by Karla Doyle
“Wonderful, I’m in. I can’t believe how quickly this came together, it’s so exciting.” More handshaking ensued, then the two tall redheads wandered off, toward the rear of the club.
Leigh turned toward the counter, her mouth already in the process of forming a question about the deal that’d just transpired. “You don’t look happy,” came out instead. She’d been studying Sam’s face since the day she first saw him at Iron Works. Over the course of their professional and personal relationship, she’d seen a host of expressions, but she’d never seen him grim-faced on the job.
At the sound of the door chime, the taut line of his lips morphed into a generic smile. “How’s it going?” He passed the incoming member a towel, exchanging nods with the middle-aged man.
Middle-aged. The term came to mind so easily. Too easily, since the man looked approximately her age. Middle-aged, as she was. As Sam was not. As Frances McKenna, Sam’s gorgeous new associate, was not.
“You don’t look so happy either,” Sam said, snapping her out of it.
“What? Oh, that’s nothing.” Just a pesky negative thought foolishly trying to steal her joy. She waved it off while stepping as close as possible to the counter. “I won’t press because you’re working, but if you want to talk about it later, I’m always happy to listen.”
A genuine smile gently curved his mouth. Reaching over the slick gray surface, he took her hands and brought them up top, where anybody could see, then held them tightly. “Mine’s nothing too, but I’ll tell you now anyway, because I don’t want to sacrifice any of our talking minutes later.”
Since Lennox had returned from the cottage, Leigh and Sam had had no private time together. Sam had popped into the bakery a couple of times. A nice treat, however, her daily workload didn’t permit more than a few quick kisses. The closest thing they’d had to a date were their late-night calls. Long ones that crept into the wee hours, front-loaded with conversation and ending with one or both of them getting off before they said goodnight.
She didn’t want to sacrifice any of those minutes either. Nor these ones, fleeting as they might be.
“Whatever it is, or was, you don’t have to tell me at all. If you say it’s nothing, it’s nothing. It’s just so out of character for you to look anything aside from happy at work, I was worried.”
“That’s why I’m going to tell you. So you won’t waste any of your beautiful brain cells wondering and worrying.” Releasing her, he stepped back and leaned against a shelfful of wellness products. “Brian decided to lease out an unused room at the back and he chose Frances’s physiotherapy practice to fill the space. Her grandmother is one of my regular clients and I was wary of mixing existing business with a different level of business, but he’s confident it’s a good decision, so here we are.”
“If you’re concerned enough about this business decision that it put the look of doom on your face, maybe you should talk to Brian again, before the ink dries on the lease.”
Another expression breezed over Sam’s face. One she’d only seen a couple times, but recognized instantly. Hard to forget the look of impending bad news. If he didn’t feel inclined to share it, she wouldn’t push to hear it. Being his girlfriend didn’t entitle her to know his every thought and emotion.
“Frances’s grandmother tried to set us up. I don’t know if Frances is aware of it. That’s how Brian got her business card that started this ball rolling. I left it on the desk.”
The sensation of bad milk curdling tugged at Leigh’s gut. “But you didn’t put it on the desk for him to consider adding her to the club. You left it there for yourself.”
“Not the way you’re thinking. I took it out of my wallet the minute I realized I didn’t want to call anybody but you. For the record, that was about sixty seconds after I received the card. That’s why I left it on the desk, to get rid of it.”
“The garbage can is generally more effective for that.”
“True. I guess that in my mind, it was some kind of life-changing gesture. I’m smart about some things, but I’m still learning how to not be an idiot about other stuff. The important stuff, unfortunately.” Even while pointing out his mistakes, he was charming.
She’d always been attracted to directness, but with Sam, even more so. Something about his particular brand of lay-it-all-out-there honesty endeared her in a way she hadn’t experienced before.
Your heart already knows how you feel.
“Do you want to come over Saturday after work and meet Lennox? Officially meet her, I mean.”
Sam’s eyes widened, as did his smile. “Definitely.” Full grin in place, he pushed off from the ledge to meet her at the service counter again. “You keep surprising me.”
Surprising herself too. The excitement of new experiences wouldn’t last forever though. It couldn’t. One day, she’d run out of ways to surprise him. Then she’d just be boring old Leigh. But today was not that day.
The electronic chime of an incoming gym member broke into their moment, pulling Sam’s attention toward the door. “How are you today, ready to crush those goals we set last time?”
The young man passing his card in front of the reader beamed at Sam. “Today’s the day, I can feel it.”
“Awesome.” Sam flicked his wrist to check his watch. “Meet you at the warmup zone in three minutes.”
“See you over there.”
Sam watched until his client reached the stretching area across the club. “He’s dropped almost sixty pounds since we started training together.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Keeps his nutrition clean, mindset is on point, always busts his ass. That kid puts more effort into an hour-long session than most people put into a week’s worth of workouts.” Admiration filled Sam’s voice. Not a trace of I did this in his tone. He was a good man.
Her good man. “Go do your thing and make his day even better.” She shifted her bag higher on her shoulder in preparation to leave—grudgingly. “Then call me tonight and do the same for mine.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Me too,” she said, turning to make her escape from his presence before a few other little words made their escape from her lips.
Tim was right—her heart already knew.
SAM
Standing at Leigh’s front door with his hand poised to knock, Sam did a lastminute reconsider on the gifts he’d brought. He had a lot of insight into Lennox because Leigh talked about her all the time. On the flip side though, the girl probably didn’t know much about him. Maybe nothing.
Giving Leigh’s ten-year-old a present at their first official meet and greet might be weird. Not “candy from a stranger” weird, but definitely “this guy’s trying too hard” weird.
At the sound of the deadbolt turning, he stashed the small paper bag behind a shrub. He was still in a semi-crouched position when Leigh appeared in the doorway.
“What are you doing?”
“Tying my shoe?”
Her head tilted in the most adorably disbelieving way. “That’s a question, not an answer.”
He straightened up, resisting the urge to take a final glance at his rushed hiding job. “I don’t want to lie to you, but I don’t want to tell you the truth right now either. I will later.”
A smile crested across her pretty, pink lips. “Then tell me later.”
“I love how easily you roll with the punches.” About every damn thing.
“I’m glad I make it look easy, because there are a lot of wheels turning on the inside.” She laughed lightly. “Pretty much always.”
He didn’t doubt it. Leigh was a thinker, through and through. An analyzer. Not a dweller though. The few times something had knotted her up rather than rolled off, she’d addressed it directly and immediately. Then moved forward. She liked things labeled, organized and dealt with. She was methodical, but never boring.
Exactly the opposite. Add her physical beauty and their off-the-charts sexual chemistry to all that and he was one-hundred pe
rcent hooked. He couldn’t get enough of all things Leigh.
“I wasn’t tying my shoe. I got a little gift for Lennox, but then I decided it might seem like I’m trying to buy her approval, so I hid it.”
“In the flowerbed?” she asked, following his gaze.
“I heard you unlocking the door. I didn’t have time to go back to my truck. I had to stash it fast.”
The soft hair he couldn’t wait to touch shimmered as she laughed. “What happened to telling me later?”
“It is later.”
“True.” Smiling while shaking her head, she stepped aside to make space. “Get in here.”
Their fingers brushed as he entered the house, the air between them charging from the simple contact. Every cell in his body demanded more. He wouldn’t get more—wouldn’t get anything other than a friendly smile—until much later. Leigh had labeled him an in-the-moment guy and she wasn’t wrong. But for her, he’d have patience too. As much as it took.
“Lennox is in the backyard with the puppy,” she said, leading the way.
One step into the living room and he stopped. Not because of his newfound abundance of patience. “She knows about this, right?”
“That you’re coming over, or that we’re dating?”
“Yes and yes.” A grown man shouldn’t need reassurance about meeting a kid. Especially one he’d technically already met. Tell that to the knot at the top of his gut. “Maybe I should grab the gift.”
“She knows about you, Sam. It’s sweet that you want to win her over, but you won’t do that with whatever you stowed in my garden.” Leigh slipped her soft hand along his and threaded their fingers together. “She’s going to like you for you.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I’m always right,” she said, treating him to a cheeky smile. “But you’re smart enough to know that already.”
He was spared the need to respond by the appearance of a full-throttle careening puppy.
Lennox followed in hot pursuit, her level of zing only marginally less than the dog’s, due mainly to having half the amount of legs and a higher center of gravity.
Legs paddling in every direction, the bug-eyed black puppy skidded across the hardwood floor, hitting Sam’s shins with a surprisingly solid thud for such a small dog.
Lennox avoided a similar crash entrance by diving over the arm of a nearby chair. “That’s Ladybug,” she said, popping up from behind the gray upholstery. “She heard your voice and had to come see you. You can pick her up if you want. She’ll like you better if you do.”
He’d prefer advice on how to make the talkative little girl like him better, but he’d start with the dog. He released Leigh’s hand, then crouched to collect the wiggling puppy. “Hello, Ladybug.”
Leigh laughed as the puppy returned his greeting by depositing a swath of dog spit across his cheek and eyelid.
“That’s how she kisses,” Lennox said.
He didn’t need to be told what to do next. Kiss the dog, obviously. Which he did, peppering the puppy’s head and face with kisses while accepting more face washing in return.
“Cute puppy,” he said, straightening again.
“You like her more than Mommy does.” A matter-of-fact statement from Lennox that pulled the knot in his gut a bit tighter.
Maybe he’d overdone it. He certainly hadn’t meant to upstage Leigh. Two minutes into this and it was already harder than a personal-best deadlift.
Ignoring Lennox’s remark, Leigh pointed back and forth between him and the girl who’d rolled out of the chair to join the puppy at floor level. “Sam, Lennox. Lennox, Sam.”
“Hello.” Lennox waved up at him. “Do you want to meet our cat too?”
He shot a glance at Leigh, who countered with the world’s most subtle head shake. Mindreading abilities would be great right about now. “I’d like to meet all your pets.”
“There’s only a cat and a dog.”
“Only.” This time, an eye roll accompanied Leigh’s pronounced head shake. “Two is enough.”
“Mommy doesn’t want any more responsibility.” Lennox directed the comment toward him, as if he needed the explanation. “That’s why she doesn’t want more kids either.” Her attention didn’t drift from Sam for a blink. In fact, she may not have blinked at all, the kid was that damn focused. “I hope you don’t want babies or more than two pets if you’re going to be her boyfriend.”
Leigh choked on a laugh, but said nothing. Just let him hang there without a safety net.
“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.”
The answer seemed sufficient to Lennox, who nodded while rising from her cross-legged position. “I’ll go find Smokey. He’s the cat. He doesn’t like kisses as much as Ladybug, just so you know.”
He’d never match the kid’s monotone bluntness, but he managed to keep his amusement in check. “Thanks for the tip.”
“You’re welcome.” She clapped her hands while doing a sidestep shuffle toward the kitchen. “Come, Ladybug.”
The puppy followed, wagging its curly tail while trotting after Leigh’s daughter.
When the pair disappeared from view, Sam turned to meet Leigh’s gaze. “Your daughter has some serious deadpan skills. I have no idea if I botched that or aced it.”
“It’s difficult to tell with her sometimes. I suppose that’s my fault. She’s adopted my tendency toward directness and honesty, but she hasn’t learned how to filter her outgoing information yet.”
“She’s still ten, right?”
“I’ll be eleven in thirty-six days,” Leigh’s mini said, entering the room as purposefully as she’d left it. “This is Smokey.” Arms extended, she offered him the cat. “You can hold him. He doesn’t like everybody, but even if he doesn’t like you, he won’t scratch you.”
Every word and action from Lennox felt like a test. This one, he could pass. He lifted Smokey and cradled the cat like a baby, the way Leigh had previously shown him, stroking the gray fur with his knuckles as Smokey settled in contentedly.
“He likes you.” The faintest trace of emotion laced Lennox’s voice.
Maybe he’d imagined it. Wishful thinking.
“Will you be coming to my birthday party?” An invitation, or another test?
He had no idea. Since the question demanded an answer and Leigh wasn’t offering any guidance, he’d have to go with his gut. Be himself. That’s the only way this’d work, in the long run.
“Will there be cookies?” he asked, referencing their first meeting. “Because I think I’m going to be extra hungry that day.”
A hint of a smile drew Lennox’s mouth upward from its otherwise flat line. “It’s a birthday party. You’ll have to eat cake instead.”
“What kind?”
“Lemon.” She threw down the answer with a glint in her eye and challenge in her tone.
“My favorite.”
“Lemon’s your favorite kind of cake?” Pure disbelief this time around, complete with raised eyebrows and a head tilt that made her resemblance to Leigh even stronger. So, the kid could show emotion, she’d just chosen to keep it in check. Another trait she shared with her mother.
“Yes, lemon is my favorite. I like how it’s sweet but it’s also a bit tart. The perfect combination.”
Lennox held firm in her skeptical stare. “With icing or glaze?”
“If it’s moist, it doesn’t need either one.”
“Mommy’s cakes are always moist. But my birthday cake will have buttercream icing because that’s how I like it.” Another challenge? Hard to tell with this miniature version of Leigh.
“I’ll be there.”
“Okay.” Seemingly satisfied with the conclusion of their conversation, she scooped the puppy into her arms and headed for the stairs. “I’m going to take Ladybug upstairs and draw.”
Leigh patted both heads as they passed. “Set a timer on your phone to take the puppy out in half an hour.”
“I will.” One foot on the bottom riser, L
ennox paused and looked back at them. “My bedroom door will be closed to keep Ladybug where I can see her. If you want to make kissy sounds, I won’t hear them.”
“Go make some beautiful artwork,” Leigh said, laughing while shooing her daughter up the stairs.
Ten seconds later, a door clicked closed upstairs. Leigh did what he assumed any parent would do under the circumstances—stealthily climbed enough stairs to confirm everybody was where they should be.
She smiled while reentering the living room. “All clear.”
He released a long breath while scrubbing his hand over the top of his head, a habit he’d picked up since letting his hair grow in. “Did I pass?”
“Since she invited you to her birthday, I’d say yes.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure if that was an invitation or a ‘do you think you’re coming to my party, you son-of-a-bitch?’ challenge.” Everything in him warmed at the sound of Leigh’s laugh. “Glad it turned out to be an invitation.”
“One that she gave freely, for the record. I told her that I’m dating somebody seriously enough to call my boyfriend, and that he’s the man she met at the bakery. She agreed to meet you here and say hello. That was all I asked of her. Everything after that was entirely Lennox.” She stood in front of him now. Close enough to smell the shampoo that was lucky enough to wrap around her hair every day, the way he wished his fingers could.
At his sides, his hands twitched. “I know I should say something else about the reason I’m here, but all I can think about right now is how beautiful you are and how badly I want to touch you.”
“Then do it.” She pressed her hands against his chest and leaned in, putting their mouths a breath’s width apart. “We have permission to make kissy sounds, remember?”
Sparks shot straight to his groin when she wrapped her arms around his neck and stroked the back of his head. “We don’t have permission for the sounds that’ll come from the kind of kiss I want to give you.”