Landon shot him the finger. Again. Talk about a one-trick pony. “Not your patients, baby. I was talking about your cousins.”
Ava blinked. “Oh. Well then. That’s true. They’re not too particular. Gavin? Would you like me to call Sadie for you? Or Elliot, since he and Jason broke up again?”
Gavin snorted. “That makes what, fourteen times in the past two months?”
“More like five times, but yes.” She shrugged. “What can you do? Elliot’s got issues.”
Pot, say hello to kettle, because I can outdo Elliot any day of the week.“First, Sadie scares me, so no. Second, I’m not gay. I don’t want to date Elliot. Besides, he’d end up leaving me after taking advantage of my fine body.”
Ava perused him. “Well, that’s true. But I didn’t mean you should date him. Just that you could hang out together.” She continued to stare at him.
“Hey,” Landon growled. “Eyes over here.” Landon pointed to his own behemoth frame. He and Gavin shared the same height, but Landon had a linebacker’s build whereas Gavin was more quarterback, all lean lines and sinewy strength. “Remember, Doc. You belong to me.”
“Toyou? You meanwithyou, don’t you?” Oh boy. She was usingthe tone.
Landon blinked. “Ah, right. With me, of course. Come on, I was just kidding.”
Gavin got a kick out of seeing Ava take his domineering brother down a notch.
“Oh?” She raised a brow at the Neanderthal.
The twinkle in his brother’s eyes skeeved Gavin out.
He’d seen this play out at home. Their version of kinked-up psychological foreplay, in Gavin’s opinion. Ava pretended to shrink his brother. Landon got riled up, faked being pissed off, then swept her into his bedroom for a few frenzied hours.
Gavin started for the door, leaving the rest of the room for Landon to clean. “I’m out of here before you start doing it on the mats.”
“Gavin.” Ava sounded scandalized, but a glance at her cheery grin and blush said otherwise.
“Gavin,” Landon mocked. “I would never…”
“At least lock the door,” he mumbled and left to the sound of their laughter.
A happy couple. Two people in love who’d deserved to find that special someone. About time Landon got his head out of his ass and found a woman who could handle him. Not some casual fling, but a real woman who had opinions and wasn’t afraid to share them.
As if thinking of opinionated women had conjured her, he saw Zoe by the water fountain near the exit.
She stared at two women chatting and laughing on treadmills, and her face lost all expression. That sadness he’d seen in her eyes on previous occasions showed itself, making her bright-blue gaze muddy with emotion. But Zoe didn’t linger. She saw him watching her, scowled, then turned and left.
What would make a vibrant woman like Zoe so sad? Had she lost someone, like he’d lost so many? At the thought, it was as if she’d passed him the baton, letting him take the grief she’d worn so briefly.
The gym started to fade as memory overtook him. The slam of weights like car parts raining down after an explosion. The garble of low voices, the sound of insurgents around a rickety table, plotting, while he stared through his scope and—
No.He didn’t need that. Not here. Not in his safe zone.
He refused to let the anger and pain get a toehold. Instead, calling on the exercises Lee, his new therapist, had shown him, he concentrated his energy elsewhere, on what he was good at. Gavin sought one of the unoccupied treadmills in the corner, the one facing the wall-mounted TV showing a stupid sitcom. He hopped onto the thing and ran. Faster and faster, until his lungs burned and his legs strained. The pain cleansed, allowing him to wheeze in laughter at the televised antics of some brainy scientist-types trying to hit on girls. Much better than raging at all he’d lost.
Balance, he kept telling himself.It’s all about balance.
With that in mind, he once again donned a mantle of false cheer and willed himself to believe life was good.Visualize, and it will come, Lee liked to tell him. Gavin needed to have a discussion with the shrink, because he’d been visualizing Zoe York in nothing more than a smile, but that sure the hell hadn’t happened. Thoughts of her turned his fake cheer into a real grin. He slowed down and let himself enjoy the TV show. But once it ended, he needed something more.
With the help of a spotter, he used a nearby weight bench and lifted until muscle exhaustion. Finally ready to go home and hit the rack. Where he could dream of a stubborn, sexy woman with long, wavy black hair…and sad blue eyes.
* * *
Zoe drove home, annoyed with herself for getting overemotional. Treadmill girl’s pink laces on her silly, adorable if useless fashion sneakers had been all too familiar. Just the kind of impractical crap Aubrey used to wear.
She sniffled, then blinked rapidly to still the tears. Pink laces? Really? But that pink led her to recall something else.“Hel-lo, Pink Yoga Pants.”
