Beyond What is Given(14)

The girl didn’t back down, I’d give her that much. Now if she’d realize that I didn’t, either.

“Well?”

“Catching you.”





Chapter Six


Sam


“What the hell are we doing here?” I asked as we pulled up in front of Anytime Fitness. He hadn’t even trusted me to drive, and I’d gotten perverse satisfaction at his grunt when he tried to fold himself behind the wheel again. “And what’s the point of a twenty-four-hour gym? Who honestly works out at three o’clock in the morning?”

“I do.” He killed the engine.

“Because you aspire to vampirism? Or maybe you can’t get enough of those bulging muscles in your dreams, so you need to see them in the mirror for yourself?”

“Sometimes I can’t sleep. I end up here.”

“And why are we here now?”

“You need a job. Maggie is hiring.” He got out and walked around to my side, then opened my door. “And I know she needs some help with her books, and you’re good with math.”

“How would you know that?”

“Ember.” He made no apologies for prying into my life, just waited for me to get out.

I made a mental note to give my best friend a call. “And someone I’ve never met is going to hire me because you say so?” I asked as I reluctantly climbed out.

“Actually, you’ve already met her,” he answered, opening the glass door to the gym.

The air conditioning was heavenly. “What? When? I know every application I’ve put in.”

“Hi, Flyboy!” a smiley red-headed girl in an Anytime Fitness polo called out, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“Hey, Avery. This is Samantha. Is your mom around?”

I gave the girl a small wave, which she returned. “She’s in the back. I’ll grab her.” She ran off in jeans that were easily two sizes too big for her frame.

Grayson leaned over the counter and brought an application back with a pen. “I spend a lot of time here,” he explained with a shrug. “Now fill it out.”

“How do I know her?”

He fidgeted with the pen attached to the sign-in sheet. “She owns Oscars, too.”

Oh, shit. Oscars, where I’d given my impromptu Coyote Ugly impression. “The bar?”

“Yeah, she was tending the bar the day you…visited.”

This was not happening. There had to be hidden cameras somewhere. “Oh, hell no. She’s going to take one look at me and laugh, and that’s not something I can take right now.”

He took a deep breath. “You are so frustrating. You’ll take your clothes off for a room full of men, but you won’t ask Maggie to hire you?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.” Like he’d ever made a mistake in his life, let alone left a trail of them in his wake.

He turned, leaning one elbow on the counter, dangerously invading my space, and my head. “Understand what? That your skin is a lot easier to expose than your pride?”

I sucked in my breath and tore my eyes away from the gray ones that were currently cutting through my defenses. “Yes.”

“Then I understand just fine, and I’m telling you they’re equally important. Now fill out the application, Samantha.”

“She’s going to throw me out,” I whispered, looking up at him.

Grayson arched an eyebrow. “Not everyone judges people on a first impression.”

“You did.”

“Something I’m still paying for when it comes to you.”

“There’s…people here.” I counted at least fifteen people working out in the immediate vicinity who would all bear witness to my humiliation.

“Are you going to let them stop you?”

I weighed my options as Maggie walked toward us with her daughter. I couldn’t get by without a phone or gas money, and at least this would keep my clothes on. Head high. Let’s do this. “Something you might not know about me, Grayson? I don’t let anyone stop me.”

“Something you might not know, Sam? I was depending on it.” The corner of his mouth lifted into what I could almost define as a smirk, but that might mean a smile was possible.

“Here she comes,” Grayson said into my ear, his lips barely brushing my skin. Chills raced down my neck. “Hold on.” He walked through the line of treadmills to meet Maggie halfway. At least two spandex-clad girls eye-f*cked him, but he didn’t seem to notice, and not in the way a cocky guy would ignore it, but more like…he didn’t see.

What was a guy like him doing single? Sure, he still had a stick up his ass, but there was more to him than the wall he used to keep people out.

Maggie smiled when she saw Grayson and met him near the entrance to the locker room. Her gaze jerked toward me, and I gave a half wave. Nausea rolled through me, but I fought the urgent need to puke. I’d made my bed, I was strong enough to lie in it.

Maggie made her way to me and cocked her head to the side. “If it isn’t my personal show-stopper. Grayson tells me you need a job.”

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry. “Yes, ma’am. I’m so sorry for how I behaved. I promise that’s not my normal”—anymore—“and it won’t happen again. Ever.”