’s beautiful and great and all, but she’s engaged to be married, Brady. She’s happy and Gavin’s a great guy and if you care about her at all, you’ll just…you’ll leave her alone!”
He raked a hand through his hair and she had a feeling that if there were space in the office, he’d be pacing by now. “Let me get this straight…you think I’m hot for your sister. Do I have that right?”
Crossing her arms across her chest, she nodded. “But it’s wrong, Brady. It’s really, really wrong. I’m sure it’s going to be awkward because you guys kind of work together, but in time you’ll see…it’s for the best.”
Brows furrowed, he stared down at her.
This was beyond awkward but it needed to be said.
“I’m not interested in Julianne,” he said after a long minute.
“Brady…please. I’m not blind,” she said with a hint of sarcasm.
He took a step toward her – not that they were far apart – and gave her a cocky grin. He was so big and so good-looking and…why did he have to be attracted to her sister? Not that she wanted him…much…but…
“I think you are,” he said gruffly.
“I…I don’t know what you mean,” she said hesitantly. Seriously, she was confused. He’s been practically panting after Julianne for the last week. Did he really think nobody noticed?
“I’m not interested in Julianne,” he repeated.
This time there was something in his voice that stopped her. Intrigued her.
“Then…why…?”
One hand came up and cupped her cheek. “I really was just helping out a coworker. She asked for my opinion; I gave it to her and then thought I’d help her out. It didn’t seem like a big deal.”
Okay, that was a reasonable excuse. But then…what was this? What was happening here?
“And then you showed up and were so…passionate,” he murmured, his gaze homing in on her lips. “Even though you were arguing, I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. And then you punched the bag like a prizefighter and I knew I had to get to know you more.”
Her lips parted and she knew she wanted to say something but nothing came out.
“I thought I was playing it cool,” he said with a small laugh. “I figured if I continued to help Julianne with her boxing lessons, I’d get to learn a little bit about you. I’ve seen you around the gym for a while now and just couldn’t find a way or a reason to introduce myself. Then Julianne started with the lessons and I figured I’d bide my time and then…maybe I could ask you out.”
Wait…did he…was he…?
Harper looked at him in confusion. “You want to ask me out?” she asked weakly.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I hadn’t planned on it being like this, but…”
Today he had on another Wolfpack shirt, slightly different from the one the other night. Everything about him was just so…big. She warred with reaching out and touching him and being repulsed.
Okay, maybe that was a little bit strong of a way to describe it. Brady was just…bigger and more muscular than the men she normally dated. And she always thought she didn’t find this physique attractive but being this close to his body, she found herself second-guessing that train of thought. Because right now, everything about him called to her – his smile, his words, and his body. So what did that mean? What was she supposed to do?
“I can’t…” she began and then cleared her throat again. “I really can’t do this right now. I need to get back to class.”
Then she waited for him to argue with her or tell her that she was being crazy, but he didn’t. His smile looked a little sadder but he stepped back and opened the door for her.
Great. He was a gentleman too.
“I’ll see you later,” he said, a little slowly and with a bit of vulnerability.
“Um…yeah. Okay. I’ll see you later,” she murmured and then did her best to walk calmly out the door.
“You’re doing great, everyone!” Julianne called out as Harper walked back in the door. “Now let’s see who can do a little Mambo with me! Yeah!”
Harper slipped in and made her way along the back wall until she found a spot to join back in and for the next forty minutes she knew she went through the motions. She kept up with the steps and even managed to put the effort in and worked up a sweat, but her mind was firmly back in that tiny office and how she was going to handle seeing Brady after class.
And how she was going to be able to turn him down if he really tried to ask her out.
He was all wrong for her – everything she said she didn’t want in a man. And the last thing she wanted to do right now was start a relationship with someone and have people like her mother remind her of how she was making another mistake.
It didn’t matter how tempting Brady was – and he seriously was – she had to stay firm on this.
Because she had a feeling that a mistake with him would leave a lasting mark on her heart.