I could feel the corner of my mouth pull up in a smirk. “Well then, you better hope we aren’t on a boat in the ocean together if you start bleeding, because I wouldn’t be able to lift you back on the boat either.”
“In that case, we’ll make sure Mo is around since you have all these plans to let me die if things get tough. I couldn’t see there being anything the two of you couldn’t do together if she’s anything like you.”
I hated him. I really did. And myself, because I had no business joking around with him, but I couldn’t regret it too much either. Damn it.
“I’m not scared of trying to pull you in, but I’ve torn both rotator cuffs. You should just know what to expect. It’s not my fault you’re heavy.” I tried not to smirk but failed. “But if it makes you feel any better, we’ll be able to pull you back into the imaginary boat between the two of us,” I joked, unable to stop myself.
“Good thing I’m a great swimmer,” he countered playfully. “I’ll make sure to keep my fitness up so you and Mo don’t have to worry if you’re the ones bleeding in the water.”
Me and Mo.
Well, I’d hope he’d try to save the mother of his kid. At least for that reason alone. That’s why he was still here, after all, wasn’t it? Because of her?
Something that wasn’t exactly a knot tried to form in my throat, and all I could do was manage a half-assed smile that had his grin melting into a long, loaded look.
I was worthy of love. I was loved. Just because he hadn’t….
I was fine. Great. We could be friendly. It would be easier if we were.
Jonah was watching me, and his Adam’s apple bobbed before he said, “Have lunch with me, Lenny.”
What? “I’m not going to see Mo for lunch today. Grandpa Gus is taking her to the Children’s Museum.”
Those honey-colored eyes stayed steady on my face. “I know. I heard him last night,” he said just as the door to the building swung open. “We can just talk about Mo if that’s what it takes to get you to come.”
It was second nature to glance over and see who was coming in, but as soon as my brain processed the face, a sigh built up in my chest.
It was a guy I’d kicked out of the gym two months ago.
“Hold on a second,” I told Jonah while focusing in on the man-child, who had apparently immediately spotted me too based on the way his feet seemed to stutter as he walked in. “One sec,” I said again, before turning to head a few feet closer to the door. I was already shaking my head at him. “No, man.”
Shawn’s nostrils flared. “Listen, Lenny—”
“Nope,” I cut him off. “Turn around and walk back out. It’s not happening. You’ve got another three and a half months before you can come back.” I had specifically told him the exact date he could rejoin the gym when I’d had to suspend him for repeatedly elbowing another fighter in the spine while they’d been sparring, even after Peter had told him to stop.
The guy, who hadn’t even been a member of Maio House for that long in the first place, dropped his head back, and I watched his hand tighten around the strap of the bag he had over his shoulder. “Come on—”
I wasn’t going to waste either of our times by letting him spout off some bullshit he thought would let him get away with being here. Even if it was really good bullshit, it wasn’t going to happen. “No.”
“It’s been almost three months, Lenny. Give me a break.”
I shrugged. “It’s been two months and sixteen days. You should have thought about that before you broke the rules.” I knew better than to say I was sorry. I was sorry he was missing out on valuable training, but no one had told him to do something stupid over and over again.
Actions had consequences. Everyone knew that, and if they didn’t, they should.
“I regret what I did.”
So did I.
When I didn’t respond, he managed to get out, “Can I please come back?”
“No.”
He dropped his head back again. “I said please.”
I couldn’t even feel that much remorse in me as I replied, “And I said not yet. You’ve got three months and fourteen days to go.”
“Oh, come on!”
Was he raising his voice at me? My silence was his response, and it wasn’t what he was looking for. I could wait him out.
He definitely did raise his voice then. “Are you fucking serious? I’ve got a fight in three weeks. This is bullshit!”
I raised my eyebrows at him because I knew he wasn’t fucking talking to me like that. “I get that you’re pissed off,” I told him calmly, keeping my voice just level just barely, “but don’t talk to me like that.” Not if he wanted to keep all his teeth in his mouth.
“This is bullshit!”
Was it? Just as I opened my mouth to tell him to calm down, a big figure stepped right next to me and said in a voice I had never heard out of him before, “Mate, you keep raising your voice, and we’re going to have a problem.”
It was like he hadn’t seen him behind me or something, because the moment Shawn’s eyes flicked behind me to find who was speaking, he took a step backward. And that was the last thing I noticed then because I was too busy looking over my shoulder as well.
Jonah was staring straight through this moron with these intense eyes that I had only seen once or twice in my life, which said a lot because of who I had grown up around. What I had grown up around.
But Jonah’s expression was something else completely. Maybe because he was usually so easygoing and self-contained. I had seen him, from a distance, stare down opposing players during their games—matches, tests, whatever they called it—but this one….
I had to look away from him. I didn’t miss the way Shawn shuffled back another step before flushing red and basically mumbling, “Please, Lenny. I said I was sorry. I won’t use my elbows on anyone again.”
I didn’t need to look over to feel the intensity radiating from the man at my side, and it took a whole lot of self-control not to glance at Jonah but instead focus on this other imbecile. “Three and a half months and don’t ever step up to me like that again or use that tone of voice. You were warned, Shawn. You were told to stop, and you didn’t. So it’s three months and fourteen days. Are we clear?”
A big forearm brushed my arm, and I could hear Jonah breathing steadily.
Shawn gritted his teeth together, shook his head, and then he turned around and walked back out the way he’d come.
I glanced back at the Not Really a Fucker without trying to move my head so I wouldn’t get caught. I didn’t trust my facial muscles then. I didn’t trust myself, period, honestly.
Jonah was too busy watching Shawn leave to notice what I was doing. Those crazy focused eyes followed him until the door slammed shut. Only then did he speak again. “Is there anyone else here who talks to you like that?”
I was too busy taking in his mean-ass expression to reply with more than, “No.”
Jonah lowered his gaze, eyebrows still knit together; that mouth of his hard, eyes slightly narrowed, and I really hoped more than anything that my own eyes didn’t widen at the sight of his pissed-off face. But when his mean face immediately fell off—and I didn’t feel disappointed by it, not a lot anyway—those features turned into the ones I was familiar with. Normal, good Jonah. The one who had turned pink a few days ago when I called penises sad bananas.
Normal Jonah looked at me with only a hint of tightness at his jaw. “I didn’t mean to use that tone around you.”
I blinked up at him, still hearing the voice he’d used in my head. “Where did that come from?” I asked slowly, hoping that didn’t sound anything close to dreamy. Because I wasn’t… feeling that way. I wasn’t feeling any kind of way. Surprised. Impressed a little. That was it.
Okay, maybe even a little pleased he had stepped up beside me. Maybe. A little.
I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that. Now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure anyone ever had. If
I needed someone or something, I knew they were there. And I could sure as hell defend myself.
Huh.
The puff of a laugh out of him almost erased the memory of Mr. Deep-Voice a moment ago. “From footy.” His right dimple popped. “I didn’t like the look or the sound of him. He had no right to talk to you like that. You sure you don’t deal with arseholes like that regularly?”
I wished he didn’t suddenly sound so concerned, especially when that tone he’d used and that face he’d made were still so fresh in my head. “Not often. Every once in a while.”
He didn’t exactly look like he believed me.
But I still couldn’t help but eye him as my bitch-ass ovaries decided to stretch out right then and remind me they were there. Awake. Listening. Paying way too much attention.
Ah, fuck it.
“I don’t know how to tell you this without it coming out wrong….”
“All right….” He trailed off too, beginning to give me a smile that seemed nervous and wary and curious at the same time. “Should I be worried?”
I shook my head, still fucking eyeballing his face, seeing the cheeks slowly, slowly turning pink on their own. “Here I’d been thinking this whole time that you were so nice and sweet and too good to be true, and now you just used that I’m-gonna-kill-you voice, and you were looking at him like you might hurt him, and….” Honest to God, I sighed as his eyebrows went up and that mouth tipped up a little higher in reaction. “You’ve got a little bit of an alpha thing going on in that polite-ass body, buster.”
His face definitely went pink then, but his voice remained playful. “Only a little?”
“Is there more in there? Because I don’t think I’m ready for more anytime soon. I’m still in shock.” I rocked back on my heels, peering at him and all that tan skin and white scars and sun lines and that blushing fucking face that shouldn’t have belonged on that body.
His palm went up to scrub at the cheek that was already beginning to get bristly this early in the morning, and I could barely hear him as he coughed, sounding almost fucking shy or maybe embarrassed, “I’d like to think so.”
I snickered and couldn’t help but smile at Blushing Pants. “I think I’m going to have to start watching your rugby games again if that’s when Jonah with a capital J comes out.”
That palm went over his face again as he tipped it back, and I could see him press his lips together. I was pretty sure I heard him snort before replying, “I suppose you should. I don’t want you thinking I’m Jonah with a small j all the time.”
I laughed.
A sense of longing hit me, reminding me of the friendship we had built up so quickly. The friendship that had turned into something more just as quickly. I had liked this man. I had liked him a lot.
This was the asshole I had missed. The one who had given me a reason to be so pissed off when he’d left. I had missed that guy.
“I like Jonah with a little j too,” I told him honestly, letting that easiness of how well we got along fill my heart and remind me yet again that I had done the right thing letting him be here. “I knew there was a reason you’re the one I had a baby with, Jonah with a capital J.” And then I took a step back, because it was easy being friends with him, but I didn’t need to confuse the rest of me by feeling things that could change that. “Thank you for scaring him. You’re the first person to stand up for me like that in about twenty years. It was nice, and I appreciate it.”
He blinked and the very tall man, who I had mistakenly thought was all teddy bear but really had some honey badger DNA in him apparently, smiled at me with that gentle, sweet smile that I really did like a little too much. More than the serial killer one, if I had to pick. “Anything for you, Len.”
And there he went.
I took another step back and didn’t totally have to force my next smile. What was the last thing he’d said? About having lunch? “I need to go get Peter some water. Come get me if you want to eat later… if you still want to have lunch with me without Mo around. I brought my food, but it’ll be good tomorrow.”
He nodded, and I was only a few feet away when he called out, “I wasn’t inviting you to eat to see Mo, Len.”
I fought a smile as I went to the break room and filled up a bottle of water before heading back to the cage. Sure enough, by the time I was back at Peter’s side, he was the first one to turn very slowly to look at me, and ask, way too casually, “Everything okay with Shawn?”
I unscrewed the lid, not looking at him. “Yeah.”
Peter went “hmm.”
Then I went “hmm.”
And he asked, “Did your friend say something to him?”
My friend.
I took a sip and held the bottle toward him. He took it. “Yeah, he did. It almost made me feel like a lady or something.”
Peter smiled with the bottle against his lips.
I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over my shoulder to find Jonah carrying two more forty-five-pound weights across the part of the floor he was on. I could see the pop of his triceps from all the way over here. He slowly lowered the weights to the ground and, when he stood back up again, readjusted the band of his shorts. Then he moved toward a corner and picked up what looked like a mini-notebook and started writing something down in it.
I’d bet he was just keeping track of his reps so he had something to compare to next time. He tapped the end of it against his forehead for a moment before jotting something else down in it.
I went up to my tiptoes and pressed my lips together for a second. “I like him more than I should, Peter. I don’t like it.”
Peter, though, didn’t respond.
“He laughed when I swept him. Can you believe that?”
This man I knew as equal parts my father and friend was watching me carefully, thinking, and he took his time giving me a slow smile at the same time he set his hand on my shoulder. “He’s a good person, Len, but he has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.”
I smiled.
Peter bumped his elbow against mine. I did it right back to him.
“Would you mind getting my jacket from the office?” he asked.
I nodded, kicked off my flip-flops again and jogged across the mats to my office. Flicking on the lights, I headed toward the coat rack where seven different coats in different sizes hung. Six medium-sized jackets and sweaters, and one tiny baby jacket. I grabbed a hoodie from the top hook and turned to my desk. I dropped the mail I was still holding on top of it and, for some reason, pulled my phone out of my pocket just to check if I’d gotten something.
There were four texts, but when I went to my messages it instantly took me to the last messages I’d been replying to. Grandpa Gus’s.
Two of the four were from him, which were pictures of Mo at the zoo with drool all over her face and a big smile too. According to his messages, the day was so nice, he’d changed his mind about going to the museum. I saved those to my gallery and texted him back.
Me: Tell her I love her.
Then I went back to my messages and was torn between being annoyed and… something else.
I went with opening the annoying one first.
It was from Noah.
Noah: Call me when you get a chance.
Like that was going to fucking happen.
With that over, I opened up the next message.
I read it, read it again, typed a response, and then I grabbed my damn stress ball from the top drawer and walked back out.
Chapter 13
2:23 p.m
You’re a real fuck head.
God, I fucking hated people, I thought an hour later as I rewound the video footage for the camera facing the front desk.
I’d forgotten that Grandpa and I had compromised with the security cameras in the main building. He’d wanted the bare minimum our insurance required, and I’d wanted one in every corner and multiple dome cameras every ten feet, and we’d settled for somewhere in the middle. Luckily, luckily, there ha
d been cameras aimed in the right places for what I was looking for.
And what I was looking for was the dickwad who had stolen Bianca’s cell phone. Literally, from what I understood, they reached over the front desk counter while she’d been busy and plucked it from where she had left it beside the keyboard while she’d helped another member who had dropped her purse and gotten her stuff strewn all over the floor.
So now I was going through the footage before we called the cops and reported the incident.
Once we figured out who’d done it, it would save time.
I wasn’t complaining too much. She’d called about thirty minutes after I’d gotten the text message that had forced me to squeeze my stress ball for a solid three minutes.
I grabbed my glass water bottle and chugged down half of it before focusing back on the footage. I rewound three minutes further back than originally and hit play.
I was in the middle of switching from one camera to another when there was a knock on the door, and I hit pause just as I called out “What?” like a fucking asshole as I rubbed at a spot between my eyebrows.
There was a pause and then, “It’s Jonah,” the deep voice answered.
Oh.
I got up, flipped the lock, and cracked it open, finding the familiar face standing right there. I grabbed him by his sweatshirt, yanked him in, and peeked back out through the crack.
Kicking the door closed, I flipped the lock and turned around to face the man standing literally inches away, a surprised but amused expression on his face. He was holding an orange smoothie in one hand. “Is there something I should worry about?”
“No.” I brushed his hip as I wedged myself by him and sat back down in the chair. “I don’t want anyone else to see me in here. I told Bianca she could tell you and Peter where I was, but that was it.”
“What are you up to in here? Spy work on the side?” He moved to my elbow, bending over at the hips to peek at the computer screen. He set the smoothie on the surface of the desk and nudged it toward me. “For you.”
I looked at him. “For me?”
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