We hadn’t trained together since it had been a secret, I loved training with him and the possibility of getting to do it again, sent thrills through me.
Out of all the guys, he was definitely my favorite to train with. His size didn’t intimidate me like Luke and Ty, although Evan was just as tall as them but he had an athletic build rather than the humongous muscles that Luke and Ty had.
“Yep.” He walked past me, opening up the cupboard and pulling out his pads, and my gloves. “Can’t forget these baby’s.” He waggled his brows up and down, smiling manically.
I giggled and said. “Pass ‘em over.” Crooking my finger at him as I walked forward.
Pulling my vest and belt off, I lay them on top of the cupboard and pushed the gloves on. It felt good to have them back on, I’d missed them. Something I thought I’d never think, I hated exercise but this was different. This was for my safety.
Following Evan to the middle of the mats, I scanned the warehouse to see where Eli was. I smiled, but cringed at the same time, when I saw him sat with Luke next to the treadmill, both watching me with smiles on their faces.
I gulped at the audience. Although I didn’t want to expose Eli to violence, this was self-defense. I needed to know this, but I didn’t want him to think that it was okay either.
“Right, left, right. To start with,” Evan instructed me, holding up the pads.
I threw a right hook, then a left, and finished with a right.
“Good. Again,” he said in a gruff voice.
I did it again, and again, and again, until the sweat was dripping off of me, and I could barely breath. The burn in my arms felt good and I was starting to become slightly addicted to the way it made me feel.
Evan was always a happy go lucky guy but when it came to this, he was dead serious.
I sat out on the porch swing most nights, just basking in the view and partly waiting for Ty. That’s when I started to notice Evan would go out at the same time, on the same day, every week. After the third time, I asked Ty where he went, and that’s when I found out that Evan taught women’s self-defense and boxing at the local gym.
It all made sense then, why he had pulled me out of the office the first time we met, he must have seen something. He was trying to teach me how to defend myself and I didn’t even know it at the time.
Finding that out about Evan made me realize that there was still so much I had to learn about all of them. That then lead to me and Ty getting to know each other more. Just general things, like which side of the bed we preferred to sleep on, our favorite colors, that sort of stuff. I went to sleep that night feeling like we had taken a major step in our relationship. That’s if it was even a relationship. I really should clarify that.
With my chest heaving for breath, I held up a hand, signaling that I needed a minute.
“I need water,” I gasped. Walking into the kitchen, I pulled a cold bottle from the fridge and gulped the majority of it down. The sound of small footsteps following me in.
“Mama?” Turning around, I watched Eli lift up onto the chair.
“Yes, sweetie?” Sitting down next to him, I wiped the sweat off my face and tried to catch my breath.
“What you were doing out there?” He pointed back to the warehouse and continued. “Can I learn that?”
I stared at him with wide eyes, I didn’t know what to say or think. I didn’t want him thinking that it was okay to go around hurting people, but at the same time, I wanted him to know how to defend himself.
It was one of those moments where I genuinely didn’t know what to say, I sat there with my mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“You know mama only does that for her job, right?” I said, finally getting myself together and placing the bottle of water on the table.
“Yeah, but it looks fun.” He shrugged and looked away.
Gulping, I reached over, taking his hand in mine and drawing his attention back to me.
“Let me think about it, okay, sweetie?”
“Okay, mama.” He jumped down and ran back into the warehouse as if he hadn’t just asked me the hardest question that he had ever asked, while I sat staring at the empty doorway in shock.
The first thought in my mind was that I needed to talk to Ty. That made me both happy and sad. Happy that I could talk about it with someone, but also sad that it wasn’t Eli’s dad I could do that with.
Before I could think about it anymore, I finished the rest of my water off and got up, throwing it into the trash. Ready to go back and do some more training, I walked back out into the warehouse.
Driving off when Luke took over for his shift, I made my way to the precinct. Charlie had called earlier to tell me that he had some new information that he’d been given and to meet him there when I got the chance. I hadn’t managed to get back to him until I was about to finish my shift because Daley had been out and about all evening. I was getting really fed up of watching him eat in a restaurant while I was sat in my truck with nothing.