Chapter 22
Leo
Iflex my fingers to try and stop myself from balling my hands into fists as I watch Callum’s friend try to flirt with Rosie.
“Bro, what’s gotten into you?” Callum asks. I look down at him on the weight bench and try to relax my face.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
He laughs as he places his hands back on the bar above him. “So you don’t have a thing for Clara?” I spot him as he starts his set, reminding myself that we decided to try to keep her real name to ourselves for now, for Rosie’s safety.
I just grunt in reply, not really sure how to tell my little brother that my two best friends and I are dating the same woman.
“You know, if you don't make a move soon, you might be too late.” He racks the bar and I glance up at her.
She’s trying to look busy behind the front counter, but I can see the unease in her posture as Matt leans on the counter with a flirtatious smile. I can’t hear what he’s saying from across the gym, but I can see her placating smile in response.
I look around for Grant or Asher. If I hadn’t agreed to spot Callum I’d be over there saving him from that idiot right now.
“Could you pine any harder?” he asks with a laugh.
“I’m not pining, asshole,” I give him a halfhearted kick to the calf as I catch Asher’s eye and gesture towards Rosie. He sees the problem and instantly heads over there.
“Interesting.” I glance down and see Callum caught my gesture. “Aren’t you afraid she’ll start dating Asher? They seem pretty close. Wasn’t he giving her rides to work on his bike?”
I let out a long breath of frustration. I don’t like lying, and so far I’ve just been omitting the truth, but this feels like it’s starting to cross that line.
“I’m not worried because I have a date with her today.”
“No shit?!”
“And Asher gets her next. Grant took her out a couple days ago.”
There’s a long stretch of silence, so I finally turn to look at my brother who’s sitting up, looking at me like I have my head screwed on backwards.
“Are you guys running a train on her or something? I thought you actually liked her, liked her.”
I scowl as I punch him in the shoulder. “It’s not like that.”
“Then explain it to me, cause it sounds like you’re sharing her. You gonna let Matt have a go next.”
He stands, and I shove my finger in his face as anger starts to course through my body. “Don’t you ever talk about her like that again.” I lower my hand and take a step back as I try to talk to him calmly. “The three of us are exclusive with her, and she with us.”
He frowns, looking over at her, where she’s now smiling happily as Asher talks to her. “She has a golden pus—”
I slap my hand over his mouth, cutting him off. “If you’d like to keep yourself from a round with Asher, then I suggest you never repeat that.”
I lower my hand and he shakes his head slowly. “Man, you really have a thing for her, don’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s different. Special.”
“Special enough to share?”
I watch her light up when Asher whispers something in her ear and it warms my heart to see her happy. I know I wouldn’t feel that way if she was with someone else, like Matt. But for some reason, when it’s Asher or Grant, I didn’t mind it.
“With those two, yeah, she is.”
“Well, good luck with that. I hope none of you mind sloppy seconds or tattered thirds.” I swipe my arm at him but he jumps back with a laugh as he runs through the gym.
I start to follow him but then I get a better idea. I head towards the front where Asher and Rosie are, and when I get close enough for them to hear me, I call out, “Hey Asher, Callum wants to do a round of sparring with you.”
I glance over my shoulder and see the look of horror on Callum’s face. Nobody likes fighting with Asher, he’s brutal.
“Really? He asked for that?”
“Oh, he asked for it alright,” I tell him, letting the sarcasm drip from my tone as I flick my eyes to Rosie before looking back at Asher.
I see the lightbulb go off in his head. He kisses Rosie on the forehead before rounding the counter. “I'll see you later tonight, baby.” When he’s beside me he whispers, “Tell me.” And leans close to hear my answer.
I whisper a couple of things he said quietly enough that Rosie doesn’t hear and watch Asher’s face turn red and his hands clench as he storms towards Callum.
“What did you say?” She asks in worry. “He looks upset.”
“Oh, he’s just excited to give my brother a little lesson in manners.”
“Manners.”
“Yes. Now, never mind that, shortcake, are you ready?” I turn to face her, rubbing my hands together excitedly.
“Ready? For what?”
I gasp, placing my hand over my heart in mock horror. “You’ve forgotten already? You wound me!”
“You mean our date?” She glances at the clock. “I thought that was tonight.”
“We’re leaving early. Grant is training Jack for the evening shift tonight, and Asher’s going to stay to help in case it’s busy.”
We’d hired Jack to start covering the gym in the evenings. It was only his second day, but he had a training background and seemed like a good fit so far.
He was twenty-two and taking online courses to become a certified personal trainer and physiotherapist. When he got his degree, he’d be a huge asset to Iron Oaks.
Physiotherapy would be a great service we could add for clients.
I was already figuring out how we could renovate our extra storage room into a space for him.
“Oh, okay. I don’t have a change of clothes; is this okay?” she asks, gesturing to her Iron Oaks shirt and black yoga pants.
“Yep, this way we match.” I smirk, gesturing to my own shirt, then hold out a hand to her. “Come on, times a ticking.” I wiggle my fingers, and she takes my hand.
“Do we have a reservation or something?” she asks as I rush her into getting dressed in the staff room.
“Sort of. It’s more about wanting to get you to myself for as long as possible.” She gives me a warm smile before slipping on her boots, and we head out to my truck. Grant took his car today so he could take Asher and him home later tonight.
After I get her buckled in, I’m practically bouncing in my seat in excitement. Rosie laughs as she asks, “Why are you so happy?”
“It’s our first one-on-one date. I’ve been imagining this since the first day I met you.”
“Really?” she asks in surprise.
I reach over and grab her hand, pulling in back to rest on my knee, under mine. “Yeah. I mean I was worried about you mostly at first, but I sensed there was a fighter in you. And I quickly realized you were just as gorgeous on the inside as you are on the outside.”
“You’re pretty great, too.”
“I know,” I say, giving her a wink, making her laugh.
“Seriously, Leo. I appreciate everything you’ve done and how patient you’ve been with me.”
“No patience required. Being with you is my pleasure.” I lift her hand and kiss her knuckles. “Why don’t you find us some Christmas music on the radio.”
She finds a station, and we sing along to a few classic songs until I pull into the parking lot at our destination.
“Sugar Pine Bakery,” she reads as I help her out of my truck. “What are we doing here?”
“I’ve rented out the place for us to do some Christmas baking.”
She stops in her tracks, making me swing back towards her in question. “What’s wrong? We can do something else.”
“I used to bake Christmas treats with my mom every year.”
“I know, I thought you might like to do it this year, with me.” She lurches forward and wraps her short arms around me, hugging me tightly as I hug her back. “I take it you like it?”
She pulls back and glances up at me. “I love it.”
Betty, the owner greets us and shows us to the kitchen. “You can use any of these supplies. I wasn’t sure what you wanted to bake, so I’ve pulled a few recipes here to get you started, but feel free to use your own.”
“Thanks, Betty.”
“Here’s the key, after you lock up, push it through the mail slot. It’s my extra.”
“I really appreciate you letting us bake in here.”
“No problem, just do your best to clean up after yourselves.”
“Of course, thank you,” Rosie says with a smile.
Betty locks the door behind her as she leaves, and I turn to Rosie with a smile.
“Alright shortcake, what do you want to make first?”
She gazes around at all the ingredients before grabbing the printed recipes. “I don’t know. Let’s see what’s here—Oh! Magic bars, do you like those?” she asks, turning the recipe to me.
“Love ‘em. Let’s see what we need.”
We grab a large bowl and start measuring in all the ingredients. With everything handy it doesn’t take long to make them and we move on to a sugar cookie recipe.
We decide to stop there as we’ll have more than the four of us can eat as it is.
“Leo?”
“Hmm?” I turn to Rosie and she rubs her thumb over my cheek.
“You have a bit of flour there.”
“Thanks. Oh!” I say, feigning surprise as I look at her face.
“What?”
“You’ve got some right… here!” I gently slap a small amount of flour against her cheek and laugh at her completely shocked expression.
“Leo! I can’t believe you just did that!”
“What are you gonna do about it?” I ask with a grin. She looks around, as if seeking something to throw at me and I grab her wrists, stopping her from grabbing anything.
Her blue eyes look up at me and her surprise turns to sadness as her lower lip pops out in a pout.
“Hey now! That’s not fair!”
Her lip starts shaking, and even though I know she’s pretending, I hate seeing her sad.
“Okay, okay, I yield! You win!” I let go of her and raise my arms to the side in defeat. “Do what you will to me.”
She crooks her finger at me, and I bend down so my face is almost level with hers. She turns my head to the side and licks right up the side of my face, then lets go and leans back, looking amused with herself.
She might have licked me as a joke, but there is nothing funny about her tongue on me. My cock hardens in my pants, and her amusement fades away when she sees the heat in my eyes.
The oven beeps and she jumps, looking over at it, but I grab her waist and hold her in place as I stare down at her.