Chapter Three
Eve saw lots of glimpses of Beck Tanner over the next week at her gym. He caught her eye and gave her inviting glances often as she was training a client, but she’d been booked back to back throughout each morning and hadn’t had a minute to approach him before he disappeared about eleven-thirty each day and she always went to lunch with Paisley at noon.
She woke at four-thirty a.m. every day, did her own weight or cardio workout in her small home gym, which was ironic as she owned the best gym this side of Denver, but she didn’t want to be away from Paisley any more than she had to. Then she’d shower and work on responding to emails, marketing, or bookkeeping for the gym until Paisley woke up. They’d have breakfast together and head to The Fitness Spot.
Usually after lunch, she might have one or two more personal training appointments but she’d focus her time in her office upstairs of the gym on employee issues or training and whatever else she needed to wrap up for the day. By three or four she and Paisley would head out to spend the rest of the day together.
She’d Googled Beck that first night she met him after Paisley had fallen asleep. Even the pictures of him online took her breath away. When she realized he was a star defenseman for the Colorado Avalanche, an heir to billions, and looked like a superstar popping out of his beautiful car in pictures, it made more sense why Trudy, and it seemed every other woman in the gym, couldn’t keep their eyes off of him. That wasn’t completely fair though. Beck would’ve probably received all of those longing glances simply because of how attractive and fit he was. Plus he really appeared to be a nice guy, not a cocky gym rat. She’d noticed him helping people with equipment, joking with young men who looked at him with idol worship, and even helping one of the older ladies to the pool area for her therapy workout. It was an honor to have a professional athlete and weight-lifting advertisement like him at her gym. She wanted to gush about him and to him, but that wasn’t her personality, at all.
Eve found herself becoming obsessed with the man, watching for him at his usual workout times between nine and eleven-thirty, Googling him after she put Paisley to bed and watching videos of him playing hockey—he was singularly impressive on the ice—and unfortunately seeing numerous pictures of him with a lot of different women, often helping them into that gorgeous navy blue and silver car of his. He seemed to prefer redheads with generous bosoms. Dang. Her dark hair did have natural copper highlights but she was sadly lacking in large chest measurements, too thin and muscular her mom would say.
A week after she’d first met him, she was walking backward out of the daycare after dropping off Paisley when she ran into someone solid. Whipping around, she felt her stomach give a happy lurch when she realized it was Beck.
A warm smile lit up his handsome face. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey yourself.” She felt her own smile growing.
“You’ve been busy,” he said. “First time I’ve seen you alone in days.”
“You’ve been waiting to catch me alone?” She arched an eyebrow, her stomach hopping happily.
He nodded.
Eve wanted to question him about why he’d want her alone but she wasn’t very proficient at flirting. She was trying to remember the last time before she met him that she had even cared to flirt. “Here for your daily abuse?” she asked.
He nodded. “Gotta stay in shape for hockey season.”
“Oh… you play hockey?” She tried to play it cool and not reveal she’d Googled him far too often since he’d appeared at her gym.
“I’ve been known to skate a time or two.” He smiled as if he knew exactly how obsessed she was becoming with him.
“That’s… nice.” She was an idiot. Nice? He was spectacular, intriguing, impressive, mind-consuming. Nice?
She turned and started walking toward the main area and the weight room. She was training Trudy at nine o’clock. Beck fell into step beside her. She glanced up at him. She loved that he was as tall and built as her brothers. It made her feel like he could protect her from the bad things in the world—mostly Mark showing up again. During her pregnancy, she pushed through as much schooling as she could before her daughter was born. At times she’d fought loneliness and even longed for Mark to reappear. Now she hated him completely and dreaded the thought of him coming around and possibly seeing Paisley. She’d worked hard to stay off of social media and away from any paparazzi that tracked her family, to protect Paisley from her weasel of a father.
“Do the team trainers orchestrate your workouts?” she asked.
“They send suggested workouts in the offseason but they don’t own us until we go back to practice the end of August.”
They entered the open gym foyer with the skylights above the two stories and the focal point of the staircase. Trudy was walking in the front doors.
Beck put a hand on her arm and Eve stopped walking and stared up at him. He leaned slightly closer and lowered his voice, “Are you married?”
Eve’s eyes widened. Why would he ask that? Was this the time to tell him she had been married? For one long, horrific week. “No.”
“Engaged?” His blue eyes were intent and she felt like she was being interrogated. She wished she knew his motive.
“No.”
“Dating someone seriously?”
“Hey you two,” Trudy trilled out. Eve hadn’t even heard her approach, so focused on Beck and his questions. She stared into his beautiful blue eyes and wondered: Did he want to date her? That would make sense why he’d be asking these questions. Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest and she couldn’t hide a happy smile.
Did Beck know she had a daughter? Would he be interested in her if he did? She’d been asked out a lot since Paisley had been born, and even more often people tried to set her up with their neighbor, cousin, brother, etc., but she was focused on her daughter and hadn’t been tempted to date. She was tempted now. What would dating look like with a rambunctious almost five-year-old in tow? She was getting way ahead of herself. Just because Beck was asking her personal questions and looking at her so intently didn’t mean he’d want to date her.
Trudy cleared her throat and Eve finally tore her gaze from Beck. “Hey… sorry.”
“Hi,” Beck said, raising a hand.