AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Goodnight, handyman.
One more date. Then it had to end. For both their sakes.
Ch. 35 Sully
“What?”Hueasked,lookingdown at his battered jeans and dirt-smeared sneakers. “Was I supposed to wear spandex or something?”
For the hundredth time, Sully wondered if inviting his friend to his informal lifting session with Cameron at Junkyard Dogs Gym had been a bad idea.
“You’re fine,” Cam assured Hue. “We’ll just focus on deadlifts today. But you’re not gonna want to squat in those jeans. They’ll split right open.”
“Speak for yourself,” Hue grumbled.
True enough. Today, the hulking gym owner wore a bright pink t-shirt emblazoned with the wordsYucca Hills Knitting Club Breast Cancer Walk-a-Thon. The fabric strained within an inch of its life to contain Cam’s muscular frame.
“Honestly, I didn’t think you owned anything with sleeves,” Sully joked.
Cam glanced down at his shirt and grimaced. “XXL was the largest size they had. But it was a good cause. Mom’s a long-time member of the knitting club.”
Sully glanced across the gym where Aniyah, Cam’s stepmother, was busy being an unbelievable badass. He watched the older woman execute a set of perfect pull-ups on an overhanging bar.
“So we going to do some lifting?” Hue asked. He seemed uncomfortable in the gym. No wonder. Hue was more of a loner, which is exactly why he needed to expand his circle of friends. Sully hoped the cheerful gym owner could be a good influence on his grouchy friend and mentor.
“We’ll do some lifting,” Cam assured the men, “…but after warmups. Let’s see some squats. Hue, just try to go down as low as those jeans will allow. We want to warm up that posterior chain.”
Posterior what?Hue mouthed to Sully, who ignored the bigger man. Instead, he watched himself perform slow, careful air squats in the mirror. Even as he tried to focus on his form, his mind immediately returned to the problem that had been gnawing at him all morning.
The Girlfriend Project.More specifically,The Potential Girlfriend Project.Alanna was planning to return to LA to start her new PR agency. Which meant that this upcoming date could be their last.
“Sully, chest up, knees out on those squats,” Cam said. The blond man frowned. “What’s going on? You had your squats down last week.”
“He’s hung up on a girl,” Hue supplied unhelpfully. “I tried to talk him out of it, but he can’t be reasoned with.”
Cam’s eyes widened, and Sully could have sworn he saw a sparkle in those baby blues. “You’re in love?” he asked wistfully.
“I’m, uh… it’s kind of…” Sully spluttered.
“Ooooh, you’ve got it bad,” the gym owner stated. “What’s the situation? I’m here to help.”
“Seriously?” Hue groaned. “I thought we were here to lift heavy shit.”
“Wearelifting heavy shit,” Cam assured him. “Nothing is heavier than putting our hearts on the line.”
What. Was. Happening?
“Cam’s a true romantic,” Aniyah offered from across the gym.
“Guilty as charged,” he responded, offering the guys a grin worthy of a toothpaste commercial. “There’s nothing as beautiful as love. Give me 20 jumping jacks.”
Sully complied, his glasses bouncing on his face with the movement.
“So, who is she?” Cam asked, performing his jumping jacks across from Sully. “And what’s the problem?”
“Who… says… there’s… a… problem?” Sully huffed between jumping jacks.
Cam lifted an eyebrow. “Did you see those air squats you just did? My dog could do better air squats than those… and I don’t even have a dog. What I’m saying is, there’s definitely a problem.”
Sully finished the jumping jacks feeling acutely uncomfortable. Sure, he and Cam had been lifting together for the past few weeks, but could he trust the Greek god with his inner thoughts? His father would laugh at the mere idea of men sharing their feelings. The philosophy of John Brooks was clear— the only things men were supposed to talk about were sports, cars, and more sports.
