The Rules of Dating(23)

I’d never admit it to anyone, especially not my buddies, but I worked out before I left for the kickboxing class. If there was a chance to take off my shirt, I wanted to look as cut as possible. I did a hundred sit-ups and almost as many curls to pump up my biceps before heading to the address she’d sent me.

I’d thought I was looking pretty good…until I got a glimpse of the guy setting up mats at the front of the room when I walked in. He had on baggy white pants like you wear for karate and no shirt. I was fit, but this dude made me look frail. I have no fucking idea why, but somehow I knew he could make his pecs dance to the rhythm of music as a party trick. That thought made me frown, as did remembering the forty minutes I’d wasted exercising before coming here. There was no way in hell I was taking off my shirt anywhere in the vicinity of Mr. Universe.

But I found a reason to smile anyway when I saw Billie waving. She had on a cropped top and a pair of shorts, and although I loved those corsets, I wasn’t missing them at all at the moment.

“Hey. You made it,” she said.

“Yeah, the location actually worked out well. I borrowed Owen’s car and drove so we’d have a way to get the stuff from IKEA home after we’re done. And my parents only live a few blocks away, so I dropped Saylor there. They usually come by our place one or two Saturdays a month to spend time with her while I catch up on errands and stuff. She was excited to go to their place for a change.”

“Oh, that’s great.” She motioned to the other side of the room. “Come on, I’m over here.”

I followed and dropped the duffle bag I’d brought on the ground next to hers.

“It’s great that Saylor’s grandparents are so involved in her life,” she said as she stretched a little.

“Yeah, my parents are pretty amazing with her. They moved from Pennsylvania, where I grew up, to New York to be closer to me after Saylor was born. My mom would babysit all weekend, every weekend, if I let her. But since I’m not around ten hours a day for work, I try to put in quality time on Saturdays and Sundays. I usually take her out to see different things in the city on at least one day, unless the weather is bad. Believe it or not, she loves checking out libraries the most.”

Billie smiled. “Saylor’s growing up with such a healthy male role model. Being a woman, I can’t express how important that is. My mom was only nineteen when she had me. My dad was twenty-five and married to another woman when Mom found out she was pregnant.”

“No shit?”

She nodded. “Even more fun than that, his wife was already two months pregnant when my mom got pregnant. So I have a half-sister who’s only eight weeks older than me.”

“Wow. How did that play out growing up?”

“Welp, my dad had no real interest in getting to know me. When he’d first gotten together with my mom, he’d told her he was in the middle of a divorce, and she believed him. But as far as I know, he’s still married to the same woman all these years later.”

“Damn.” I shook my head.

“Yeah, it really changed the course of Mom’s life. After that, she dated once in a while, but I don’t think she ever trusted a man enough to get into a serious relationship. It’s funny, I pride myself on being nothing like her, yet I pretty much did the same thing—fell for a guy who screwed me over and lost all trust in men.”

I tapped my chest. “Present company excluded, I hope.”

“I think the jury is still out on that. I’ve heard about your playboy ways, you know.”

My eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Holden likes to gossip while getting tattooed.”

Seriously? What the fuck. Why the hell would Holden tell her shit like that, true or not? I was going to kill his grungy ass when I got home. I frowned. “I’m not like that anymore, Billie. Having Saylor brought me a whole new perspective. Now I think to myself, would I want some dude treating my girl that way?”

“I do believe you’ve changed a lot. I didn’t mean to put you down. I was mostly teasing, anyway.”

Mostly. Great.

Our conversation paused when the buff guy walked over. He opened his arms and smiled at Billie. “You made it!”

She stepped into a hug, and the dude lifted her into the air and spun her around. Clearly, he did not feel intimidated by the man standing next to her.

“You’re squishing me, Taylor!” Billie squealed while laughing.

Great, this guy is Taylor. By the name, I’d assumed the instructor wasn’t a man. Now I had to endure a whole hour of the woman I came to impress looking at that. Today’s date, or rather undate, had not started off as planned. In the first three minutes, Billie had told me she’d heard I was a playboy, and now Mr. Universe had her tits squished up against his ginormous pecs. Awesome. Just awesome.

The instructor set her back on her feet, but he kept his arm wrapped around her waist. “How are you, beautiful?”

“I’m good,” Billie said, motioning to me. “This is my friend, Colby.”

The guy extended his hand. “How you doing, Colby? Thanks for coming down today.”

I forced a smile. “Happy to be here.”

Taylor looked at his watch and thumbed toward the front of the room. “I gotta start class. I’ll talk to you more after, okay?”