Chapter 15
LEXI
Eddie had sent her in for a shower to relax her, and she went with the promise of another bombolini. What else… what else…
Grayson. He’d been there, yelling at her. What had they been arguing about? She squinted at a crack in the tile as steam billowed around her. Was it about her working for him? She wasn’t sure.
A bang sounded behind her as another woman entered the bathroom - two, it sounded like, and Lexi tuned out their chatter and kept her head under the spray.
What did she need to do next? Grayson. Grayson was here.
She needed to speak with him. She’d forgotten to get back to him, probably more than once, and she’d missed a call from her father… but she wasn’t sure what to do there.
What she needed was to wake back up. With a deep breath, she turned off the hot water, and braced for the frigid blast. After a minute holding her breath directly under the water, the fog lifted enough for her to draw back.
Shivering, Lexi counted thirty more seconds before snapping the water off.
As she shivered and grabbed her towel, the women’s voices drifted over the curtain partition into her shower.
“Did you see his eyes?”
“No! He was facing the other way. I saw his shoulders.”
Lexi smiled. The moms, as she called them, lusting after a new guy at the gym. They were in their fifties, both with grown children, and both happily divorced. They asked her about every available man at the gym.
She loved the miniature world a gym could become. Miniature dramas unfolding over free weights, and unspoken competitions on the bikes and treadmills or grudges held from the sparring ring. It was her own little world she’d made here, her own extended family, and she loved it.
“My ex husband bought me this emerald necklace once. Ugh! The man’s got emerald eyes Jeanine. Absolute emeralds I tell you.”
Lexi paused. There was only one man she knew with gorgeous shoulders and emerald eyes in her gym. Her smile grew as the ladies continued talking about Grayson and she dressed behind the partition. They were just wondering about how to get his name when she drew aside the curtain.
“His name is Grayson.”
Two faces full of tastefully done makeup turned towards her from the row of mirrors.
“Does he go here?” one of them asked.
Lexi couldn’t remember her name right now.
“No, I think he has another gym.”
Indifferent to wearing only a towel, Lexi carried her duffel with her onto a bench to spread caramel-apple lotion down her arms. The taut silence amused her as the ladies waited to hear more. She smiled over at them.
“He’s here to see me.”
Lexi was startled by the shrieks that came out of the older women. In the back of her mind she wondered if maybe they were on medication. Or maybe they should be. They came to her bench, and sat on each side of her in a cloud of Chanel, speaking over each other.
“We’re so happy for you-”
“When on Earth did this happen-”
“He’s stunning, really-”
“We were afraid you’d be alone forever-”
“Oh hush Jane, we did not.”
“You told me just last week-”
“What we mean, is just-”
“Good for you!” they finished together.
Lexi thought her ears were ringing, and simply nodded. Dazed, she was pretty sure she smiled. She made the appropriate noises until they drifted away.
On their way out the door, one blew Lexi a kiss and the other shot her a sassy wink as she finished getting dressed. That was intense. She shook it off, and hoped the ladies would just think she was daydreaming. She could probably use a nap.
Dressed in capris and a sheer sweater, she set her duffel back in her locker and spun the lock. No matter what, she would need to go back to the duplex tonight. She was out of clean clothes.
Determined to work on the gym’s neglected social media, she took out her phone. A new reel would be easy enough.
Just outside the locker room door, Grayson leaned back against a wall, watching the gym.
He turned as the door opened, and the breath backed up in her throat.
He really was beautiful. And… kind of her boss.
She tried a little smile, and was gratified he smiled back easily.
They stared at each other a moment as the noises of the gym rushed past.
“Met some of your friends,” he said, and stepped off the wall.
Confused, she tilted her head in question.
“They’ve assured me you’re quite the catch,” he said, reaching down to snag her hand.
Enjoying the warmth of his hand, she let it burn through some of her chill from the shower. She didn’t take it back.
“However, if things tragically don’t work out for us, I could always use the comfort of a more experienced woman, apparently.”
His grin was infectious, and she smiled back.
“And what did you say?”
“Oh I never argue with my elders. I thanked them.”
Dammit, she liked him. She liked that he’d been sweet to her ‘moms’, and that he’d found it funny.
“You have the contract?” Lexi asked.
He nodded.
“We’ll get to it.”
Even after a minute he said nothing else, and just stared at her. She took her hand back and he let it go.
“Well I was about to, um-” vivid green interrupted her already fuzzy thoughts. “Take some pictures for social media stuff. Are you hanging around?”