Chapter Two #2
“Regardless,” Maeve continued, smoothing her flyaways back behind her ears. “You should do the barbecue. It’d be nice to catch up with Neal and Patricia and let Saoirse play with their grandbabies.”
Kieran grunted. “I’ll think about it.”
Maeve kissed his cheek. “Don’t think too hard. Us girls better get home. Dinner at my place tomorrow?”
He nodded then followed them out to the porch so he could watch them walk down the street toward the L. When they were out of sight, Kieran sighed.
Knowing Maeve, she was already on the phone with Neal to pick a day.
* * *
There was a stain on the ceiling tile—three from the right and two down. He’d have to grab the tall ladder and figure out what the hell was going on up there. If South Side MMA had sprung another leak, they’d have more to worry about than their dwindling membership.
Kieran huffed, his lifting belt straining against his abs. He shuffled his feet into a better hip-width stance and found his center of gravity again. But he didn’t take his eyes off the ceiling. Nope. No reason to look around while maxing out his barbell squats.
“?Joder! Did you see the new girl Neal hired?” Sebastián’s Spanish-American ass burst into Kieran’s field of vision with more energy than should be allowed at eight in the morning. “?Qué linda!”
There was no use in telling Sebastián he’d already met Lily. Rather than respond, Kieran focused on perfect reps. At his max, he didn’t have room for messing around, and Sebastián knew that.
But that didn’t stop his friend. “And that office polo?” The man shook his head, his styled dark hair unmoving. “Tragic. We’ve gotta get Neal to revise the dress code for office staff.”
Kieran grunted as he pushed through another clean rep with a quiver in his thighs.
“We’ll see if she lasts. One look at our regulars, and she’ll be gone.
” The spot on the ceiling, unsurprisingly, was right where he’d left it.
He’d need to replace it after the fix. How much money was left in Neal’s repairs budget?
“Oh!” Sebastián clapped his hands once. “Maybe she’ll give this place a facelift. Get some younger clientele in here. I swear to God, if I have to see Clancy’s culito hanging out of his shorts one more time…”
Kieran’s attention whipped away from the ceiling.
His gaze swept the room. Most of their clients were the retired sort at this hour.
Maybe a few fresh-out-of-school guys who weren’t still nursing hangovers.
None of them were close enough to hear Sebastián.
“It’s no wonder we’re having trouble with membership.
” He leveled a glare at his friend then eased his bar back into the rack. “Keep your voice down.”
Sebastián shrugged and helped him unrack his weights. “I’m just saying. Maybe she’ll be good for this place. What harm can she do?”
Famous last words. Lily Parker could do a lot of harm to this gym.
Get Neal’s hopes up. Build a new crowd who didn’t respect the gym enough to clean up after themselves.
The types who followed Lily would want a greater variety in group classes than what they offered: self-defense, beginner MMA for folks who weren’t on the team, and a spinning class Rachel taught after her desk shift.
A new crowd could run out the regulars with all their selfies and obsessive need to listen to their music without headphones.
Plus, South Side MMA couldn’t grow too much.
Their space was finite, and as far as Kieran knew, Neal had no intention of expanding.
Lily Parker’s presence could make or break their little gym, and Kieran wasn’t the gambling type.
“Sullivan!” The call came from the hallway leading to the office.
Kieran lifted his head and spotted Neal at the edge of the room.
Lily stood at his side wearing yoga pants like they were a second skin and a black office-staff polo one size too big—likely an extra from a previous order.
As far as work uniforms went, it wasn’t anything special.
On Lily’s athletic body, the outfit was a selkie’s song.
Neal ushered her toward him, oblivious to her halting steps and grimace. “Why don’t you take Lily on a tour of the facility?”
He unclasped his lifting belt and towel-dried his hair, removing the sweat from his brow and scalp and taking his good, sweet time. “I’m off shift,” he drawled. “I’m only here right now for my workout.”
Neal didn’t need to speak. All he had to do was cross his meaty arms and stare him down as if he were Samuel L. Jackson himself. No point in arguing with that look; it was the same one from Neal’s coaching days.
“It’s fine.” Lily clasped her hands before her and turned a more genuine smile toward their employer. “I’m sure I can figure my way around the place.”
But if she toured the place on her own, he’d miss the scorn that would sharpen that pretty face of hers once she discovered this wasn’t the kind of prissy gym she was used to outside of South Side.
“Follow me.” He slung his hand towel around his neck, clapped Sebastián on the shoulder and beckoned Lily to follow with two crooks of his fingers.
She didn’t look too pleased at his change of mind, but she fell into step beside him. At least she could take instructions.
“Obviously, this is where we keep the free weights and weight racks. Back in the hallway where you were is Neal’s office and the playroom for the kids. Members pay an extra fee for dropping off their kids, but it’s not that much.”
Lily nodded. “Good to know.”
He pointed through a wide opening in the wall.
“Through there is, as you know, the main room. Cardio equipment is closest to the front with weight-training machines toward the back.” He led her into the main room and gestured toward the lobby and the front desk.
“You’ve met Rachel. She takes care of sign-in, membership and customer service issues.
She’s here until four, then the personal trainers rotate desk duty in the evening until we close at ten.
She also does a spin class on Wednesday evenings. ”
He led her to an open doorway adjacent to the desk.
“This room is what we call the Snack Bar. We try not to stock the vending machines with junk, so you’ll see electrolyte drinks, water and protein bars.
” Next, he led her to the back of the main room where there were two metal doors.
“Back here’s where the locker rooms are.
There’re shower stalls, changing rooms and toilets.
The women’s locker room has an additional space for nursing mothers. Rachel’s idea.”
They returned to the free weights room. “And if you go through this big opening, you’ll find a hallway leading to the fitness classroom on the left and the training room on the right.”
Lily peeked first into the fitness classroom, then stepped through open double doors into the training room.
The training area used to be a basketball court but had since been repurposed into the dedicated space for MMA.
In it were three Octagons, and the rest of the room had the sort of equipment one would expect fighters to use: heavy bags, punching bags, agility ladders and more.
Where there wasn’t an Octagon, there were smooth black mats.
The place was Neal’s pride and joy and had taken years to make into what it was today.
Lily peered over her shoulder with a challenge in her eyes. “Do you fight in those?”
Once upon a time he had. Kieran leaned against the metal door and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nah, my fighting days are over.” Mostly. “I coach the men’s team and help out around the gym where I’m needed. Becks coaches the women’s team.”
Either she was staring because she wanted to know more, or she liked what she saw.
Probably both. He was self-aware enough to know most women found him attractive, and most of the time he didn’t do anything with that knowledge.
Having a teenager in the house was enough of a deterrent.
But maybe, he stretched up, scratching the back of his neck, and Lily’s gaze dropped to his revealed V-cut, he didn’t mind getting eye-fucked by Lily Parker.
It’d make things at South Side MMA more interesting.
Lily’s forget-me-not blue eyes snapped away from their unrestrained perusal, and a pretty flush crept up from behind her collar. “So,” she began on an inhale and smoothed invisible wrinkles from her polo. “Where will my office be?”
Well, that was an excellent question. He couldn’t help the upward turn of one side of his mouth.
Not amused, she planted her hands on her hips.
But what if he put his hands there instead and drew her closer? Kieran straightened, slipped his hands into his gym short pockets and ambled back toward the free weights room. “Unless you want to share with Neal, the whole gym is your office.”
Lily caught up with him, the flush from earlier spreading across her high cheekbones. “I’m sorry.” Her sharp tone said she was anything but. “Did I do something to offend you?”
“Oh, don’t mind me, Princess.” He aimed a smirk down at her, though it didn’t have far to go. She was only a few inches shorter. “I’m just your surly neighborhood MMA coach.”
Her long brown hair, gathered in a high ponytail, flicked with the force of her head tilt. There was a trace of bemusement in those narrowed eyes. “Was that a superhero joke?”
They walked past where Sebastián had set Kieran’s gym bag, out of the way along the wall, and he snatched it up. “Are you laughing?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. Damn, if that didn’t make her look almost cute. “No?”
He snorted. “Well, there you go.”
They were back in the main room. There were still a few hours before he needed to return for training, and any moment now Maeve would drop Saoirse off.
If he didn’t want Maeve asking a million questions, he’d need to get Lily back to whatever job she needed to be doing—sans him dancing in whatever god-awful video she had in mind.
“Listen, this has been fun, but I have real work to do once my shift starts. So how ’bout we make a deal.
You do your job, and I’ll do mine. Any time in between I’ll leave to your—” he paused to give the full, glorious length of her body a thorough appraisal “—creative imagination.”
Despite the flush of her cheeks warming her glacial eyes, she stepped closer and thrust one finger against his chest. The force almost made him backstep. “With pleasure, Mr. Sullivan.”
Lily gave him a dismissive glance, then spun on her heel and walked away. Her ponytail swung over her tight little ass, daring him to follow.
Fuck.