Fall Into Temptation (Blue Moon Book #2)(7)

Beckett debated not taking it, but worried his legs would betray him. He let her pull him up to standing and glanced down at the mat.

“You’re going to have to burn this one,” he said, eyeing the body-sized sweat stain.

She grinned up at him. “Don’t worry about it. I think I’ve got some industrial cleaner in the back somewhere.” She headed over to the shelves and Beckett picked up his still-sopping t-shirt.

Gianna returned with a spray bottle and another towel. “I don’t think you’re going to want to put that back on,” she said, wrinkling her nose at his soggy t-shirt.

“Yeah,” Beckett agreed, pulling on his sweatshirt instead. He picked up the block that he had ended up relying on like a lifeline and put it back on the shelf.

“Is this your last class tonight?”

She glanced up from his newly laundered mat, eyes trailing a little slower over his bare chest. “It is. You are free to go shower and drink several beers.”

“Is that what you do after class?” he teased.

“Shower, yes. One beer and usually a giant dish of mac and cheese or something equally unhealthy.”

Beckett’s stomach growled in response. A shower beer and dinner were in his future, he decided.

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Beckett offered. Now that he was recovering some of his energy, he was reluctant to leave her. Especially since he’d be leaving her with the image of him barely conscious drowning in a pool of his own sweat. He could do better and perhaps recover a bit of his pride.

“Thanks, but I walked,” Gianna told him, grabbing her bag from one of the cubbies along the back wall.

He felt a pang when she tugged a hoodie over her tank top. She had a beautiful body. One that demanded attention, even from the near dead. “I’ll walk with you.”

She eyed him for a moment. “Okay. That would be nice.”

Beckett waited by the front door while she turned off the studio lights and together they exited into the cool October evening.

“Which way are you?” he asked.

She slid her key into the lock and pointed to the left.

“Me, too. We must be neighbors,” Beckett commented, as they started down the sidewalk.

“Imagine that,” Gianna said, with an amused look.

Beckett threw his sweaty t-shirt over his shoulder. “How do you like Blue Moon so far?”

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “Everyone’s so warm. I love that my kids will grow up knowing their neighbors and walking to school.”

“You have kids?” Beckett immediately looked down at her left hand. No ring.

She shot him an amused look. “Two kids and an ex-husband. You?”

“Zero kids and no ex-husbands.”

Gianna laughed. “Any wives? Current or past?”

They walked past Karma Kustard and Beckett waved to Pete the owner who was manning the counter.

“None. The Pierce brothers take our bachelorhood seriously. Well, we did until recently.” He thought of Carter with his Summer.

“How many of you are there?” Gia asked.

“Three. I’m the good-looking one.” He winked.

She rolled her eyes and tugged the hair band out of her thick, auburn curls letting them tumble down her back. “You must be the middle child.”

“How did you guess?”

“Like recognizes like.”

“You’re the middle, too?”

She nodded, tossing her hair over her shoulder and he caught a whiff of lavender. “I’ve got two sisters.”

“Are you close?” he asked. He wondered if they looked like her. Gianna was a head turner. He couldn’t imagine two more of her.

“Not geographically, I’ve got one bouncing around South Carolina and one in L.A., but we talk and email constantly. How about you and your brothers?”

He thought of Carter and Jax. Close was a good word for his relationship with them, especially now that they were all back home and starting a business together. “We’re pretty close. So two kids, huh?”

Gianna nodded and stuffed her hands in the front pocket of her hoodie. “Yeah, they’re pretty great. I’m hoping to be half the parent my dad was while I was growing up. If I can accomplish that, I can do anything,” she sighed.

“How about your mother?” Beckett asked.

Gianna shrugged. “She left us years ago. My sisters and I were in our early teens, so you can imagine what gems we were then. But Dad hung in there and figured out how to fill both roles. He never once let us feel like it was our fault or that what we wanted wasn’t important.”

“He sounds like a good man.”

“As close to sainthood as you can get,” she nodded. “Your parents?”

Beckett caught a glimpse of his disheveled, sweat-soaked hair in the next storefront window and scrubbed a hand through it. Next time he saw Gianna it was going to be in a suit after a shower, he promised himself.

“My dad was great. He put his heart into everything he did. He was never too busy for anyone who needed help.” Beckett could still call up a hundred memories of his dad setting aside everything to have a conversation, to lend a hand, or just answer his incessant questions as a five-year-old.

“He sounds wonderful,” Gianna said, guiding them off of Main Street.