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“You can come any time, Jud.” She crossed to where he stood, crutches under both arms. Miraculously, the crush injury to his foot hadn’t broken any bones, so he’d be back to normal within a week or two. “Consider it a standing offer.”
“Good deal,” he said. “See ya Monday.”
“Yep, sure will.” She gave him a wave as he turned toward George’s car, and then she crossed to her own car, parked right next to Jesse’s. She opened her door. For a moment, Jesse thought she wasn’t going to say a word, but then she looked over her shoulder at where he waited by his door. “Guess I should return this.” She pulled his phone out of her back pocket and handed it across the roof to him.
Unsure how to read her, Jesse just nodded.
“So, you in?” she asked.
He frowned. “For what?”
“Warrior Fight Club?” She tilted her head, and the sun played off the golden highlights in her brown hair.
Her beauty fucking sucker-punched him. Just laid him right out.
“Yeah,” he said, not needing to think about it. “I’m in.”
“Good. We have just enough time to grab workout clothes from our places. Want to meet at the gym or, uh, I c
an pick you up?”
He nodded. “See you outside the Marriott in twenty?”
“Done,” she said. And then she was in her car and backing out.
Okay, so…
That seemed like he hadn’t fucked up by letting her know he’d been there last night.
He scratched his jaw. What else it told him, he didn’t know. But he wasn’t second-guessing it, either.
Which was why he was down on the street changed into workout gear and waiting within eighteen minutes.
Tara pulled up a minute later.
He got in. She took off. Neither of them said a word.
But the car was fucking filled with silent conversation. He didn’t think he was imagining that.
Tara was the one who spoke first. “So, in case you’re wondering how WFC works…” She glanced at him, and he nodded. “We meet once a week at Full Contact, a gym over in the U Street neighborhood. We start with yoga, which is good for getting your head on straight when…” She swallowed hard. “You know, when you need help with that. And, um, then we often pair off and do various kinds of training drills. Did you box or anything in the navy?”
“Yeah,” he said. He had experience with more than boxing, but he didn’t want to do anything to keep her from talking, now that she was finally doing it.
“Good. That’s good. So we do training drills. We often do tag-team wrestling drills. And then we take turns pairing off to spar in the rings. That’s about it, I think. Oh, Coach Mack is going to have some paperwork for you to complete before you can join in. Just usual stuff. And the gym has gear you can borrow.”
Jesse nodded again. “Sounds good.”
“It is. It’s a good place. And awesome people from across all the branches. I’ll make sure to introduce you to Sean Riddick—he was also navy. Oh, and Noah Cortez was EOD in the marines. So you’ll fit right in. I bet you’ll like WFC.” Her chattiness now almost felt like she needed to fill the silence they’d had between them before. But he wasn’t complaining. It was better than her not talking to him at all.
“Don’t.”
Worlds better.
“Bet I will,” he said, letting himself do what he’d been wanting to do all morning. Get a good, long look at her pretty face. Her nose tilted up at the tip just a little, and her dark lashes were long. High cheekbones were tinged with a healthy pink, alive and vital.
Exactly how she made him fucking feel.
Tara caught him looking, but he didn’t turn away. “What?”
