Chapter 9 Maia
CHAPTER NINE
MAIA
As usual, I was in the pool before Baird had arrived at the gym.
I was in the middle of a length when I heard a splash and someone cutting quickly through the water toward me.
I sped up to get to the shallow end and turned just as Baird reached me.
He stood, pushing his wet hair off his face, his biceps bulging.
In my periphery, I saw water droplets trickling down his tan, sculpted, inked chest.
Like always, I kept my focus fixed firmly on his face and off his magnificent body.
Before I’d done it out of consideration for Will because I knew I’d be upset if Will was ogling another woman (if only I’d known he was ogling another woman in every way a man could).
Now I restrained myself for my own peace of mind.
Baird gave me his killer smile. “That’s it done.”
A wee bit mesmerized by his mouth (his lips had proved distracting ever since he’d kissed me two weeks ago), it took me a minute to process his words.
“What’s done?”
“The contract.”
Surprise shot through me. “How do you know?”
“Did you not check your emails this morning? That’s everything tied up between the club and Pennington’s. I tell you, I don’t know what Iain Erstwhile promised, but I’ve never seen a contract move that fast.”
“Wow, it’s done.” Oh my goodness, we are really doing this? “That means the campaign will start at the end of the month.” Just two weeks from now.
“Aye.” Baird seemed so unbothered. “Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet now?”
“You saw the plans, right?” The marketing team at Pennington’s had already drawn up a schedule for us even before the contracts were signed.
As long as the schedule didn’t interfere with Baird’s training or matches, we were penciled in to do photoshoots and video shoots for the social media campaign.
Everything from an engagement announcement to bridal wear to our wedding gift list to the actual wedding (oh my goodness, we were going to get married in front of the public!), to our honeymoon.
It was starting to become a reality.
My dad was right. What we were doing was kind of insane.
My chest felt tight.
“Maia.” Baird reached for me. “Are you okay?”
“We’re getting married.”
He embraced me, pressing my cheek to his hard chest. The feel of his strong, wet body cut through my panic. I’d never been more aware of him, and I didn’t know why it had to happen now of all times. “I promised you everything would be okay, and I meant it.”
“None of that funny business in here!” a belligerent male voice echoed through the pool area.
Baird turned in the water and I stood on tiptoes to see over his shoulders. An elderly gentleman was easing himself into the pool, glaring daggers at us.
“I’m hugging my fiancée. Only a pervert perverts a hug,” Baird snapped back in annoyance.
That was the thing about my now fiancé. He was as laidback as a sunbathing walrus until someone upset a woman he cared about.
The man stuck his finger up at us before pushing off into a swim.
“What a turd,” Baird muttered, turning back to me. “You all right?”
I gently eased out of his delicious arms. “Just a momentary panic. If you hadn’t noticed, I’m quite a private person. I think I’ve posted five photos on socials in the last two years.” Baird, much to Hilary’s delight, already had a substantial social media following.
Many of his followers were women. Who were probably going to lose their minds when we announced our engagement.
The thought dredged up my main concern on Baird’s part in this plan: his playboy ways and just how difficult he was going to find it to abstain for three and a half months.
Pennington’s wanted us to pick a venue from their selection for an August wedding.
They would have to pull some major strings to host this wedding so quickly.
But at least it would be over with by then.
Once we completed the honeymoon shoot, of course.
“We can still make this go away,” Baird offered quietly. “If it’s too much.”
And lose my job?
Irritate his club who were already at their wit’s end with him?
“No. We’re too far in it now. Let’s swim. Swimming helps.” I pushed off before Baird could stop me.
The pool had always been the one place I could drown out the negative thoughts that often consumed my headspace when I was younger.
Will didn’t know that was why I swam every week.
I realized that I’d kept a lot of myself from my ex.
Maybe because deep down, I’d known he wasn’t the right man for me?
That thought hurt, so I pushed harder in the water until it faded.
For once, Baird didn’t try to joke or playfully pull me out of my worries. He let me swim, like he really understood that’s exactly what I needed.
There Baird McMillan went again, surprising the heck out of me in the best way.
Unfortunately, this … this was not a surprise.
Standing awkwardly at the edge of the cafeteria watching Baird flirt with the redhead who was sitting in what should be my seat, I felt a flush of agitation. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear that made her guffaw. She slapped his hand and squealed, “You’re so bad!”
Ugh. Could this scene be any more cliché?
A sick feeling churned in my belly.
Baird’s flirting had never bothered me before. It was almost a weekly occurrence for me to exit the locker room and find someone practically draped over him.
But here we were on the cusp of the biggest lie either of us would ever undertake, and he couldn’t stop himself from flirting with another woman on day effing one!
Sometimes, just when I thought Baird was more mature than everyone assumed, he’d do shit like this and remind me of our age gap. The level of my annoyance shocked me as it propelled me forward toward the table to slap some sense into him.
The arsehole had the audacity to look up at my approach and grin, totally oblivious to his wrongdoing. I did not smile back.
His expression fell.
I looked at the redhead. She scowled at me as if to say, “And you are?”
Therefore, I answered her out loud. I lifted my ring finger, letting the sapphire wink in the light. “I’m the fiancée.”
Her expression turned ashen as she turned to glower at Baird. “You’re an arsehole.” Then she stood and shook her head. “I’m so sorry. But you should know he’s an arsehole and good luck with that.” The redhead grabbed her backpack and hurried away, cheeks blazing.
To my shock, Baird was on the cusp of erupting into laughter. “What. Was. That?”
Was he kidding me?
I dumped my bag and took the seat the redhead had vacated.
That stupid smile disappeared at whatever he recognized in my expression.
“You promised me that I was safe with you,” I hissed at him.
“This is a big bloody lie we’re about to tell the whole world.
And you promised I was safe. I used to only be semi-joking about it being a physical impossibility for you to not flirt with everything that moves …
but now I am seriously worried that you’re going to mess this up.
We’re both on dangerous ground with this lie.
We cannot screw it up and get caught with other people. ”
Baird scowled. “My, I was only flirting with her. That doesn’t equate to sex, to cheating.”
I tried to ignore the flash of hurt or what the hell it meant.
I didn’t want to think about it too deeply.
“That’s not how other people see it. If Will flirted with other women in front of me, it would have not only pissed me off, it would’ve hurt my feelings.
Very badly. People in serious relationships, unless otherwise agreed upon, don’t do that to each other.
” I slumped in the chair and gazed across the mostly empty cafeteria.
Dread settled in my gut. “I knew this would be your Achilles heel, and still I agreed to it.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” he demanded.
My brows nearly hit my hairline at his tone.
“You know what it means. You don’t have a monogamous bone in your body.
My whole body is full of them! In the real world, you and I would never be in a relationship for that very reason.
And the idea of constantly having to remind you that you’re supposed to be pretending to be the antithesis of commitment-phobic exhausts me. ”
Baird gaped, stunned. His reaction confused me because I didn’t think I’d said anything we both didn’t already know. Then he practically whispered, “Is that what you think? Is that what you’ve thought of me this whole time we’ve been friends?”
“Eh, have you ever tried being monogamous? I don’t think so. Do you flirt with anything that offers you a smile? I do think so.”
“Don’t be condescending, Maia.” Baird suddenly pushed up from the table, his expression blank in a way I’d never seen. “I have to get to training.”
It took me so long to compute what was happening, he was halfway across the cafeteria when I thought to shout, “Bear!”
“We’ll talk later,” he said over his shoulder.
Then he was gone.
My cheeks burned as the two girls at the next table stared at me. I turned away and muttered to myself, “How the hell am I the bad guy?”