“About that…. He refused to give me the job, so now I’m overseeing the gym.”
“Wait. What?”
It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t mentioned the job change to my dad or my sister.
“Yeah. Long story.” My shoulders bounced in a lazy shrug. “Although, I guess it’s not as long as I thought.” I couldn’t stop my burst of laughter, which only made Jackson’s scowl deepen. I wanted to shout that I wasn’t laughing at him or whatever had made him so angry, but I kept quiet.
“He’s hot.”
“He’s all right,” I lied. I’d have to be blind not to notice how good-looking he was.
“All right? That man is gorgeous in every way possible.”
“He’s also an ass.”
“So what? No one said he had to talk.” Another wave of laughter escaped me at her bluntness. But then again, I shouldn’t have expected anything less from her. Shyness had never been part of her personality, a trait I was envious of.
Turning my back on Jackson, I firmly grasped Abby’s shoulders and positioned her to face me, and only me.
“Forget about him. I need to know what happened when Mitch came to the house this morning.” My palms started to sweat as a shiver ran down my spine, the anticipation of what she’d tell me making my heart pick up its pace.
I never kept it a secret from my ex that I moved back in with my dad and sister. He’d been dropping by unannounced and calling me nonstop for months. Then he’d suddenly stopped, but I wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d given up on trying to get me to come back home. My lawyer informed me last week that he’d be serving Mitch with divorce papers, and based on his visit to my dad’s house today, he’d received them. I had no doubt there were countless voicemails waiting for me when I checked my phone, which was upstairs in my apartment.
“He demanded to see you, and when I told him you weren’t there, he was furious, ranting about how you’re still his wife and your place is with him.” She rolled her eyes. “Was he always this much of an ass?”
“Not in the beginning. But I can’t pinpoint when he changed. It was gradual.”
“Well, the important thing is that you’re away from him now. Onward and upward, I say.”
“You’ve never said that,” I teased, amused by her attempt to lighten the situation.
“And by upward, I mean you should climb that beast of a man.” She pulled me closer, glancing over my shoulder. “He’s still staring at you.”
I turned to look, and sure enough, Jackson was indeed staring at me. Our eyes only met for a moment before I averted my gaze once more.
“I’m not sure why he’s so angry with me,” I mused, more to myself than to Abby.
Before I could say anything else, I spotted Lance. He flashed me a lopsided grin before heading toward Jackson. From Lance’s rigid posture and the way he pointed at Jackson, it was clear he was reprimanding him for whatever happened in that back room moments earlier.
9
“What happened?” Lance was in my face, or as much as he could be, since he was several inches shorter than my six-foot frame. “Why did Scarlett rush out of here so fast? When I asked her what happened, all she said was ‘Don’t call me again.’”
Rehashing my encounter with the woman who’d been brought here to help relieve the pent-up aggression I couldn’t get rid of through training annoyed me. The simple truth was, I’d taken one look at her and changed my mind. And I still worked to convince myself that it had nothing to do with the redhead who was now working in the gym.
I moved to take a step around him, but he shifted with me, blocking my escape. All I really had to do was shove him out of the way, but I refrained.
“I changed my mind” was my only explanation. The irritation in my tone reached a whole other level, and if I didn’t get a handle on my escalating mood, and soon, I had no idea what the outcome would be, especially if Lance didn’t leave me alone.
“If all you did was change your mind, she wouldn’t have run out of here, barely dressed.”
“The only reason she was barely dressed was because she stripped off her clothes as soon as she walked into the room.”
“Isn’t that why you had me call her?”
“Initially, yeah.” I raked my fingers through my sweat-drenched hair, silently counting to ten so I didn’t explode. I’d had enough of his questions. All I wanted to do was shower and escape to my apartment.
“Then what changed?” he asked.
