“No,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing to worry about. I had a great time at lunch today. I enjoyed meeting your parents.”
She peered up at him. “I’m glad.”
He smiled then before finally taking a step backward. “It’s probably time for you to go back to work.”
“I know.”
“Is he still watching us?”
She peeked past him and shook her head. “I think he went around to the back entrance.”
“Will he be bothered by what he saw?”
She thought about it. “Probably. But now he knows you actually exist, and that’s a good thing. If he bothers me again, I’ll just hint that you’re the jealous type.”
“I’m not,” he said. His blue-gray eyes were intense, yet gentle. “But I still don’t like him.”
CHAPTER 11
Colin
On Saturday morning, Colin rose early and went for a bike ride just as the sun was coming up. His bike – a rusting beater that he’d picked up at a pawn shop for almost nothing – was at least a decade old, but it did the job, and he was able to work up a serious sweat before he even reached the gym. There, he spent an hour in a cross-training class slamming heavy ropes, pushing weighted sleds, throwing medicine balls, and doing a variety of other exercises, then staggered back to his bike for the ride home. He mowed the lawn and trimmed the bushes, reflecting that though he’d been preoccupied by thoughts of Maria since they’d first met, those thoughts didn’t compare to the almost obsessive way he dwelled on her now. Even Evan had noticed; earlier, when he’d stepped out onto the porch, he’d been wearing a smirk that let Colin know he was fully aware of the effect that Maria was having on him. Evan himself had been ebullient on both Thursday and Friday nights, and Colin suspected that it might have had something to do with the whole salsa dancing is sensual thing, but it wasn’t his place to ask.
Lily, too, had noticed that Colin had developed feelings for Maria, but remained focused on his dancing lessons. However, she’d recommended a restaurant downtown, reminding him twice to make reservations. She’d taught him more about dancing than he thought possible, but he still wasn’t entirely confident in his abilities. He didn’t want to imagine how unprepared he would have been had she not intervened.
After completing his chores, Colin sipped on his second protein drink of the day while he straightened up the apartment, then began working on a paper for his classroom-management class. It was only five pages, but he was too distracted to do much more than put together an outline before he finally called it quits.
Changing back into his workout clothes, he grabbed his gym bag and headed out the door. Though it had been performing like a champ recently, today the engine coughed and coughed, finally sputtering reluctantly to life, meaning that the problem was neither the ignition switch nor the alternator. He should have been preoccupied with finding a solution, but instead he found himself conjuring up Maria’s image, strangely anxious that their date go smoothly. He’d called her after work on Thursday and Friday and they’d talked for more than an hour each night, which was a new experience for him. He couldn’t remember talking to anyone on the phone that long – ever. Until Maria, he couldn’t imagine how anyone sustained such a lengthy conversation. But Maria made it easy, and more than once, he found himself smiling at whatever it was she was saying. She mentioned that Ken had been keeping his distance, and when she recounted the blind date she’d been on the night he’d changed her tire, he’d laughed aloud. After he hung up the phone, he’d found it difficult to fall asleep. Ordinarily, he collapsed in bed at the end of the day, unable to keep his eyes open.
For the first time in a long while, he considered calling his parents. He wasn’t sure why the urge struck him, but he assumed it had something to do with the way Maria talked about her parents and how well they got along. He wondered how different his life might have been had he been brought up in a family like hers. It might not have been any different, of course – he’d been a handful even before he could walk – but if family dynamics played even a small role, then his life had taken a direction that wasn’t entirely of his making. And though he was satisfied with his current path, the road had until recently been littered with potholes and boulders. That Maria was able to look past those things, considering her own respectable history, was still something of a surprise, though a surprise of the very best kind.
Pulling up at the gym, he spotted Maria standing out front. She was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, and he thought again that she was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met.
“Hey there,” she said as he approached. “You ready to beat some people up?”
“It’s only practice.”
“You’re sure I can go inside to watch?”
He reached for the door, nodding. “I talked to the owner this morning and he was fine with it. And unless you decide to go in the cage, he promised he wouldn’t even make you sign a waiver.”
“You’re quite the negotiator.”
“I try,” he said. He held the door open, eyeing her figure as she slid past him. He watched as she surveyed her surroundings. Unlike many commercial gyms, this place had more of a warehouse feel. They walked past assorted racks of weights and other cross-training equipment, toward the training room at the far end of the building. Passing through another door, he led the way into a roomy space with padded walls and large mats, equipment piled in every corner; over to the left was the cage. A few of Colin’s training partners were stretching or otherwise warming up, and he nodded toward them as he set down his bag. Maria wrinkled her nose.