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She rolled her eyes, and he made her pay for it by twisting her leg, which forced her hips to rotate and made her roll onto her side. “Okay, asshole,” she said, laughing.
The next two holds Tara enjoyed more, even if for different reasons.
She was much better than Sean at the straight armbar because she was more flexible and her smaller stature made her more agile, but she was no competition at all against his rear naked choke. Worse, he was so bulky and she was so short that it was hard to get her legs around the front of his to fully hook him into the hold. They’d both ended up laughing.
When they were done, Sean held out a hand and pulled her off the floor. “Good working with you.”
“Thank you for not breaking me.” She withdrew her hand.
But he held on and cocked his head. “You doing okay, T?”
“Yeah, why?”
His gaze lingered on her face until she almost wanted to squirm. Finally, he let her go and shrugged. “I don’t know. Just a feeling.”
Gah, she wasn’t sure she could take the big lug being sweet. Her heart was too fragile for that right now. But she also didn’t want to blow him off. “Well, your radar isn’t wrong, but I’ll be okay.”
He gave a nod. “You know where to find me.”
“At the firehouse?” The guy was well known for picking up overtime, so it was a safe bet.
Grinning, Sean nodded. “Almost always. But you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, thanks,” she said, really appreciating him looking out for her.
The rest of WFC passed in a bit of a blur. Tara just wasn’t into it the way she usually was. She knew she was in a bad place when beating on things didn’t make her feel better. For crap’s sake.
Tara was almost relieved when it was time to clean up. While she showered, Dani told her about how her boss at work was trying to pressure her into a promotion that came with a lot more responsibility but almost no additional pay, and Tara was glad to have someone else’s problems to focus on. “How can that be fair?” Tara asked.
“It isn’t,” Dani said from the neighboring shower stall, “which is why I turned him down.”
“How did that go over?” Tara asked as she rinsed. She shut off the water and grabbed her towel.
A rueful chuckle sounded from Dani’s stall. “He acted like I’d said I wanted to think about it.”
“In other words, he’s going to keep bugging you.” Tara wrapped a second towel around her wet hair.
“Exactly.” Dani’s water shut off, and soon they were at their lockers in the same little hall getting dressed. “How come Jesse and Jud didn’t come today?”
The question hit Tara right in the gut. “Oh, uh, I don’t know.”
Dani frowned. “Huh.”
Don’t ask, don’t ask, don’t ask. “What does that mean?”
Stepping into her jeans, Dani shrugged. “I guess I just thought you and Jesse were close.”
> Now Tara was the one shrugging—and kicking herself for asking. “I thought we might be, but it didn’t work out.”
Dani froze with her sweater in her hands. “Shit. Why? What happened?”
Tara turned away and made a little project of finding her shirt in the locker. “We work together. It got complicated.” She couldn’t help but wonder if things would’ve worked out the same way if Tara had agreed to give them a try the night she’d brought Jesse home to her apartment. Never know now, of course, but the second-guessing was a futile game her brain wouldn’t stop playing.
A game that made her know into her very soul that she’d nearly had something amazing.
“That sucks.” Dani’s voice was full of sympathy. “Your team at CMDS is really small, isn’t it?”
Swallowing around a sudden knot in her throat, Tara agreed. “Yeah. Anyway.” She tugged a slate blue V-neck over her head, grabbed her bag, and went to the counter with the outlets.
