Why Not Tonight (Happily Inc. #3)(59)

He drank his breakfast on the way, then realized about five miles too late he should have made coffee, as well. Now it would be at least an hour and a half before he had his first cup. He had remembered a water bottle, so he would have that when the workout was done. He arrived at the park to find Nick and Mathias were already waiting for him. Both looked far more alert than he felt.

“Good morning,” Nick called. “Isn’t this great? We should have started working out together years ago.”

“Why?” Ronan asked. “It’s too early.”

Mathias looked smug. “That’s right. You’re a night owl. Too bad. I love the mornings. The earlier, the better.”

“Bite me.”

Like his brothers, Ronan wore shorts and a T-shirt, along with athletic shoes. Nick had said something about running and a few other things. The morning was cool, but he knew he would work up a sweat soon enough.

“So here’s the plan,” Mathias said. “We’re going to start with a four-mile run.”

“I thought the race was only a 5K,” Ronan said.

“It is, but this way we’re more than ready for it.”

“Or we’ll overtrain,” Ronan grumbled. “You know, I have a gym at home. I could have done this there.”

“No one trusts you.” Nick’s tone was cheerful.

“You’re saying I would lie about working out?”

“Yup.”

Ronan laughed. “Fine. So we run, then what?”

“Push-ups and pull-ups until one of us pukes.”

Mathias groaned. “Great. I can’t wait for that.”

They started out at a slow jog. The path around the park was a mile long, meaning they would circle it four times. Ronan knew that jogging outside was more challenging than the run he did on his treadmill at home and he looked forward to pushing himself this morning. No way he was going to be the one to puke first.

“How’s Pallas?” Mathias asked Nick when they’d found their rhythm on the run.

“Feeling better. Just like the doctor said, her hormones are calming down and she’s having more time between the waves of nausea.” He swore, then continued. “I don’t know how she got through it. I was exhausted and all I had to do was try to help. She was the one dealing with physical symptoms. Her mom told her she went through the same thing with her pregnancies.”

Mathias shook his head. “Let me guess. Libby being Libby, she was almost gleeful that Pallas was suffering, as well.”

“You know it. Mothers and daughters are complicated creatures.”

“But Pallas is definitely better?” Mathias asked.

“She is. The doctor is hopeful that once she gets through this stage, she’ll be fine. There’s a chance she could be sick at the end of her pregnancy, when the hormones step up again. We’ll have to see.”

They continued talking about the pregnancy, but Ronan stopped listening. He didn’t want to think about children—not when he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to have any. How could he? The risk was too high. Yet the thought of going through his life with no family was more than grim. He liked being with someone special. Natalie, for example. She was great. Sweet and smart and funny and sexy. There was just something about the way she pushed up her glasses that made him want to rip off her clothes every time she did it.

“This is just like track team,” Mathias said as they picked up the pace. “Remember?”

Ronan nodded. He and his brothers had all run track in high school. They’d trained with Nick until he’d graduated. None of them had been state championship material, but they’d been stars at the Fool’s Gold high school and that had been plenty for them.

“We were gods,” Ronan said with a chuckle.

“I was a god,” Nick told him. “You two were wannabes.”

“You wish.” Mathias led them around the final corner as they completed their first lap. “Ronan and I dated twin sisters.”

“Which was a disaster.”

Ronan had to agree with Nick. It hadn’t gone well at all. He and Mathias had decided to ask the sisters out to see what it would be like. Unfortunately, the girls were identical twins and he and Mathias couldn’t ever tell them apart. They were forever mixing them up, which probably made a great summer movie plot but in real life led to hurt feelings and plenty of tears.

“You grabbed my date’s boob,” Ronan reminded Mathias. “What was up with that?”

“I thought she was my date and we’d definitely gone further than that. I don’t know. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“Not for very long. Cindy and Mindy never forgave us.”

“They probably had a point,” Mathias said. “Maybe we should have called them a few years later. Look at Maya and Del. They were hot and heavy in high school, broke up, then got together ten years later and now they’re married.”

“You want to marry either Cindy or Mindy?”

“No. I have Carol and she’s the one I love. Want me to Google them for you?”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass. I doubt if I could tell them apart any more today than I could back then and that would get me into trouble.” Besides, there was only one woman who interested him these days.