“That’s not true.” My defense for him was out of my mouth before I could think better of it. I accidentally looked at him again, but this time he didn’t look away, so I had to first. “I mean, that’s not a nice thing to say, Molls. Surely, he’s nice to people. Other people. At least his sister.”
“No, she’s right,” he said. “He’s not nice to anyone. Not even his sister. Or her annoying best friend.” He started to walk past us, shooting an indecipherable look my way. “Or her best friend’s friends either.”
I couldn’t help but stare at his back, and okay, his toned butt, as he walked away, a towel slung over his straight, proud shoulders.
And we were back to the beginning. Where he found me annoying again. That was fun.
“Sorry, about him,” Molly said, leading me all the way into the locker room this time. “He won’t admit that he’s a bear before coffee, but he can be really grumpy.”
“I get that. No worries.”
She turned to face me while I took off my sweatshirt and threw my hair in a ponytail. “I thought you guys were getting pretty close though. I saw you dancing at the wedding.”
I stood up from tying my shoe. I figured I could level with her. “We did dance at the wedding. And we kind of got to know each other.” And slept together. “But I don’t know… he’s a tough cookie.”
She frowned and looked at the door as if he would reappear and give us all the answers. “True. But… I don’t know, he seemed to open up with you.”
“Not really,” I assured her. “I feel like I barely know him at all.”
“He danced with you in front of his dad and sister, so that means something. He hasn’t even brought a girl home to meet Vera or their dad in years. He’s like super weird about getting girls’ hopes up or letting them meet his family.”
That was all news to me. Hope bloomed inside me and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. Did I want to be the girl that got special treatment from Vann? Did I want to be the girl he was willing to introduce to his dad.
Not that he did. But we did dance in front of all our family and friends. That could mean something.
All I managed to say to Molly was, “Huh.”
“If you like him, don’t give up on him, okay?”
“What do you mean?”
She stopped for a second to look me in the eyes and grip my hands. “He’s a good guy, Dillon. A great guy. And he deserves someone wonderful. He might be prickly around the edges, but once you get to know him, you’ll see that he’s like the most generous person you’ll ever meet. And he’s secretly funny and kind and super loyal. I’m just saying, even if he’s giving you the stay away vibes right now, clearly there was something there over the weekend. Don’t give up.”
I opened my mouth. And then I shut it. Then I opened it again, hoping something neutral would come out. I tried blinking, but that didn’t help either. Finally, after she’d started to look at me funny, I came up with a profound, “Duly noted.”
Her smile was still sleepy, but it was also knowing. She saw way too much for not having a cup of coffee. “Okay,” she said, grabbing her towel. “Are you ready to die?”
Twenty minutes later, I kind of wished I could die. Vann had gotten to class before us. Actually, everyone had gotten to class before us since we’d chatted for so long in the locker room. The only two bikes left were the ones in the front row. Apparently, no one in this class was an overachiever.
Molly had gripped my bicep with two hands when we’d stepped inside the cycle studio. “Don’t make me do it,” she’d pleaded, her voice high-pitched and hysterical.
Bailing totally crossed my mind and I was tempted to give in to that panicked urge. This was dumb. I wasn’t here to impress Vann. I just wanted to burn off some of the alcohol and wedding cake from last weekend. And I thought it would be cool to hang with Molly a few mornings a week.
I didn’t sign up for front row in an exercise class I’d never been to before.
Not to mention Vann would be directly behind me—watching me inevitably fail at basically spinning my feet on spikey pedals. It was humiliation I did not welcome. Nor did I need. Nor did I have to go through with.
But just when I’d been ready to grab Molly’s quivering hand and flee, Vann had turned around and raised a single, challenging eyebrow.
It was like he could sense my flight reaction kicking in. He didn’t think I’d go through with this. He didn’t think I was serious about cycling. He probably thought I was here to see him.
I would show him.
Only now that we were well into the class, I realized it wasn’t slipping off the pedals into a puddle of my own sweat and tears that I had to worry about. It was the super slimming workout tights I’d chosen to wear this morning and my ultra-formfitting halter top.
And, because I hated underwear lines, I wasn’t wearing any. My butt crack was potentially the sweatiest it had ever been, and Vann was here to freaking witness it. And not just see it but have a front row ticket to the sweaty ass show. Literally.
I had been trying to get Molly’s attention for the better part of the last ten minutes, but she had this technique where she stared at the ground the whole time. Probably so she didn’t fall off the bike, but still. I needed her to wake up and pay attention to me.
