“Time to go inside, kids!”
“Promise me you’ll think about it!” she exclaimed.
“Come on, guys! Time for lunch!” I said.
I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to consider it. Ryan Aaron was trouble with a capital ‘T’ and there was no reason for me to get tangled up with him. He was the epitome of everything I avoided, and for a very good reason.
And I wasn’t going to start doubting my life decisions now.
I wasn’t going to dinner with him.
Ever.
Seven
Ryan
“Seven… eight… nine… ten. All right. Set it down. Come on.”
“You don’t have to talk to me like I’m the woman you’re currently screwing,” I said.
“Trust me, I don’t talk to her like that,” Paul said with a grin.
I chuckled and shook my head as I re-racked the weights. Paul had been a good friend of mind for years. Divorced. Father of one. Multi-billionaire who was spending his days living the high life after selling his lucrative technological startup. He made it big and sold it out, then decided to spend his days raising his daughter after her mother slipped into drug use to deal with her postpartum depression.
He was a strong man, and I enjoy training in the gym with him.
“Your turn,” I said breathlessly. “And don’t give me this shit about how your knee sucks.”
“It does suck, but not enough to make me skip leg day,” Paul said. “Come on. Help me get this fucking thing on my shoulders.”
“If you need help getting it on your shoulders, maybe we should’ve made today arm day,” I said with a grin.
“I hate you sometimes, you know that?”
“It’s why you keep me around.”
I helped spot Paul until he got into his first set of squats. The man was a powerhouse in the damn gym. Stacked with muscles and taller than me by three or four inches. He was a colossal man, and I pitied the boy that attempted to date his daughter.
“How’s Cassidy doing at school these days?” I asked.
“Can you not try to talk to me while I’m grunting it out?” Paul asked.
“Then get better at multitasking. I hear she’s going to have Hunter’s teacher next semester. What happened with her classroom this semester?”
“There’s a bully.”
“Cassidy’s being bullied. By who?” I asked.
“Well, not anymore. And she’s not being bullied. Cassidy saw a kid being bullied.”
Paul groaned as he racked the weights before he shook out his legs.
“I’m not following,” I said.
“Cassidy defended one of her friends from a bully.”
“So they’re transferring her out?” I asked. “That doesn’t make sense.”