Page 39 of Fire in You

Even though half my hearing was shot, I’d swear I heard her sharp inhale. “Jilly . . .”

“I know you’ve always known that. Hell, everyone knew it. But we’re . . . we’re okay now. It’s—” I hissed, yanking my hand back. The damn cat had latched its claws into my fingers when I stopped moving the toy. Rhage glared up at me. “I just want you to know that you don’t have to worry about me . . . and him.”

“Baby, I never worried about you two.”

My brows had lifted as I’d shaken my stinging hand. “Really?”

“Not in the way you think,” she said mysteriously. “Look, your uncles are outside and about to pile out of their cars, looking to be fed. When are you coming home to see us?”

“Thanksgiving,” I told her.

“That’s so far away,” she complained.

A slight smile tugged at my lips. “Mom, that’s only a little over a month from now.”

“Too long,” Mom countered. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.” I’d hung up the phone, feeling strangely lighter, having admitted to something that was so incredibly simple but so heavy.

And now it was Tuesday afternoon, and once again I was walking to Brock’s office, hoping this time the conversation didn’t veer into Crazyville. Rapping my knuckles off his door, I waited.

“Come in.”

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door. He was watching TV. I started to frown, but I quickly realized it was a video of one of the recruits from the second floor. “Do you have a couple of moments?”

“Your hair is down again,” he murmured, glancing over at me. “I approve.”

I made a face at him as I closed the door behind me. “Thanks, but wasn’t looking for your approval.

A brief grin appeared and then he picked up a remote and paused the video. “What’s up?”

Sitting straight, I folded my hands together. “I wanted to talk to you about possible expansion. It’s not something that the Lima Academy would typically get involved in, but I think it’s something worth looking into.”

His gaze centered on me. “Go on.”

I ignored the way his heavy stare made me feel, like there was no space between us. “Right now, the Lima Academy is very male-centric. Of course, with the exception of the gym and the few women we have training in one of our martial arts or self-defense classes. Now, we can always bring more women and young adults into our standard classes, something I am focusing on, but I think we can do more.” My shoulders rose. “You remember Avery, right?”

“Cam’s wife?”

I nodded. “And you’ve met Jase Winstead? His wife is Teresa. They’re about to have a child—a baby boy.”

The look on his face said he wasn’t exactly sure how that worked into expanding Lima Academy.

“Anyway, both Teresa and Avery were . . .aredancers, professional dancers. Teresa was actually with one of the most well-known dance companies before she injured her knee, preventing her from having a career in dance. For quite some time, they’ve wanted to start offering dance classes, since there aren’t many dance companies in this county or in the tristate. They want to eventually open their own studio, but they’re a long way away from being able to do that.”

Two fingers pressed to his lips as he rested his chin in his palm. “Okay.”

“What they’ve been looking at is space for classes, but as I’m sure you know, space isn’t easy to come by and neither are the type of funds necessary to start a studio from the ground up,” I explained. “What I was thinking is we have a lot of space available, large rooms that could probably be easily converted into dance studio space.”

Brock studied me for a moment. “You’re basically suggesting that we rent out some of our space for dance classes?”

I shot him a dark look. “You don’t need to say it like that. Some of those dancers are more badass than our fighters. Especially when you get into the tumbling and gymnastics aspect, which by the way, gymnastics would also probably be a great route to go down eventually.” Scooting forward, I gripped the arms of the chair. “And offering classes like that doesn’t just appeal to girls. A lot of boys are into dancing. There can be a lot of different age levels and styles. And not only that, we can upsell gym memberships to parents,” I told him. “And maybe even a few self- defense classes.”

Brock appeared to contemplate this for a couple of moments. “And we could probably get a couple of our lower-level martial arts classes out of cross-selling.” His eyes narrowed. “But if your friends are interested in eventually opening their own studio and potentially taking their clients with them, what long-term benefit is there for us? Because it seems like we’d be footing most of the cost to convert the space.”

I’d planned for that question. “If they do decide to leave and open their own studio, and that is an ‘if’ at this point, we bring in different dance teachers,” I responded. “We could also make it worth their while to stay with Lima, which would probably be eventually taking on more of a sponsorship role and allowing them to run it, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. With or without them, this could be a very successful endeavor and it’s not something we’ve ever done before.”

“Hmm.” He tapped his fingers on the corner of his lips. “This is different, going in a direction I doubt Andrew was thinking of, but your father is innovative.” He paused. “So are you.”

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