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“Yeah, me neither. I get bored easily when I do the same thing repeatedly, so I prefer to do most of my shopping online when I can.” I feel his eyes fall to the side of my face and laugh under my breath before drinking more coffee. “Don’t be cliché, Sparrow. Didn’t Adam teach you not to judge a book by its cover?”
“I don’t mean to judge you. I’ve just always assumed because of your job that you must have a lot of clothes. I’m sorry.”
I nudge his knee with my toes and wait for our eyes to connect before saying, “It’s alright. I do have a lot of clothes. But there’s a difference between loving clothes and loving the experience of buying them. Plus, crowds aren’t really my thing.”
He pushes out a long breath, sitting straighter as he hangs his legs off the side of the chair and faces me fully. “You don’t like crowds?”
“Nope. Not big ones. It’s one of the reasons I don’t do runway shows.”
“I feel like I know nothing about you.”
“Why would you?” It’s an honest question. There has never been a need for him to know these things about me. It’s not like he wasmybest friend.
“That just feels like something I should have known.”
I shrug. “I’ve never told anyone but my parents about it. Could you imagine if Noah or Maddox found out? They would never let me live it down. I have a reputation to protect, you know?”
My lighthearted words only make his naturally pouty lips curve into a frown. I straighten my shoulders, prepared to command he not feel bad when my phone starts to ring from the pocket of my shorts.
“It’s Tiny,” I tell Cooper when I pull it out. He nods, not pushing our last conversation.
Tinsley’s smiling face fills the screen as I quickly answer the FaceTime call. Her skin looks shiny, like she’s all sweaty, and by the glitter in her silver eyes, she must have just finished a boxing session.
“There’s my precious world traveller,” she mewls.
“Here I am. Miss me?”
“Been missing you since the last time I saw you.”
“I’m fully prepared to come steal your ass as soon as I’m done here.” It’s a threat and a promise.
She grins wide, the walls behind her moving as she walks through the gym. “I’ll be waiting. Now, tell me Spain is as beautiful as it looks online. And be careful how you answer because I don’t want to be disappointed.”
“I haven’t even been here for a full day yet, but it is just as beautiful as I thought it would be. The food is amazing, and it’s so warm.”
She makes a loud moaning noise, and Cooper barks a laugh beside me. “The food. I can’t handle talking about food right now. I’m starving, and the only thing waiting at home for me is a fridge full of chicken and broccoli.”
I wrinkle my nose. “At least tell me it’ll be worth it.”
“Oh, it’ll be worth it. The fight wasn’t scheduled, but she brought it on herself when she called me out online. I have to cut about fifteen pounds to hit her weight class, though. Dad’s been watching my diet like crazy. Noah has been sneaking me snacks between sessions.”
Imagining my brother sneaking anywhere makes me laugh. He’s probably been shoving past her father, Braden, and openly handing her food, knowing it’ll piss him off. Those two haven’t gotten along since . . . well,ever.
Tinsley’s retired boxer dad is intimidating to damn near everyone. My brother might be the only person on this earth who doesn’t give a damn that Braden could knock him on his ass before he’s taken a single breath.
“Jayna doesn’t have a clue what she’s done by provoking the great Tinsley Lowry. You’ll mop the floor with her,” Cooper cuts in, cheeks slightly pink as he stares in my direction.
Jayna Crown is Tinsley’s biggest competition and self-proclaimed enemy. In reality, she’s just a bitter woman who thinks bringing their beef to the public eye will somehow make her a better fighter.
I turn the phone toward Cooper so he can see my best friend, and he lifts a hand to wave. Tiny makes a kissing noise that I can only guess means she’s kissed the screen.
“Thank you, Big Daddy. I wish you both could be here to watch, but you can make it up to me by bringing me back a present,” she teases.
Cooper chokes on the word “Deal.”
Laughing at his reaction to the nickname, I turn the camera back toward me. It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to the screen as it grows brighter when Tinsley steps into a new room. The locker room at Knockout Training is easy to recognize. I’ve been to Tiny’s family gym often on my trips to Toronto.
Chatter filters through the speakers, and I arch a brow when a girl with spiky black hair and a plug in her earlobe comes into view and narrows her eyes on me. My habit of internet stalking proves most useful as I recall her from one of Noah’s posts a few weeks ago.
