“Totally sure. Chloe is here to watch the place until I get back. It’s no problem.”
“Tina, you’re a lifesaver. If you keep coming to my rescue like this, I won’t be able to stop myself from falling in love with you.”
I feel my cheeks heat like they did earlier when Nick said he’d love me forever if I helped him. Stupid cheeks. Did they forget we don’t care about silly things like men falling in love with us? Why would they burn when Nick says it?
“No need for that. I’ll charge a delivery fee and we’ll call it even.”
He chuckles into the phone.“Deal. Thank you, Tina. Now I really owe you.”
I mumble, “see you shortly,” and hang up.
“Chloe? Can you handle being on your own for a bit? I need to run this food over to the gym for Nick. There’s been an emergency and he can’t leave right now.”
Chloe looks up from where she’s rolling silverware. “Yeah, of course. That’s no problem. Is everything okay?”
I shake my head and shrug. “I’m not sure. He said some kid he’s training drank himself silly and his manager, Rhett, took him to HCG to get checked out.”
“Oh no. Poor Jared. He’s such a good kid. I wouldn’t have pictured him to be the kind of kid to go off and get drunk. It doesn’t sound much like him.”
“Nick said something about a girlfriend back home? Sounds like the poor kid was heartbroken.”
Chloe nods. “That makes sense. When Jared isn’t training or doing schoolwork, he’s on his phone talking to his girlfriend. It always sounded like he was trying to convince her he was faithful. Seemed like a shitty situation for a kid to be in, if you ask me. Long distance is hard enough when you’re old and settled. When you’re a kid full of raging hormones, it has to be hell.”
I slide my phone into my pocket and grab the bag and some boxes of food from the counter. “Yeah, I feel bad for him, and not just because of the girlfriend situation. That kid will have a killer hangover tomorrow.”
Chloe doesn’t wait for me to ask before grabbing the rest of Nick’s order from the counter. “Maybe it will help him stay away from alcohol in the future?”
One glance at Chloe has us both laughing, remembering our own misspent youth. We didn’t know each other then, but we’ve had enough conversations in the last five years that I know her teenage years resembled mine. Full of underage drinking, parties, and too many close calls. And hangovers. So. Many. Hangovers. None of which ever stopped us. At leastnot back then. These days if I have even one beer there’s an excellent chance I’ll have a hangover. Sometimes I’m really lucky and the hangover starts before I’ve finished the beer, which is always fun. These days I stick to tea and true crime for my entertainment, and it’s not only because I work all day, every single day.
We leave the empty restaurant and bring our packages to my car, placing them carefully on the front seat. “Thanks, Chloe. I know you were hoping to leave early tonight.” She’d been hinting at a hot date since she arrived this afternoon. It sounded like she was looking forward to it.
She shrugs. “Did I forget to tell you? We had to cancel.”
“Oh, no. I’m sorry. But I’m glad that I’m not the one stopping you from going out.”
“Yeah. It’s great.” She pulls her lips in and nods without meeting my eyes, failing to mask her disappointment. For a serial dater like Chloe, being visibly upset over a canceled date has my curiosity piqued. I’ll be looking into this more later. Right now, I need to get this food to Nick while it’s still hot.
“Call me if you need anything,” I say as I get into my car. “I won’t be long.”
“Take your time.” She gives me a wave. “It’s not that busy. I might even repaint the window.”
She walks back inside, leaving me shaking my head. One good thing about how often she paints the windows? I have the cleanest window sills in town because every time she washes off an old picture, she does a deep clean on the entire window. It’s great.
I feel a little silly driving my car, since Put Up Your Ducks MMA is just down the street, but I’d never have been able to carry all the food otherwise. Usually, I can make deliveries on foot, because downtown Tuft Swallow surrounds a small square. Almost everything you need is in a one block radius,and the trail system connects everything else. If there’s one great thing about living in a town obsessed with birdwatching, it’s all the walking trails. I can get almost anywhere I want to go using the well-maintained trail system in and around town. Why drive when I can get some fresh air and exercise? If I didn’t have so much food to deliver, I would probably be walking to the gym now, too.
I parallel park in a spot close to the door, behind the bus from the Spring Chickens senior living facility.Are they here for the class Nick was talking about? Is there a special first aid certification needed for working with senior citizens?I guess I’ll find out when I get in there. I make my way out of the car and to the passenger side, where we’ve stacked the food.Looks like I’ll need to take two trips.
“Hey!” A man in long skin tight shorts and not much else calls out in greeting. “Nick sent me out to help carry the food. I’m Demetrius.” He thrusts a taped hand out for a shake, forcing me to drag my gaze away from the beads of sweat blazing a trail down his muscular chest. “Nice to meet you.”
Is this what Chloe meant when she said the guys here are in shape? Because this is more than in shape. This man is chiseled.And chiseled is nice, I guess, but I’ll take Nick’s slightly fluffy body type over chiseled any day of the week. The little belly he sports over all those muscles puts me in a mood to cuddle.
“Hey,” I say, grasping his hand in mine. “I’m Tina. Grab some boxes and let’s get in there. You guys must be starving.”
He laughs, his smile taking up most of his face. “You have no idea. I’m in the middle of training for my next fight and my diet has been pretty strict. One of the main reasons I love training with Nick is he makes sure my meal plan includes tasty food. Would you believe I’ve had plans that were nothing but dry chicken breast and broccoli for every meal? A man cannot live on chicken and broccoli. Not if he wants to have something tofight for.” He reaches into my car and pulls out a stack of boxes. “But I can tell by how amazing this smells that you’ve brought us something delicious. My mouth is watering already.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “Nick gave me almost no notice, so you’re getting what I already had in my restaurant. You’ll probably want to call this your cheat meal, because if I had to guess, I’d say that extra cheesy lasagna, caesar salad, and garlic bread are not meal plan approved.”
Demetrius licks his lips and makes a slurping noise. “Woman, you are speaking my love language. Marry me,” he jokes. We get to the door and Demetrius kicks a foot out to hit the automatic door open button. “Marry me right now.” He tips his chin, motioning for me to go in ahead of him.
