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He pulled some weird-looking padded wooden things out of his bag and set them up in front of the mirror. Then he reached to shake my hand. “Miles.”
“Gunnar,” I grunted. “This isn’t a public gym.”
The man laughed. “Oh, I know that. I was told that there wouldn’t be any Neanderthals in here this early.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“The grunting.” He laughed.
“Right.” I didn’t find it funny.
The man started to set up his weird equipment without explaining why he was inside the New York Thunder’s private gym. “Dude, what are you doing here?” I finally had to ask.
“My client is painting her home gym. We usually work out there.”
“Her?” I was confused but only for a second. The door to the gym clattered open and Everleigh stepped inside. She had her cell phone crooked between her ear and shoulder as she juggled bags and a backpack. She was in businesswoman mode and hadn’t noticed me yet.
She dropped her bags onto the weight bench and chugged her smoothie. Snapping out of my shock from seeing her, the weight bar slipped from my hands and thudded to the rubberized floor.
Looking up, her phone slipped from her shoulder and bounced onto the floor. Miles picked the phone up and handed it to her, mouthing the word ‘Hi.’ She smiled and nodded at him, but didn’t look at me. Then she turned her back to me.
Irritated, I gathered up my bags. “Nice to meet you, Miles. I’ll let you two have the place to yourselves.”
I didn’t wait for his reply and stormed out of the gym, pissed that my workout had been interrupted and shocked at the pain I’d felt in the centre of my chest when Everleigh had turned her back to me.
“Gunnar. Wait.”
I was halfway down the hallway when Everleigh emerged from the gym.
“It’s OK.” I waved her off without turning around. “You and Mister Stretchy can have the gym all to yourselves.”
Her footsteps echoed through the hallway as she jogged to catch up to me. She grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to stop. I inhaled deeply before I turned to face her. “I thought that we were supposed to avoid each other.”
“I didn’t know that you were going to be here this morning.”
“Well, I didn’t know that I had to give you my workout schedule. Do you want to know where I’m going for lunch so we don’t accidentally meet up there too?” I dropped my gym bag on the floor. “We agreed that we had to stop what we were doing, but I thought you were joking when you said you might be bitchy to me.”
“You’re mad.” She was a direct woman.
“Of course I’m mad.” I stepped closer to her and held onto her arms. “Everleigh. All I want is you, and I can’t have you. It’s fucking killing me. And now I have to pretend that we don’t even like each other? You didn’t even say hi to me, and now I have to watch you work out? What kind of cruel torture is this?” I let go of her arms and picked up my bag.
“I was on the phone. And you caught me by surprise. I didn’t know what to do.”
The anger that had coursed through my body mixed with sadness. Everleigh was standing in front of me, her eyes wide. It seemed like she didn’t know what to do either.
I don’t know who went to the other first, but our bodies slammed into each other with enough force to make me grunt. Our lips were on each other’s before either of us had the good sense to stop. Without parting, I pushed Everleigh to the wall, her high ponytail pressing into the concrete above her head. Her arms were wrapped around my neck and she arched against me.
“Gunnar.” She stopped kissing me, her lips brushing against my cheek as she spoke. “We can’t.”
I rested my chin on her forehead. “I know.” I held her hands and rubbed the backs with my thumbs. “This is hard.”
“I know.” She stared at our hands.
A familiar whistle echoed through the hallway and Everleigh jumped away from me as if my touch had burned her. Coach strolled around the corner and stopped as he saw us.
“Lockwood. Miss King.” He nodded at us.
“Coach.” Everleigh cleared her throat and inched away from me even further. “I’m glad you’re here.” Everleigh’s voice was commanding. “I have to finish my workout, but after that there are a few things we need to discuss.”
