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“Wow. How did that play out growing up?”
“Welp, my dad had no real interest in getting to know me. When he’d first gotten together with my mom, he’d told her he was in the middle of a divorce, and she believed him. But as far as I know, he’s still married to the same woman all these years later.”
“Damn.” I shook my head.
“Yeah, it really changed the course of Mom’s life. After that, she dated once in a while, but I don’t think she ever trusted a man enough to get into a serious relationship. It’s funny, I pride myself on being nothing like her, yet I pretty much did the same thing—fell for a guy who screwed me over and lost all trust in men.”
I tapped my chest. “Present company excluded, I hope.”
“I think the jury is still out on that. I’ve heard about your playboy ways, you know.”
My eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Holden likes to gossip while getting tattooed.”
Seriously? What the fuck. Why the hell would Holden tell her shit like that, true or not? I was going to kill his grungy ass when I got home. I frowned. “I’m not like that anymore, Billie. Having Saylor brought me a whole new perspective. Now I think to myself, would I want some dude treating my girl that way?”
“I do believe you’ve changed a lot. I didn’t mean to put you down. I was mostly teasing, anyway.”
Mostly. Great.
Our conversation paused when the buff guy walked over. He opened his arms and smiled at Billie. “You made it!”
She stepped into a hug, and the dude lifted her into the air and spun her around. Clearly, he did not feel intimidated by the man standing next to her.
“You’re squishing me, Taylor!” Billie squealed while laughing.
Great, this guy is Taylor. By the name, I’d assumed the instructor wasn’t a man. Now I had to endure a whole hour of the woman I came to impress looking at that. Today’s date, or rather undate, had not started off as planned. In the first three minutes, Billie had told me she’d heard I was a playboy, and now Mr. Universe had her tits squished up against his ginormous pecs. Awesome. Just awesome.
The instructor set her back on her feet, but he kept his arm wrapped around her waist. “How are you, beautiful?”
“I’m good,” Billie said, motioning to me. “This is my friend, Colby.”
The guy extended his hand. “How you doing, Colby? Thanks for coming down today.”
I forced a smile. “Happy to be here.”
Taylor looked at his watch and thumbed toward the front of the room. “I gotta start class. I’ll talk to you more after, okay?”
Billie nodded. “Sounds good.”
After we did some stretches and warmed up, Taylor showed us some kickboxing moves. We practiced foot jabs and sidekicks, and then he told the class to pair up for some light sparring. I looked over at Billie. “Should we pair up with someone more our sizes?”
Billie put her hands on her hips. “Are you saying you don’t think I’m a match for you because you’re a foot taller than me?”
I chuckled and shrugged. “Kinda makes sense, doesn’t it?”
The instructor walked around the room, talking to all the pairs, and when he got to us, he put his arm around Billie’s shoulders again.
“I’ll take this little troublemaker.” He pointed to a guy in the back of the room. “Colby, why don’t you spar with that guy? It doesn’t look like he has a partner yet.”
Yeah, like I was letting him put his hands all over Billie. I shook my head. “It’s fine. I’ll stick with Billie. Don’t worry. I’ll go easy on her.”
Billie and Taylor looked at each other and burst out laughing. “You’re going to go easy on Billie?” he asked. “Tell me, does that mean Billie has to go easy on you?”
I shrugged. “Nah. She can take her best shot.”
Taylor patted my shoulder with a chuckle as he walked away. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, friend.”
My brows drew together as I looked at Billie. “What was that all about?”
She held up her hands in the kickboxing stance the instructor had taught us. “Are you ready to fight, Lennon?”
The gleam in her eye should’ve told me I had no damn clue what I was in for. But I shrugged like an arrogant idiot. “I’m always ready.”
***
I rubbed my lower back as I killed the car’s engine in the IKEA parking lot. There was definitely going to be a bruise there. “I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me you had a damn black belt.”
Billie chuckled. “We tried to warn you, but you were too busy assuring me you wouldn’t hurt me. You know, because I’m so small and helpless.”
“I never said helpless.”
Billie opened the passenger door. “Come on, Wussy.”
I shook my head as I got out. Not only had I not landed a single shot on her, but Billie had flipped me over her shoulder like I was a damn rag doll. I’d gone from thinking I was going to impress her with my six-pack to being completely emasculated.
