If I could stay busy enough, with the boxes of merchandise I needed to unpack and display, the training schedule I needed to finalize, and the timecards I needed to finish, maybe I could ignore the bad juju feeling.
I took a sip of my coffee and stretched my free arm over my head with a wince. Went a little too hard in class the day before, and I groaned loudly when my muscles screamed in protest at the movement.
The groan is what had the door to Amy’s office opening, the light of her small corner lamp illuminating the space. The shades were drawn over the glass that looked out over the gym, which I hadn’t noticed earlier. Amy’s head popped out. “Iz. You’re here like, really early.”
I stopped, my heart beginning to tumble over each thudding beat. “Why do you look nervous about the fact that I am?”
I’d worked for her and known her for too long to tiptoe around anything.
Amy sighed, her face falling in a look that had my stomach falling too. She’d been my boss and known me too long to tiptoe around me. This was it. As soon as she looked over her shoulder and spoke to someone in her office, I knew this was the thing I’d been dreading.
A new owner.
A new boss.
But that dread was nothing on how I felt when Amy turned back to me and gave me an apologetic smile. It was the apology I saw that set my heart hammering.
My skin felt too tight and my bones too big because I knew whoever was in that office was the thing … the feeling I’d had.
Suddenly, I wanted to run. I didn’t want to face whatever—whoever—it was.
Amy’s dark eyes searched my face. “I was going to do this tomorrow a bit more formally, but I had a feeling your ass would show up on your day off.”
“I needed to unpack those boxes,” I said, but my voice trailed off when she moved aside, and he filled the doorway.
Holy. Fucking. Hell. It was even worse than I thought. Like all the things that terrified me were rolled into one big, muscular, better-looking-in-person package sent to make me feel wildly out of control.
I hated that I was right, that my sleepless night had indeed warned me that something like this was going to happen. I knew what item in the box had called to me, and oh, my hell, now I wanted to shred it to bits just so I could pretend it didn’t exist.
It would be fine, I told myself.
This was no place for the teenage version of Isabel, the one who’d been a little uncertain and a lot terrified of what people thought of me. I was not her anymore. No matter what was in that fucking box with his name on it.
It was the only reason I didn’t watch where I was walking, and my foot caught on the edge of the ropes.
With a gasp, I pitched forward, my coffee falling with a wet slap onto the ground, my hand dripping from the mess that was left of my cup after I squashed it to death in my hands.
“I am so sorry,” I said.
Amy laughed. “This is the unflappable Isabel Ward I was telling you about.”
My face burned, but she leaned over to toss me a towel, which I used to wipe off my hand, and toss it over the spot of coffee that I’d undoubtedly be mopping up in a few minutes. As I pushed the towel around the mess with my foot, I felt his gaze on me. Carefully, I lifted my head to meet it head-on. See if I was capable of it.
This could.
Not.
Be.
Happening.
Honestly, I knew so much about him that it was ridiculous. From my years of study, of keeping tabs on his career, keeping tabs on him. I knew he was six-foot-three, and in his prime fighting days, he weighed in around two forty-five, tiptoeing him into the heavyweight class that he dominated for years. He’d lost weight since he retired, not that it lessened his impact.
I knew what it was like to watch him fight because I’d watched every one.
Every one.
I knew that his name was scrawled into the pages of fifteen-year-old Isabel’s diary because when he had his first fight, I was utterly convinced I’d meet and marry him someday. For years, every fumbling boy who tried to flirt with me, ask me out, anything with me, was held up to the standard of him in my mind. With the stench of my spilled coffee hanging around us, I swear, I could’ve died from the mortification.
I knew his eyes were dark green, and his mouth rarely ever curved up into a smile.
I knew he’d retired a couple of years ago, after the death of his wife, in order to care for his daughter.
Having him stand in front of me was like having someone hand you the single thing you used to want, used to crave, and now you just had to pray that it was as good in real life as you’d imagined it would be.
If he was anything like what I’d built up in my mind, I was absolutely fucked.
Amy cleared her throat, and it broke the connection between his gaze and mine.
“Iz, you might as well be the first to know,” Amy said.
He took a step toward me, mouth flat but not mean, eyes dark and curious, and when he held out his massive hand, I took a step of my own. Unfortunately, I inhaled shakily before slipping my palm against his. The reason this was unfortunate was because it was loud and impossible for him not to hear.
When our hands touched, his brow lowered, and his gaze held on that single connection point. Slowly, I pulled my hand back, hoping he didn’t feel the tremor in my fingers.
“Aiden Hennessy,” he said.
Like I didn’t know his name.
When he opened his mouth again, I almost slapped my hand over those lips because I didn’t want him to say it. But my hand stayed at my side, and he spoke the words anyway, all low and dark, and I felt a shiver of foreboding at how my life was about to change.
“I’m the new owner.”
It took a few seconds to find my voice, and when I did, it was softer than I would’ve liked.
“N-nice to meet you.” Gawd, I could’ve slapped myself for that one single hiccup on the first word. But, honestly, it was hard to speak over the roaring in my ears. Quite easily, I could count on one hand the times I’d met an athlete that gave me butterflies—butterflies!
Aiden Hennessy, my new boss, who I’d see every single day unless he fired me for being completely incompetent, didn’t just set them off in my belly. From my head to my toes and every inch between was coated in flittering, fluttering, vividly colored, beating wings.
I wanted to douse them in gasoline and light all those little fuckers on fire.
Amy was giving me a weird look because soft-spoken and me did not go together. Ever.
He studied my face for a second, then nodded. “Amy tells me you’ve worked here a while?”
Amy laughed, laying a hand on my arm before I could formulate an answer. “Isabel walked through these doors when she was, what, thirteen? Fourteen? I may not have hired her until she was eighteen, but since the day I laid eyes on that scrappy little girl with a killer right hook, I haven’t been able to shake her.”
My cheeks felt hot again as he appraised me. I gave Amy a slight smile. “She tried, too.”
“Please. I would’ve been crazy to get rid of you,” she said. “She’s the reason we’re doing as well as we are, and don’t let her tell you a word differently. The clients love her, and so do the employees. We all do.”
“Yet you’re leaving,” I heard myself say. My mouth snapped shut because it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing one should say in front of the new owner.
Amy’s eyes watered, and to my abject horror, I felt mine do the same. “You knew this was coming, Iz.”
Slowly, I nodded. “I know.”
When she dropped her chin to her chest, her long, black braids fell over her shoulder, and I heard the quietest of sniffs. The big hulking man watched us carefully, without a lick of judgment in his expression at the display of emotion.
“I’ll give you two a minute,” he said, voice a low grumble that I felt in my bones.
The sound of it, holy hell, I almost shivered. This was so, so much worse than I could’ve
imagined.
Amy lifted her head, teeth white and straight as she smiled gratefully. “Thank you, Aiden.”
He dipped his chin, eyes flickering in my direction once more, then disappeared into the office.
As soon as it was just Amy and me, I gestured to the edge of the boxing ring that dominated the center of the main room. She sat first, and I followed.
“I didn’t …” She paused, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean for it to happen this way. To take you by surprise like this.”
I didn’t trust myself to answer just yet, and even worse, I felt my eyes burn at the thought of not working for her.
And Amy, because she’d known me for so long and knew me so well, just kept talking.
“Aiden came in last year. I don’t know if you noticed.”
I snorted, which made Amy laugh quietly under her breath.
“Of course you did.” She shook her head again. “He genuinely wanted a training session, but he was doing some research, too. And when he approached me a few months ago to start negotiating, Iz, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
The air hissed slowly from between my pursed lips. “How did he know you wanted to sell?”
“I mentioned it to a neighbor because he knows a lot of former athletes. Thought he might have insight as to how I could go about finding someone who would be a good fit.”
My hands tightened into fists. “You could’ve asked me.”
Amy glanced at me in surprise. “For your input?”
I swallowed. “To buy it.”
She nudged me with her shoulder. “You got that much cash laying around, Isabel Ward? I know I haven’t paid you enough to be able to afford something like that.”
Lifting my eyes to her, I nodded. “I have a trust fund from Paige that I’ve never touched. Maybe I’m underestimating how much this place is worth,” I admitted quietly, “but I could’ve probably made you an offer.”
Amy sank back against the ropes, mouth slack. “The hell, Ward? You’re loaded, and I didn’t know? I should’ve been letting you pay for the coffee all these years.”
I smiled. “Maybe. She put the money aside for us, but none of us could do anything with it until we were eighteen, and even then, we needed Logan and Paige’s signature to release anything until we turned twenty-five.”
She hummed. “Well, maybe you could’ve made an offer, and maybe not. But his offer was more than what it’s worth.”
“Why do you think he did that?” My eyes wandered back to the office where he sat quietly, waiting for us to finish talking.
“He’s got a huge family, like four or five siblings or something. They all live in this area, and it’s close to his daughter’s school. It allows him to take what we’ve already built and just … make it even better.” She glanced sideways. “And I think he will. He’s passionate about this, and he doesn’t want to come in and redo everything, I promise.”
I nodded.
The sleepless night was perfectly clear now.
Change had come knocking again, and yet again, it was digging a foothold in the one place I felt the safest. The one place, outside of my family, where I felt the most comfortable.
This was the one thing I worried would test any of the metal-strong barriers I’d put up.
He was.
But because I respected Amy, and I wanted her to be able to get an offer so good she couldn’t refuse and be able to travel the world with her wife, Renata, like they’d always dreamed, I nudged her shoulder back.
“I trust you,” I told her.
“Thank you.” She sighed. “I dreaded telling you the most.”
That had me smiling. “Why’s that?” I asked.
“Because you’re stubborn as hell and don’t think I don’t know you probably had his matches memorized because you watched every single one, and you’ll hate that now that he’s your boss and you feel like you did something wrong.”
Cue me choking on the bubble of hysterical laughter trying to push up my throat.
She had no freaking idea.
My stupid cheeks burned stupid hot for the eightieth time since I walked in the door, and I refused to look at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Amy snorted. “Like you’d share if you did. Promise me you’ll give him a chance, all right? He’ll need you more than anyone else here if he’s going to pull this off. I already told him you’d be his biggest ally.”
His shadow, tall and broad, moved in the office, visible behind the closed shades, and the sight of it—the sight of him—had the knots pulling tighter and tighter in my stomach.
Give him a chance.
To what, exactly? My options were slim. Either he was nothing like I imagined, or he was better. I’d already tripped over myself in front of him, so this whole boss/employee dynamic was off to a fantastic start.
“Iz?” she prompted when I didn’t answer.
“I promise.”
And I’d keep it. But it was the scariest promise I’d ever made because the feeling it gave me made it perfectly clear that my sleepless night was just the beginning. Change was here, and his name was Aiden Hennessy.
Chapter Three
Isabel
“You’re acting weird, and you’re hiding, and I don’t know which of those two freaks me out more.” Kelly’s voice came from over the large stack of boxes I was sitting—i.e. hiding—behind.
Ladies and gentlemen, the unfortunate side effect of knowing my co-workers incredibly well was that they had no problem calling me on my shit—even if I was their manager.
Without sparing her a glance, I pushed aside a stack of sweat towels and marked them on my inventory sheet. “I’m working, Kell.”
“You’ve been back here since the minute he walked in the door.”
The top of her blond ponytail poked up over the tallest box in the stack, but I couldn’t see her entire face.
What Kelly McKendrick lacked in height, she made up for in boundless energy and enthusiasm. So much so that I wanted to dislike her for it, but I quite literally could not because she was one of the nicest people I’d ever met. “Normally, you work in your office on Wednesday mornings. But since your office is empty … I figured you were avoiding him, and I wanted to make sure you were okay in case you needed to talk about it.” She sighed. “Not that you ever want to talk about what’s bothering you, but there’s a first time for everything.”
When I rolled my eyes, she climbed behind the boxes with me, bracing her back against the wall and stretching her pink legging-clad legs in front of her as she started folding the towels. The gym had a handful of part-time employees, and Kelly was the one who’d hung around the longest of that group. “I’m quite sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I murmured. Before I reached for the next box, I handed her the inventory sheet.
“I couldn’t believe how sad I was after the meeting yesterday.” She sighed. “Amy is such a good boss, and he’s so …”
In her pause, I found myself holding my breath. I could certainly think of a few words to fill in the blank, but I wasn’t entirely certain how I wanted Kelly to answer.
“So what?” I asked. I took the clipboard back as she began unpacking the box of new gloves.
“Serious,” she whispered. “I don’t think he smiled once yesterday while she introduced him.”
Kelly’s comment, which was totally accurate, had me serving myself a stern mental pep talk.
Yes, she and I were the same age.
Yes, I considered her a friend because we’d worked together for five years.
And yes, I desperately wanted to talk to her about this entire thing. I wanted to tell her how I was hiding from the hot man who now signed my paychecks and covered my body in butterflies, and at one point in my life, I practiced signing my name as if we were married. The embarrassment was so real.
It was so bad that I hardly spared him a single glance during Amy’s meeting the day before.
Not one.
<
br /> But I couldn’t tell her any of that because I was not in friend-mode for this particular conversation. I was the manager. I also didn’t tell anyone anything if I could help it.
I chose my words carefully. “Seems like he’s always been a pretty serious guy.” When she gave me a curious look, I shrugged. “I watched his fights, so that’s my guess, as much as you can judge someone you’ve never met.”
“I’ll have to take your word on that. I can’t stomach watching professional fights, so I didn’t even really know who he was when she introduced him.” Ohhhhh, to have that problem. “Isn’t he supposed to like, win us over?”
“Actually, I think it’s the other way around,” I told her. “He’s the new owner, Kell, and it’s up to us to show him we know what we’re doing.”
“Even if he’s physically incapable of smiling?” she asked in a glum voice.
I tossed her some gloves. “Even if.”
“These are some badass motherfuckers right here,” she said, pulling the plastic sleeve off so she could admire the matte and glossy black design. “Can I try a pair?”
”If you’re paying for them.”
She laughed. “You don’t think Mr. Smiley would let me have them for free?”
As the words hung in the air between us, his giant, non-smiling shadow appeared. My face fell, and Kelly started coughing—a horrible, hacking sound that did nothing to erase the fact that she’d just called our new boss Mr. Smiley.
My stomach pitched sideways as I saw the muscle in his jaw—which looked carved straight from a mountain—clench dangerously.
“Morning, Mr. Hennessy,” Kelly said.
His eyes flipped from my face back to hers. “McKendrick, right?”
She nodded.
Because half of his body was covered by the boxes, I didn’t know what he was looking at when he glanced down at his hands. But when he came around the side, he was holding a disposable coffee cup, capped in a white lid, with her name scrawled on the side. He handed it to Kelly, who, after taking it carefully, sniffed at the opening.
In my peripheral vision, I saw her jaw fall open.
Forbidden: A Ward Sisters Sisters Novel Page 3