Training, Daddy (Inner Harbor 2)

Will continues to bullshit and I feel like he’s holding back so I ask, “Anything else going on?”

“No. Met a girl though.” Ah, a girl. “It started out as me coaching her, but I think it could turn into more.”

“More?” I goad him. And everyone accused me of having a type.

“Yeah, more.” He says with a chuckle.

“You good with that?”

“Of course. What about you?”

“No girl here. Just Piper driving me nuts waiting for the baby to arrive.” My fingers click my pen giving me something to do.

“I miss her here in Austin. She was a great with our clients. Hard to replace.”

“That’s Pip for you.”

“You think I could convince her to come back?” Will inquires and I shut that shit down real quick.

“Hell no. She’s married and having the doctor’s baby.”

“You’re greedy man.” Will pounces on the idea that I refuse to give up Piper here at this location. We’ve worked hard to build up the business sandwiched between other commercial gyms and finally have our foothold here, despite my unwillingness to delegate other wo

rk.

A bald head pops into my office, “Boss, a lady here to see you.”

“Will, I gotta go, Igor needs me out front.” We say good-bye and I head into the main floor of gym with my clipboard of a to-do list to find out what’s going on.

I stop and stare at the woman facing away from me. Short and curvy in all the right places. She’s wearing a fitted suit that makes her ass bubble and her calves pop in the high heel shoes she’s wearing. Doesn’t help that her sexy stockings have a solid black line seam going up the back to disappear under her skirt. It’s a teasing show being a respectable length and my dick chooses that moment to respond eagerly.

Clearing my throat, she turns around. A shy smile on her face and I’m surprised to see my dream come true standing in front of me. I press the clipboard over my sweatpants. No need to advertise I’m an asshole with a raging hard on.

“Diana, what are you doing here?” I’m confused. Happy, but still feel the itch on the back of my neck that has me glancing around to see if Piper has snuck in with her. She’s never once come to the gym except to the free yoga open houses. I know because I checked the roster and because Piper talked about it non-stop. If that woman had any idea what this woman did to my libido, she’d hang me by my ball sack. The one time I offered to extend Diana a free membership Piper growled that she’d already taken care of it which probably explains why yoga classes are scheduled when I’m already with clients because I don’t see her here often.

“I, uh.” Her face blushes bright red making her look like she’d been running all morning. I reach for the fridge by the front desk and grab a cold water to offer her, but she turns me down. Apparently that’s story of my life with this girl.

“What is it? Is it Pip? The baby?” I grab her arm and practically manhandle her back to my office putting her on the small sofa in here.

“No, oh my god no. It’s just that I want to throw her a surprise shower before the baby comes and I wanted to know if we could do it here.” She’s wringing her hands as if I’d say no. I could never tell her no.

I sit down beside her and take her hand in mine. It’s small, and I feel like a giant all bumbling and ridiculous. “Of course you can. We have the room for yoga you can use.” My thumb absently rubs her hand and I take in how soft she is. I notice the bare spot on her left hand has no ring, hasn’t been for some time. I know she’s divorced but I don’t like thinking some asshole put a ring there. It’s irrational and I shake it off.

“Seriously?” Her eyes pop and she bounces off the sofa twirling. Her skirt rises with her giving me a peek of shadows beneath and I’m inwardly groaning. She’s not a tease, she has no idea how I feel about her or the ridiculous candle I’ve been holding all these years.

“Anything for my best friend.” I bite back. “Let me check the books.” I get up and flip through the schedule attempting to buy more time. I already know that next Saturday is open, but I turn to ask her for clarification, “Did you have a date in mind?”

“I was thinking over the weekend?” She nibbles her bottom lip looking down.

“Hmmm.” I turn back to the book flipping a page back and forth.

“I’m sorry, I know how short notice it is.” She murmurs.

I hold up my hand to stop her. I really want to say sure you can have the room, but only if you get dinner with me, but that’s dickish. Or, hey how about we discuss this over a drink at some hipster restaurant in the neighborhood? But none of those things come out because I’m kind of a chicken shit and Piper is too close to her birthing date to piss off. I realize how lame these excuses are and how I’m merely fighting a losing battle.

“I tell you what, how does Saturday afternoon look? You could even come by Friday night to do the decorations if you want. I don’t know how these baby things go.” Now that was slightly manipulative I admit. None of my friends are having kids yet and most of the guys at the gym are too busy bench pressing to be dating, present company included.

“That would be perfect. We were going to have it at her parent’s house, but Johanna just got a shipment of pottery from their parents travelling.”