AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Me: When does Dalton get back?
Brenda: A few days.
Me: Okay. See you at the gym tomorrow.
She texts back a thumbs-up.
Brenda and I have a standing date at ten o’clock every Saturday morning for the gym. We exercise for a few minutes and then spend the rest of the time chatting over smoothies in the small cafeteria.
I head back to the table, where Ronan has polished off his slice. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I was checking on Brenda.”
He raises his eyebrows.
“Sorry, I mean Lotus.”
“Ah,” he says. “Does anyone at the club know your real names?”
“The owner and the head of security, Claude. They have to approve all the applications. Then it’s up to Brenda and me whether we tell anyone else our names, so you can’t let on that I told you hers.”
“My lips are sealed.”
I’ve finished my slice, and one slice is a lot. I think about ordering another, just to make my hands look busy, but then I don’t.
For some reason, I don’t feel the need to make small talk with Ronan or to pretend like I’m busy eating. I feel comfortable with him, which makes no sense at all, since I’ve been out of the dating scene for so long.
“Are you going to get another?” I ask.
“No, I’m done. I actually ate a pretty good dinner before I came to the club tonight.”
I can’t help a chuckle. “Then why on earth did you just eat a huge slice of pizza?”
“I’m a growing boy,” he teases. His eyes twinkle. “I have a huge appetite. Always have.”
“From what I saw tonight, there’s not an ounce of fat on that body.”
“I work hard, lassie,” he says, imitating a brogue again. “Throwing blocks, Scottish games.”
I shake my head, still laughing. “I have to say, Ronan O’Connor, I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”
“Nor I you, lassie.”
I take the last sip from my bottle of water. We’re done eating, and we could go. But I want to keep talking to him, learning more about him, and he doesn’t seem eager to go, either. “So you said you’ve partnered with Braden Black’s company. What is it that you do?”
“I took over my father’s company last year,” he says. “O’Connor Enterprises. We’re real estate developers, and we build high-end resorts all over Europe. When I was growing up, my father traveled overseas a lot. He was making a killing, and he wasn’t interested in breaking into the American market at that time, despite the fact that we lived here. But Black, Inc. has decided to build a new resort and casino in Las Vegas.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Don’t they manufacture work goggles?”
“That’s their key product,” Ronan says. “What put Braden Black on the map all those years ago. But they’ve diversified since then. You don’t become a billionaire by producing construction goggles.”
“I suppose not. I’m surprised they haven’t gotten into the hotel game before now.”
“Their company has many other branches. Once this came across my desk, I couldn’t say no. Besides…it was a good time for me to leave Glasgow. To leave the UK altogether.”
“Why is that?”
He doesn’t speak at first, and I wonder if I’ve overstepped my bounds.
