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The girls all piled into my truck as I agreed.
“Yeah, half an hour. Dress in clothes you can move in.”
She nodded again and got into her car. I waited for her to pull out, then we took off for school. All the while I hoped I wouldn’t make a complete ass out of myself at the first opportunity to be alone with her.
* * *
I beatHaley to the gym, letting myself in and turning on the overhead lights. It was freezing, so I also turned on the heater and powered up all the computers. Two of them were on the fritz, same with the scanner I used for membership cards. We pretty much just went with the honor system at this point.
I recalled the conversation I had with Colson after that tense night in the yard where he threatened to break my jaw. Once things had cooled down, he’d come over and we’d talked through the investor meetings I’d had.
“So, you gonna tell me how the meeting went with the investors? Based on how you freaked out on Haley, I’m assuming it didn’t go well.”
I heaved a sigh and sipped my beer. “They came, they saw the gym, we talked… They don’t think I’m a safe bet.”
Colson’s head popped up.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
I appreciated his incredulous tone, but he was a business major, he knew what it meant.
Still, I shrugged as if to go along with it. “Gym’s too far under water. They don’t think I could turn it around even with their backing.”
“That’s bullshit.” Cole shook his head, and that look on his face was why I was so glad to have him.
Just to have someone agree with me, even if we both knew it was true, was such a gift. It took me back to all the sore spots in my life, when I felt alone. When I felt like no one else could understand how fucking shitty it was to play out this hand I’d been dealt. Colson may have a silver spoon, but he was always lending it to me and my kids. He was generous and kind. A good man.
“Yeah,” I mused, sipping from my water bottle.
“So what then, that’s it? They’re out and you’re back at square one?”
I didn’t want to think about closing up my gym, but if I didn’t have any financial backers and the bank wouldn’t extend or increase my loan, there wasn’t going to be another choice.
Colson swiped at his face again, lowering his voice. “So what are you going to do?”
He knew about my past, but he didn’t realize how the fear of losing it all really rode me. He wouldn’t until he became a father himself. The stress of keeping your family fed, and in clothes that didn’t have holes and wouldn’t embarrass them in school, it was like a monster on my back all the goddamn time.
“I gotta figure something out. Pathetic, isn’t it?” I scoffed, shaking my head.
Colson waited, letting me continue.
“I have all these titles, these pictures of me winning shit. I was someone important at some point in my life, and now I can’t even keep my doors open.”
Colson let out a heavy sigh next to me. “Shit. That’s not pathetic, man, it’s just a failed business plan.” His eyes swung to me, suddenly alive, like he’d just thought of something. “You know what?”
I waited, leery that he was about to offer a handout. I’d turn it down, and it would strain our friendship. But he knew that. Still, my heart thud wearily in my chest as he seemed to contemplate what he was going to say.
“You should pitch a proposal to Haley.”
What?
Even hearing him mention her made those tangled pieces of my heart seem to tug together.
“Why would I pitch to her?” She was my—well, I suppose she was sort of my nanny, and while I knew she was rich, I wasn’t about to take her money.
Colson seemed completely energized by this idea, so much so that he stood and began pacing.
“Haley just bought Peter’s company. Saved my ass, too, so she’s now technically my boss, but it’s fine. A weird sort of irony if I think about it too hard, but I promised myself I wouldn’t. I almost lost Nora because of my pride over it, so I’m just accepting it.”
