Page 65 of Flirting with 40

“To be continued,” he mutters, and I laugh again right before I open the door.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Slade

“Gemma!” Blakely says as she slips outside and shuts the door behind her.

I picture the woman. Shorter with curly hair, a great smile, a little timid, and definitely a tad germophobic. The woman pulls out hand sanitizer every five minutes.

She also has shit timing.

They make small talk as my hard-on fades and my thoughts scatter all over the fucking place.

They are mostly of Blakely.

Of the color that lives on her cheeks and the smile that has owned her face nonstop since I met her on the trail this morning. Whatever the hell happened at her meeting this morning got to her enough that there were storm clouds in her eyes when she deserves only rainbows.

Plus, she wore the bathing suit.

She thought it was about me getting her into it when I’d much rather have her out of it, but it was so much more than that. It was about how when she doubts herself, she becomes flustered and then defensive. Her not wanting to wear it had nothing to do with her damn coworkers and what she deemed were their perfect yoga bodies. It had everything to do with her and how she sees herself.

Not sure what that douchebag of an ex did to her self-esteem, but fuck him.

I’m making it my mission to rid her of her insecurities one by one.

It’s the least she deserves.

Her laugh sounds off again, and my balls tighten. This woman. She has gotten a hold of me somehow.

“The reason I really stopped by is kind of embarrassing,” Gemma says and catches my attention.

“What’s wrong?” Blakely asks.

“Oh. No. Nothing is wrong,” she says, and when I peek through the blinds, I can see her blushing and shifting her feet. “It’s more . . . I just wanted to say how envious I was of you today. We all thought the whole paddleboard yoga thing was more for Heather to show off how good she is at it instead of bringing us together as a team.”

“She is good at it,” Blakely says softly as I step into my shorts and pull them up. “But why were you envious of me? I fell off the paddleboard and couldn’t stop laughing.”

“Exactly,” she says, her smile growing more certain. “You and Slade were laughing and having so much fun while the rest of us were afraid to breathe wrong for fear of getting reprimanded. You just didn’t care.”

Blakely sighs in that way that says she is treading lightly so as not to offend, but at the same time, says she hears her coworker. Such a perfect boss sound. “Of course, I care, but—”

“We can all see that she’s out to get you, and yet, you aren’t afraid.” She giggles nervously, as if she can’t believe she just said that. “It’s about damn time.”

“Oh. I—I wasn’t aware it was so obvious.”

“We see more than you think we do—or, at least, I do,” she says. “Do you want to walk to our next session together?”

“Um, yes. Sure. Let me change out of my suit first. I’ll be just a second,” Blakely says.

A second later, the door opens and shuts and Blakely stares at me as if she’s shocked.

“Don’t look now, but I do believe another thing is getting crossed off our Blade To-Do list,” I whisper so Gemma won’t overhear.

“You heard us?” she whispers back as she walks over to her suitcase.

“I did.”

Her back is to me as she slides her arms out of the bathing suit straps and begins whatever voodoo it is that women do to get their bras on. “She’s one of the ones I thought was a die-hard Heather cheerleader.”