My daughter squeals and wiggles for me to put her down running over to hug Piper’s leg.
“Piper.” I growl.
“Come on, it’ll be fun. Besides, Stephen is a cardiothoracic surgeon.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” I husk digging through my purse to reorganize it. My medical terminology centered on pediatric cancer, not other parts of the body.
“It means that he operates on the heart and lungs. He makes a shi-sizable salary.”
I roll my eyes at Piper who reaches in her bag for another dollar to hand me. I don’t feel bad, Milo’s a doctor, and she can afford it. I also don’t want to go on a date just because a guy has a good paying job. I had a hard enough time relating to men after my ex-husband. I didn’t want to have to worry about meeting this guy at some fancy restaurant feeling out of place.
Piper nudges me singing, “I have a dress you can borrow.”
I mutter to myself. This feels like a big set up. I answer her, “Fine. One date.”
“Yay!” Both Piper and Maisy howl and I’m certain both of them snookered me on purpose.
“I’ll let Milo know and we can set it up later this week.”
“Oh joy.” I feign excitement and Piper digs her cute pregnant elbow in me. It’s a good thing she’s due to have the baby any day now. She needed a distraction like I needed… well I didn’t know what I needed.
This had better not be the date from hell…
Two
Jax
I sort through mail that’s easily over a week old and put them in piles of least to most important by date. Owning a gym and doing the books is not exactly what I had in mind when I decided to open this business with Piper. A married and pregnant Piper, that if I’m honest with myself has left me shorthanded. Not that I blame her one hundred percent. I could hire additional help, I should hire help, but keeping busy keeps my mind off other things.
She isn’t planning to come in today because she has a doctor’s appointment so I’m safe from having to run down the block to the drug store or Wholefoods so I can pick up whatever it is that she needs to eat right this second. I pity Milo because he lives with her, but he’s not the only one sympathy eating with her. I’ve got a lifting competition soon and if I don’t scale back on joining her for Taco Tuesday or frozen yogurt Thursdays on a Monday I wasn’t going to qualify at all.
My blood sugar is low, I’m cranky and I’m craving carbs. See, simple explanation.
The phone rings and I pick up.
“Hello.”
“Bro!” It’s my brother Will and I’m happy to hear from him. He owns the second gym location we have in Austin, Texas.
“How goes it, Will.”
“Never better. I figure we should start to pull quarterly reports for both gyms and compare numbers.” Will talks shop and my mind drifts. Right, because I didn’t hire a book-keeper and I told Piper I could handle this. As much time as I spent organizing my desk it looks like a storm came through and did me no favors.
“You flying here or me there?” Baltimore is home, but I do love a good Tex-Mex restaurant when I’m visiting Will.
“I heard there’s a 5k race in town.” He’s far too excited to run over three miles on city streets. I’ll stick to weights, thank you very much.
Because I know he can’t see me, I roll my eyes asking, “Of course. You plan on running it?”
Will laughs like this is a stupid question.
“Winning it.”
That’s my brother, Will Holden, star record holder in high school cross country for best mid-distances. He might be older, and leaner, but I could take him down, considering I was also a record holder of my own for wrestling.
“We’ll have to get dinner then.”
“I’m going to hold you to it, hey, take me to that seafood place on the pier.”