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I gave her a look.
Kelly sighed. “I know. But she’s marrying Noah Griffin. He’s Keith’s favorite player on the Wolves, and your brother is his favorite coach, which means half the team will be there, and then my boyfriend could die a happy man.”
I smiled. This was the byproduct of being in a family that was practically NFL royalty. I was constantly surrounded by world-class athletes, but look how it did me absolutely no good when it really counted. The mental image of spilling my coffee at his feet would haunt the hell out of me.
“As fun as that sounds, I don’t think siblings’ co-workers are invited,” I said. “Can you take my session with Glenn after your class? That’s the only thing I had on the schedule.”
She nodded. “No problem.”
I stood, stretching my arms over my head.
Kelly pointed at the untouched cup on the floor. “Don’t forget that.”
I swear, I looked at that cup like it was a snake coiled up around my legs, ready to sink its fangs into my skin.
She laughed, shaking her head as she left to get set up for her class. “You’re so suspicious, Iz,” she said over her shoulder.
Maybe to her, it was that simple. A thoughtful gesture from a serious guy. To me, though, it felt like something else entirely. If I drank that coffee, I’d start thinking about how—in his first week owning a new business—he took the time to figure out what every single employee on the schedule liked to drink. I didn’t want to think about Aiden Hennessy, with his excellent eyes, wide-as-a-house shoulders, and long-legged stride, doing quietly thoughtful things because it would shred my already embarrassed heart into a heap.
What it did was make me feel like that fifteen-year-old girl again, and I hated that.
Not because fifteen had been a bad year. On the contrary. Our family finally felt settled and right when I was that age. Paige was pregnant with Emmett, and I felt safe. Loved. It was why doodling in my purple diary about marrying MMA fighters who were ten years older than me felt completely acceptable.
The reality of my adulthood might look different than the one I’d dreamed up, but everything about it was great.
And what I didn’t need was Aiden making me feel like a starry-eyed young girl whose heart was soft enough to be crushed into bits. Been there, done that, and had a T-shirt and abandonment and control issues to go with it. I did not need to put myself in that position ever again.
And sure, it was great if he didn’t turn out to be an asshole, but holding that coffee, it felt far, far more dangerous that he might be more than what I’d built up in my head so many years ago.
That was why I walked that coffee over to the drinking fountain, took off the top, and slowly poured it down the drain. It was a small way to assert control over all the flutteries.
The brown liquid swirled quickly through the holes, and I breathed deeply once it disappeared. Decisively, I capped the travel top back onto the empty cup and tossed them both into the trash can next to the fountain.
“Guess I got your order wrong.”
I froze. His voice came from right behind me, all low and growly. My eyes fell shut because holy shit, I was destined to get off on the wrong foot with this man, wasn’t I?
Blowing out a slow breath, I turned to face him. His eyes betrayed the slightest hint of amusement that he caught me, but everything else about his face was even and steady. In fact, every physical feature that made up Aiden Hennessy seemed carved straight from stone.
Not just his face, which was handsome enough, but his shoulders and arms, the veins running down toward his massive hands.
I’d seen the gracefully inflicted violence his body was capable of, the speed and strength.
And as he towered over me, I hated that I had to lift my chin in order to meet his gaze.
“The order was fine,” I told him. “Drank too much already this morning.”
The sound he made in the back of this throat was so ambiguous that I had to physically chomp down on my tongue to stop from defending myself. When the front door opened and a group of members walked in for Kelly’s class, his attention moved from me to the sound of their bright laughter. Immediately, the pressure on my lungs eased. There was some magic voodoo he had going on, and I did not like it one tiny bit.
“Seems like the classes are always well-attended,” he said. His gaze left the group of women and came back to rest on my face.
I nodded. “Especially on the weekends.” I sucked in a deep breath and held his eyes. “I hope you don’t intend on getting rid of those.”
He shook his head. Nothing else. Just a shake of his head.
“Good.”
His lips twitched just a fraction before they settled back in a firm line. “Glad I have your approval, Ward.”
