6. Chapter 6
six
T he morning after the wedding, Cassie waved as Cooler and RaeAnn headed for Seattle for a short honeymoon trip.
“Have a great time, and don’t worry about a thing,” she assured them from the front porch. “Con and I’ve got this.”
Rae smiled from the front seat of her SUV, but Cassie’s dad paused, one foot in the car and one still in the driveway. “You sure, baby girl? Like we said, Manda offered to look in, help with the cooking and shit.”
“Dad,” Cassie gave him look for look. “I. Got. This.”
Rae said something, and Mac shook his head, but he did it smiling. “Okay, I know when I’m outnumbered by my women-folk. But you call Manda or T-Bear, or any of the brothers if you need anything, got me?”
“I will. Bye!” Cassie watched them back out of the drive and pull away, blowing out a huge breath of relief. For a moment there, she’d thought her dad wouldn’t go until one of the married old ladies was on the premises. Embarrassing, much? She was 22, not 12. And Con was a big boy, too.
She hustled back into the warm house, because she’d come outside to wave the newlyweds off in leggings, a tee, and fuzzy socks, but the sunny spell that had graced the wedding was over. The November weather had turned raw, gray clouds scudding before a biting wind.
Inside, she locked the front door behind her, and leaned against it, smiling to herself. “All alone,” she murmured to the quiet house. “Whatever shall I do with myself?”
Well, she knew where to start! Chortling to herself, she ran lightly over to the sound system her dad had hooked up to the big screen tv, whipped out her phone from the pocket of her leggings, and keyed in her favorite playlist.
In a moment, the quiet house filled with the sounds of Elle King’s husky voice and her amazing ‘Baby Outlaw‘.
Cassie threw her arms in the air, and danced to the beat, lip-synching the words as if she were on stage before thousands, and rolling her hips with complete freedom.
The song rolled into the next, and then the next, until finally she had to stop, panting for breath and laughing as she swiped sweat-damp hair from her face. Oh, that was fun. Almost as good as dancing with a certain huge, muscular biker.
But not as good … and oh, crap, now she was horny. Gah, just the word made heat flush over her face like someone was listening to her thoughts. But it was accurate. And she needed two things—a glass of RaeAnn’s wine, and a shower, where she could take care of herself under the spray of hot water.
After her shower, Cassie felt a lot better. Until she glanced at her phone, and noticed that it was nearly five pm. Time for Connor to be home from soccer practice, and time for her to get busy fixing them supper. She could order in, but it seemed appropriate to celebrate their five days of independence by producing a home-cooked meal.
Tacos. She could do those.
Soon she stood, spatula in her hand, burger sizzling in a large skillet, smiling to herself as she remembered dancing with Heavy at the wedding reception.
The stench of scorching beef and the sudden blare of the kitchen smoke alarm jolted her out of her reverie.
She jumped, nearly dropping the spatula, and cursed. Grabbing the smoking skillet, she dashed over to the kitchen sink, and dropped the skillet into the sink, blasting the ruined meat with cold water. Steam swirled up, the stench of burnt meat with it.
“Ugh! Crappity, crap, crap!”
What the hell should she do? Okay, open the kitchen windows. Make sure the stove fan was on full blast. Open the kitchen door for good measure. Then grab the room freshener spray from under the sink, to get rid of the smell.
This done, she scraped the burned meat down the garbage disposal and let it grind, then scrubbed the pan out and rinsed it.
Finally, the smoke alarm stopped blaring. Cassie sagged against the kitchen counter in relief, suds dripping from her soapy hands onto her bare feet.
She opened her eyes to find Connor, home from soccer practice, eying her from across the kitchen island, holding his nose. “I wad takeoud,” he announced nasally.
Cassie had to laugh at the look on his face. “Good idea.”
Like, maybe every night till the honeymooners got home. She might have a few too many things on her mind right now to be cooking–or trying to, that is.
She had job listings to check, a certain associate professor to hound, and an Instagram page to update with all the fun wedding pics.
Big Iron Fitness’ grand opening was slated for the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Cassie counted the days until then. Once the gym was open, she'd get to see Heavy every day if she wanted. Working out was the perfect excuse to hang around him.
And yes, she knew she was behaving like a high-school girl with a crush.
But while she'd crushed on guys before, some of them attainable, others not, she’d never felt this bone-deep yearning for a guy.
Heavy was mega-hot, but he was also funny and sweet, and a great dancer. And unlike the guys she'd dated in college, he owned his own business, which meant he was smart, and dared to follow his dreams. A real dream, not one like becoming an Instagram influencer while back-packing around the tropics.
What was not to like? Yeah, he was older than her by a few years, how many she didn’t know. But if that didn’t matter to her, she didn’t see why it should matter to anyone else.
And yeah, he was a biker, which a lot of folks would sneer at, but so was her dad. To her, the Flyers meant extended family—a big rowdy, nosy, brawling one, but intensely loyal.
For him, she might even be willing to re-think staying in the Heights.
Meanwhile, she faithfully scoured the online job listings morning and evening. She was already waiting to hear back about positions at several retail stores around the Spokane area, including a high-end shoe store, clothing stores, flooring and tile, and even sporting goods.
She also kept up with housework and laundry. If she had to live with her dad and his wife, she was going to earn her keep.
The only grit in her eyes was Associate Professor Daniel Hancock’s continued silence. The only reply to her calls, texts and emails since she’d arrived in the Heights had been an auto-reply; ‘Greetings, student, sorry to miss you, but I’m out of the office. As soon as I can I’ll get back to you! Meanwhile, get out there and be your best self!’
Cassie wanted to be her best self in interviews--the ones he’d promised to help her get. But when she phoned the college to find out if something had happened to him, she received the frosty message that they did not give out personal information about their faculty.
“Oh, well… thanks,” Cassie said, and ended the call. Then she shook her head, annoyed at both the officious person on the other end of the call, and at herself for giving in so easily. Still, she wasn’t going to easily bypass an official privacy policy. Should she drive back to the Tri-Cities and try to see Daniel? Not while the folks were gone, for sure. She needed to be here for Connor.
Her dad and RaeAnn arrived back from their honeymoon, both with an air of sleek contentment. They went back to work, RaeAnn running her Iris Salon, and Mac as an EMT in Spokane. Conner went back to school.
RaeAnn was openly appreciative of Cassie’s work around the house, giving her a warm hug. "Listen, you just earned yourself the works at Iris," she said. "As long as you're here, you come in for cut, color, treatment--you name it."
"Wow, thanks," Cassie said. "But you don't have to do that. I'm living here, I can help."
Besides, she knew she wanted a new look, but she wasn't sure what that was. Nothing she did with her hair seemed to be flattering, so she was just sort of letting the asymmetrical cut grow out, and tucking the long side behind her ear.
"You're going above and beyond," Rae told her. "So let me repay you in my coin, okay? Rissa and I both do fabulous hair, so you'll be in good hands."
“Well, thanks,” Cassie said. “Can I think about it? I mean … I’m not sure what I want.”
“Of course.”
“Mom!” Connor called down the stairs. “What’d you do with my soccer shorts?”
“I don’t know, son,” Rae replied. “They have legs–maybe they ran away.”
“Ha ha. I need them for practice.”
Cassie moved to the foot of the stairs. “They’re in the stack of clean things on your chair,” she called to Connor.
“Oh, thanks.”
“Amazing how men can’t find anything in their own home unless it smacks them in the face,” Rae murmured. “And it’s never, ‘now what have i done with that’, it’s always ‘what have you done with my stuff?’”
Cassie snickered, because this was true.
The day of Heavy Iron Fitness’ grand opening, Cassie arrived at 10am, a full hour early. Since she still hadn’t found a job, not like she had anything else to do.
She’d pulled her hair back on the long side with a barrette, applied mascara and lip gloss, and dressed carefully in her favorite faded skinny jeans, a Seahawks jersey, and her green sneakers.
She threw some workout gear in her backpack, in case the grand opening crowd thinned out enough later for her to actually use the gym, hopped in her Camry, and headed to the gym.
The Hangar food-truck was already set up in the parking lot outside the gym, manned by Pico, one of the Hangar cooks. Small and skinny, he had short dark hair, soulful brown eyes and tattoos covering nearly every inch of his neck and arms. He wore jeans, boots, a black Hangar tee, apron, and baseball cap.
He winked at Cassie as she passed, and she gave him a little wave. "You all alone today?" she asked.
"Nah, my girlfriend will be here in a bit to help out," he called back, busy unpacking paper plates as they spoke. "She likes to work the truck with me, earn a little extra."
"Cool. Quick pic for Insta?”
He posed for her, smiling, and she snapped his photo. “See you later."
Cassie paused to admire the black, silver and gold balloons wafting in the breeze above the gym's front entrance, and photograph them too.
Heavy, or someone, had done a great job here, too. Their colors matched the Heavy Iron logo across the front wall over the door, and on the open glass door. She loved that he'd chosen a stylized couple standing side-by-side, their arms up to support the outsize barbells over their heads. The simple lines of their bodies managed to convey joyous enthusiasm.
Now if the gal in the logo was a bit shorter, that could be her and Heavy, le sigh. She was grinning to herself as she walked into the gym itself.
Then Heavy himself came striding out of a back room, a box in his hands, frown of concentration on his face. And all she could do was stare.
His short hair gleamed glossy brown in the lights, and he was freshly shaven. He wore black fitness pants that hugged his lean hips, powerful thighs, and long legs, and a black fitness tee that fit his heavily muscled upper body like shrink-wrap.
Yum. Her mouth went dry and other parts of her pulsed with sudden moisture. He was so much man. She wanted to climb him like a tree, and nibble on his… something. Yeah, time to let that analogy go.
But geez, she was standing here gaping at him like a teen spotting her favorite film star. She snapped her mouth shut.
When he stopped behind the reception desk, and thumped the box down, she was waiting. "Are you excited to finally open?
He gave her a distracted smile as he ripped the box open. "Hey, girl. Yeah, sure am."
He pulled out a stack of papers, and set them on the counter, then reached in for more. She sighed to herself. Geez, his biceps looked huge in that shirt. Oh, and it had the gym logo on his left shoulder, in silver-and-gold. Nice.
"You need something?" he asked, gaze on what he was doing. "You're here to join, I'll get you set up, but later, okay?"
"Um," she said. "Sure, I want to join, but for now, I can help. Just tell me what to do."
He shot her a look of surprise that turned into a sparkle of warm appreciation and a quick smile, his dimple flashing. "Thanks. You wanna stack these brochures in a couple of piles here for me?"
"You bet." She bounced on the toes of her sneakers. That way, she got to hang with him, and help. 'Cause she'd bet he was going to be super busy.
"Thanks. Here, wear this," he said, reaching under the counter. He pulled out a black tee and tossed it to her. “Free gift.”
"Thanks," she breathed.
He grinned. "I'm gonna be handing 'em out all day. May as well start with a cute little blonde, ‘specially since you're helping me out."
"I totally am. I’ll go change—be right back," she promised. She jogged off through the gym.
Like the rest of the place, the women's locker room wasn’t new, but it was spotless. There was even a bouquet of artificial roses, enhanced with sparkling ribbons, on the counter between the sinks. The gold, silver and purple contrasted with the white basins and gray countertops. She'd bet Sara Vanko or one of the other old ladies had placed the bouquet for Heavy.
Cassie whipped off her jersey, and donned the new tee, smiling as she tugged it down over her hips. A black vee-neck, it was made of quick-dry fitness fabric, with the Big Iron logo on the left shoulder.
It fit as if it had been made for her. Did this mean Heavy had studied her enough to know she wore a size medium top? This sent a wave of warm pleasure through her.
The tee looked good on her. And best of all, she and Heavy looked like a team, with matching shirts.
She finger-combed her hair back, threw up her arms in sheer excitement and fairly danced back out into the gym.
Where she planned to spend many hours working out and spending time with Heavy—bonus!
“You have an Instagram page, right?” she asked him, as soon as she got back to the desk. “I’m already taking photos for it.”
He looked over at her, and smiled. “I do. HeavyIronFitness. And thanks, Cassie.”
She beamed back at him. “Welcome. Oh, one of you?”
He shrugged. “I guess?”
She hurried back several steps, and took some photos of him by the desk. “‘kay.” Then she got busy sorting and posting them to his account, #grandopening.
“Whoa, you need these,” she said as she worked. “You got nothin’ on here. Remember to snap, hashtag and post–it’s great advertising.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he muttered, his mind obvs on whatever else he was doing.
She snickered. “Right. It's worth the trouble, I’m telling you.”
“Maybe I’ll hire you as my publicity expert,” he said.
“You should. After all, I do represent the feminine demographic,” she said airily.
“Ah-huh.”
She shot him a suspicious look, but he was looking toward the parking lot, where cars were pulling in, and two people already stood before the food cart.
“Ooh, your first customers,” she enthused. “Yay!”
“Just what I was gonna say.”
Okay, that time he had been teasing–she was sure of it.