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Shaw Miller made his coffee order at the counter of the bustling shop and dug a few bills from his wallet. He could feel the gaze and smile of the cashier on him as he plucked out the money, but he chose not to look up. He would need at least two cups of coffee and a different personality before he was in the mood for small talk.
The pretty redhead took the mo
ney and kept her gaze on him. “Hey, have we met before? I don’t think I’ve seen you in here, but you look familiar for some reason.”
He glanced up briefly and tried to appear nonchalant, even though the words sent his gut twisting into a knot. “I don’t think so. But I’ve been told I have one of those faces.”
“Maybe so. Or maybe I was just wishing I’d met you before.” She gave him a sly grin.
The flirtation bounced off him like hail against a windshield. He shoved two bucks in the tip jar. “Where do I wait for my coffee?”
Her smile faltered a bit at his flat tone, but she cocked her head to the right. “Over there. Chris will set you right up. And here—” She slid a loyalty card across the counter. “Next time we’ll be even faster because we’ll already know your order.”
He pocketed the card and mentally scratched this coffee shop off his list of places to frequent. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, darling.”
As long as anytime is never.
With his coffee in hand, Shaw hurried out of the mocha-scented shop and into the cool morning. You look familiar. His long strides ate up the sidewalk as he headed to work, and he couldn’t help checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was following—an old habit he couldn’t seem to break.
Rivers, Shaw’s best friend and the one who’d coaxed him back to this town, would tell him that he was overreacting. Rivers had assured him that his fears about returning to Austin were overblown. Shaw had changed his name, his look, and had cut the traceable ties to his old life as much as anyone could in the world of the internet. He’d covered all the bases. But the woman at the coffee shop had, for a moment, looked at him like she’d recognized him for real, and that had sent ice through his veins.
Shaw wanted to dismiss it as his own paranoia. It wouldn’t be the first time that he’d thought someone was looking at him askance, only to be reading too much into it. Last night at the bar, he’d even had a brief snap of fear that the sexy singer who’d lost her shoe had looked at him with some hint of familiarity at first. But based on the fact that “James with a z” had been about to ask him to coffee, he knew he’d been wrong on that one. Of course, that hadn’t meant he could accept her invitation—as much as he’d been tempted by it—but it did prove he was prone to thinking the worst.
Being stalked by the press for so many years made him see motives in everyone and feel like he was constantly under surveillance. But this time at the coffee shop, he’d seen real recognition in the woman’s eyes. She just hadn’t placed him. That was what had made the cold hand of fear grip his chest. Maybe later on today, her brain would click, and she’d realize who she’d been talking to. Maybe not. Either way, he wasn’t going back to that coffee shop.
When he unlocked the back door of the soon-to-be-open Gym Xtreme, the steamy, chlorine-scented air hit him in the face like dragon breath. He grimaced and finished the rest of his coffee before tossing the cup in a trash can in the hallway. As Shaw entered the main part of the gym, his footsteps echoed in the cavernous warehouse space like he was in some horror movie, but fear was the last thing he felt when he stopped and looked around.
Sunlight streamed in from the skylights he and Rivers had gotten installed, but the main lights weren’t on. Dust motes danced in the air, and the reflection off the pools painted blue patterns on the far wall. Despite the stuffy atmosphere and too-warm temperature, the tension in Shaw’s shoulders eased. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A quiet gym was like entering his own version of church. It was the only place where his mind went still.
A clink of metal sounded to his left, and Shaw craned his neck that way. Rivers was balancing on a ladder as he adjusted something on a set of still rings in the gymnastic area, his blond hair slicked back from either sweat or a dip in the pool.
“How’d it go at the permits office?” Rivers asked, not looking away from his task but apparently hearing Shaw’s footsteps. “I hope it’s more fun than the DMV.”
Shaw snorted as he walked over. “It made the DMV look like a rave, but we’re all squared away. I’s dotted, t’s crossed, ridiculous fees paid.”
“Great.”
Shaw pulled his shirt away from his chest, the material starting to cling. “What happened to the AC? It feels like the inside of a gym sock and smells like a swim meet in here. Are you trying to save money on the electric bill?”
Rivers sniffed. “No, I’m not choosing this misery. The system froze up. I already had a guy out to look at it. He said to turn off the units for a few hours so they can thaw and to consider adding another one to cover this much square footage. He said once we have people in here, it will only get hotter quicker, and in the summer, we’ll be completely screwed.”
“Fantastic. More expenses,” Shaw groused. The gym was bleeding money, and Shaw was having a hard time finding ways to stanch the wound. He’d helped Rivers plan this project down to the penny, but the old building had issues they hadn’t been expecting, the equipment had been pricier to build than the original estimates, and the insurance was through the roof. If they didn’t have a stellar opening month, they were going to drown before they ever made their first lap around the pool.
“I know. It sucks.” Rivers glanced down at him. “But it is what it is. We can’t have people passing out from the heat.”
“At this rate, we’re not going to have people at all because we’re never going to open.”
“It’ll all work out.” Rivers smiled, unperturbed, which tended to be a natural state for him—hence the reason Shaw was in charge of the business finances. Rivers returned to checking the still rings, yanking on them. “The smell is because I got all the pools treated again. The chemical balance was off. Now they’re clean and ready to catch all the people who will fall off our badass challenges.”
Shaw smirked and stepped under the rings. “I’m not sure I would market them that way. Come to the gym that is sure to crush your spirits!”
Rivers snorted. “Breaking spirits to rebuild them, Shaw.” Rivers put a hand to his chest, a dramatic look on his face. “We’re doing spiritual work here. The people need us.”