Page 62 of 4th Degree

I raise a disbelieving eyebrow at him, which just makes his grin grow.

“You can tease all you want, but she’s already better at armbar defense than you,” Tristan shoots across the room. “I give her a few months and she’ll be submitting you.”

Aiden holds up his hands in surrender. “Hey, it was a compliment!”

Tristan points at the heavy bag room. “Whatever you say. Now go start your bag work. You’re fighting in a few weeks.” He looks around at the other fighters. “That goes for everyone. Fighter training starts in five minutes.”

As Aiden stands and begrudgingly heads toward the bag room, I call after him, “I’ll make a copy of my notes for you. If you’d had them last year, maybe Banker wouldn’t have submitted you in the second round.”

His only response is to turn and gape at me.

Tristan lets out a bark of laughter and smacks him in the shoulder as he passes him. “I think that’s the first time I’ve seen you speechless, pretty boy. She did tell us she looked up everyone’s records before she signed up. Looks like she’s not afraid to use it, either.”

Aiden’s mouth snaps shut as Remy pushes him, chuckling under her breath.

I’m smiling as I start toward my gym bag on the sidelines. Since the next class is an hour fighter training that I can’t attend, I’m going to use the time to do homework. I don’t normally clean after, since one of the fighters does it, but I think part of me is dragging my feet with leaving.

I glance toward the office where I know Dominic is working right now. With a wistful sigh, I turn back to my gym bag.

But just then, the door to the bag room opens.

And Jax walks in, with Craig by his side.

“And this is our mat room,” Jax says, giving a tour of the gym. “This is where we teach the jiu-jitsu and sparring classes.” He notices me and adds, “Skylar here just got finished with jiu-jitsu. Good class, Skylar?”

It takes me a moment to reply because I’m still in shock that my classmate is standing in my gym right now. Is this a small-world kind of thing? He just happened to walk into the gym I train at?

I fumble my way through an answer. “Um…uh, yeah, it was a great class. Tristan always teaches great classes.” My confused focus shifts to Craig. “What are you doing here?”

I get a half-smirk in response, which all but confirms my theory that he’s here because of me. Goddamnit.

“I’m looking for a new sport,” he says, his tone nonchalant. “You raved about this place so much that I thought I would check it out. You’re right, it is amazing.”

Jax, looking every bit as confused but, seeming to sense my tension, asks carefully, “How do you two know each other?”

“We go to school together,” Craig answers for us. “Skylar convinced me that training MMA is better than lifting boring old weights. She’s the reason I set up this consult.”

Jax gives him a look I can’t read and doesn’t respond. The room fills with an awkwardness that no one knows how to break.

Suddenly, the door to the office opens. And Coach walks in. When he sees us all standing there, his steps slow.

Jax hurries to make introductions. “This is the owner and head instructor, Coach Dominic.”

Dominic extends his hand to Craig. “Hey. Nice to meet you.”

Craig shakes it, still looking completely at ease. “Hey, man, I’m Craig. You know, your students love to sing your praises.”

A slight frown creases Dominic’s forehead. “I’m glad to hear that,” he says slowly. His attention shifts to Jax. “Which of my students was singing?”

A huge grin appears on Craig’s face as he gestures toward me. “Skylar, of course. She’s obsessed with this place. I couldn’t not come check it out. It seemed too good to be true.”

At that, Dominic doesn’t meet my gaze, but I can sense that his eyes are now solely on me.

Craig is oblivious. When he turns to me, that grin hasn’t faded even a little. He looks downright giddy.

“You were right, Skylar. I think I’m going to sign up. It’ll be so fun training together! We’ll finally get to hang out, even with your ridiculously busy schedule. And since you’re so into this, I’ll even do extra work with you. I’ve got plenty of space at my house, so we can get some extra practice in whenever you want.”

In an instant, Dominic stiffens.

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