“Having fun?” he asked softly, rubbing his hand up my back.
“Yeah, but I’m a little pissed. I’ve been rowing for that long, but I’m still in the same place.”
And that was how we learned I was okay with working out, so long as I had a good book to listen to as I did it. I still had no intentions of joining the gym, especially the next day when every muscle in my body cramped up, but I’d do it every now and then.
Standing up, Bond held his hand out to me. “Now it’s your turn to show me what you like to do in your downtime.”
Skipping toward the door, I said over my shoulder, “This is going to be a blast.”
I wasn’t lying. It would be.
For me.
I’d had ideas about where to take Bond, but while I’d been in the gym, I’d decided I needed to give him the female equivalent of the hell I’d endured as retribution. So, while I’d been rowing to nowhere land, I’d texted my sister and booked us in for a couple’s mani/pedi at Delicious Divas.
I didn’t feel bad about it until we were almost there, and he put his hand on my leg, making me feel secure and cherished for some reason. That wasn’t what made me feel bad, though. Nope, that was when he went to change gears, but rather than removing his hand from my thigh, he reached across his body with his other hand and used it to do it instead.
“That was hot,” I breathed, staring at him stunned.
He didn’t take his eyes off the road, but I still caught the full force of his grin from the side anyway. “Liked that, did you?” Before I could reply, he asked, “So, where are we going that’s near your sister’s salon?”
The salon itself.
Instead, I just mumbled, “You’ll see.”
Parking up in front of it, he cut the engine and looked around us at the row of shops.
“I highly doubt you go fishing, and I saw your reaction to the gym, so that’s the sports place out. The dentist isn’t a very relaxing place to go, so that’s another one off the list.”
He continued going through them all, and I started to panic about him figuring it out and driving us away. But then I saw Sayla, Jacinda, and Evie all waving at me through the glass front of Delicious Divas, and I realized, fuck it, he wanted to do this today, so why the hell not.
“We’re going into the salon.”
He stopped talking about one of the stores and turned to face me, his eyebrows rising over the top of his aviators. “We’re going into the salon?”
“Yup.”
He turned and spotted the women. “Are we dropping something off on our way to somewhere fun?”
The cheeky swine.
“No, we have appointments in there,” I told him, undoing my belt and reaching for the door.
“Um, Heidi, baby, I love you, but I don’t need my hair done.”
Shooting him a smile over my shoulder, I angled my body, so my legs were out the door, ready for me to jump. “That’s good, because we’re not here to get our hair done.”
And with that, I dropped and quickly closed the door.
“Hi-deee,” Sayla called, opening the glass doors of the salon and waving again. “It’s so good to see you guys. Come on in.”
Oh, she knew what she was doing. Bond’s manners were too good to say no or drive away.
Jogging up to her, I gave her a hug, absorbing the feeling I always got when we did it. There was nothing like a sister cuddle, and Sayla gave the best ones. You could be having the shittest day or crying after having a baby, and in she’d come with a hug and pfffbt that was it gone.
Pulling away from me, the smile on her face faded when she looked at my clothes. “What are you wearing?”
“These are what people wear to the gym,” I explained, talking slowly like I was educating her on something outrageous… Which I was. “The gym is where people go to run and lift heavy things for no reason. They call it a workout.”
Jacinda’s nose wrinkled. “Did you touch any of the stuff there? Do you know how many bacteria are on those things? Not to mention the sweat from the people who used it before you.”
She had a point. I’d seen people wipe the machines down after they used them, but that didn’t cancel out what she’d just said in my mind now. Gross!
“Anyway,” Evie said, leaning in to hug me. “We’ve set you up in the back room.”
“Is it a couple’s massage?” Bond asked, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist while he rested his chin on the top of my head.
“Aw, you guys are so cute,” Evie cooed, just as Jacinda took a photo with her phone, almost blinding us with the flash.