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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.”
