Between Commitment and Betrayal (Hardy Billionaire Brothers, #1)(56)

“I know.” He pulled at his hair a bit. “Just saw that video of you two.”

I glanced at my duffel where I knew my phone was probably receiving texts and calls. “Who knew a video could spread like fire in a dry forest here. Anyway, I’m trying not to let it get to me too much.”

“You’re something special, Evie. The fact that you’re irritated about going viral rather than excited makes you a gem of a woman, seriously.” Wes looked more intrigued with me than he ever had before. Like I was an exotic bird to him all of a sudden.

“I don’t enjoy attention.” I shrugged.

“I love that about you,” Wes said, then stepped close. “I miss you.” He couldn’t possibly. We’d only been out a handful of times, and since I’d moved into Declan’s we’d fizzled. Our interactions were limited to conversations at the gym, he’d extended no invitations and I’d been glad for it. “Haven’t been able to get you to come to my place or even a text back for a while. We haven’t done much for almost two months.”

“It’s been busy and … a lot with Carl passing.” I tossed out the excuse easily. The hard part was I hadn’t even missed him. He wasn’t a bad guy, just not the guy for me. Not even casually. I didn’t get butterflies or feel sparks or any sort of emotion toward him at all.

“Can we do dinner tonight?”

“I didn’t bring a change of clothes or anything …” Was that enough of a reason?

“We’ll go somewhere low-key.”

Po’s weights clanked behind us and he barreled up right as our watches went off. “Stop hogging, Evie, Wes. I’ve got a one-on-one with her where I need to discuss all the ins and outs of this video.”

“Oh God.” I pinched the bridge of my nose and Po’s broad smile whipped across his face immediately as he pulled me in for a hug.

“Kidding, woman. You know I don’t care about that shit.” That was probably true. Everyone had an ego here and didn’t need to give attention to those who were destined to be a one-minute wonder online.

“We can do a small yoga class if that will help with stretching,” I suggested to Po.

He nodded with a smile on his face. “Sure it will help you too. Looks like you need an outlet at this point. Hot yoga?”

“You want to do it or are you doing it for me?” I asked. “I think you could actually use hot yoga to loosen the muscles after playing hockey.”

“Whatever helps that fucker’s balance.” Noah walked up and shoved him, but Po didn’t move a muscle.

He lifted a brow. “We should probably let Noah and Wes join considering Noah’s dumb ass can’t even bend over without falling. Didn’t you fall trying to hit the puck last night?”

Although he took it in stride, I saw how Noah’s neck tensed, how his stance stiffened up a little. They all cared about their sport and didn’t want to lose. “Fuck off. You know it’s because I took Johnny’s hit.”

I waved them on. “Let’s go before someone gets their feelings hurt.”

“Po knows I’ve got great balance. Next season, I’m going to kick your ass,” Noah pouted and I figured this was the commentary I’d have to listen to through this spring and summer during their offseason.

Wes glanced over at me with a smile and dragged his finger down his cheek. “They’re such babies,” he whispered to me as we walked to the studio, but Noah overheard him.

“Like a quarterback could take one of us on?”

“I could take either of you.” Wes puffed up, but Po and Noah didn’t even give him time to defend himself. They cracked up and elbowed one another.

I stood outside the room to swipe my watch, increase the temperature on the thermostat, and log that we were utilizing the studio. I typed in the time and who would be in there with me.

Just as I was finishing it up, Gianni waved at me from the ring in the center of the gym. “You opening a hot yoga class?”

I shrugged. “For those who want a quick workout.”

He hopped out of the ring and combed a hand through his dark hair. At six two, he was a tall soccer player, but he moved nimbly from what I’d heard, and was good at the game—better than most, actually.

I waved him in right as the locker room door opened and Declan walked out. With the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean as his backdrop, he strode down the gym hallway, and I had a hard time looking away. “Hot yoga then, huh?”

“What?”

He tapped his watch. “I’m ready for the workout.”

“Declan, this is for—”

“Anyone who wants it, so the schedule says.” He breezed past me into the room, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Great.

It took only ten minutes to warm up the room and stretch. After twenty minutes, everyone was sweating with the poses.

“Gianni, if you came to learn yoga, quit staring at me and get into downward dog.” I didn’t say blatantly that he was staring at my ass, but he was too obvious not to call out.

“Evie, you know I can’t help it,” he whined. “Your ass looks like you’ve been doing yoga your whole life.” In his defense, I think he was truly led around in life only by his dick, even if he did have a good heart. The first time I’d met him, he’d hit on me and then completely respected my refusal, explaining we could still be friends. Then, he’d called a girl two minutes later who sounded like she was happy to meet him for a hookup later that same day.