Not all adults. But they had. And it was a good kiss. Filled-far-too-many-dreams kind of good.
She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t contacted him. Maybe because their emails back and forth about this self-defense session had been so formal. And maybe because she’d been hoping to run into him in the apartment building but hadn’t.
She pulled the van over in front of the gym and turned to look at the women. “Ready?”
A few women smiled, the others nodded. Sarah just fussed over Chett, who sat beside her. They’d offered for him to remain at the shelter with a couple of the other kids, but Sarah had wanted to bring him, so Bonnie assured her they’d make it work.
She climbed out and opened the back door. Sarah and Chett were last out.
“Bonnie, Mama packed me huckleberry taffy in my lunch box.”
Bonnie’s eyes widened. “No way!”
“And I have new Legos!”
“Oh my gosh, you are just the luckiest five-year-old I have ever met.”
He beamed at her, and even Sarah’s lips twitched. “Come on, Chetty.”
Once the van was locked up, Bonnie caught up with Sarah and lowered her voice so Chett couldn’t hear. “I’ve been meaning to check in. How have you been?”
Sarah nodded. “Good, actually. I’ve been talking to Tanya, and it’s really helping calm my nerves.”
Bonnie smiled softly. Tanya was one of the counselors, probably the best at the shelter. “That’s great.”
She moved to the front of the group and pushed the door open, leading the way to the desk. Familiar nerves crawled through Bonnie’s belly, but it wasn’t Zane who greeted them, it was Stetson.
He smiled from behind the counter, his shaggy blond hair falling into his eyes. “Hey! You made it.”
“We did and we’re ready to go.”
“Fantastic. Follow me. You can put your stuff down at the back while we wait for Zane.” They trooped through the gym, and the women were just setting their water bottles down when the creak of a door opening somewhere else sounded.
Bonnie glanced at the hall, and her mouth dried. Desert-level dry. Because not only did Zane step out of the hall looking ridiculously hot in his tight white shirt, his hair was also wet and falling into his eyes.
Holy Jesus, the man was a walking romance novel cover.
Pull yourself together, Bonnie. And absolutely no drooling.
She cleared her throat and straightened as he crossed over to her. “Hey.”
“Hi, Bonnie.” He didn’t look at her, just turned to the women. “This is my group?”
Oh. Well. She hadn’t expected a good-morning kiss or a butt slap, but a simple smile with some eye contact would have been nice. “Yeah. They’re ready for you.”
“Let’s start then.”
Not one glance her way. So while she’d been dreaming about the guy and his lips, he obviously had not been doing the same.
She turned to the women. “If I could get everyone’s attention.” She waited until the room quieted. “This is Zane Merrick. He’s a former Army Ranger and UFC fighter. He knows what he’s doing and I think we’ll all learn a lot from him.”
Zane stepped forward. “Thanks for coming. You’re going to have to be patient with me because I haven’t run a class like this before, but hopefully everyone gets something out of this.”
Bonnie moved to Chett’s side as he sat on the floor and worked on his Legos, but her gaze remained on Zane.
His deep, gravelly voice slid over her skin as he spent the first twenty minutes talking about situational awareness and verbal assertiveness. He explained how empowering it can be to know how to protect oneself. And everyone listened. Even Chett stopped playing to focus on Zane.
When it came to the warm-up, Bonnie joined in. They did jumping jacks and a few dynamic stretches.
