Page 18 of Hitting the Gap

“Thanks, Gonz.”

Bailey began walking and he fell into step beside her. “Anytime, babe,” he said and gave her a bump with his hip. “You want a full sit-down breakfast or something fast, like coffee and a bagel?”

“I know it’s game day for you and you probably have a full day, so something quick is fine. Then I need to hit the pharmacy. I only had a lone tampon in my purse.”

Gonzo cringed. “Kay, I didn’t really need to know that.”

Bailey glanced over at him with a raised eyebrow. “Are you kidding me? I just spilled my guts about Brad not wanting to have sex with me and somehow talking about tampons is an over-share.”

“Come on, tampons? Gross. Sex? Always gonna be a subject I want to talk about.”

“There is nothing gross about a tampon.” Bailey rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy.”

“Guilty as charged.” He threw his arm around her shoulder. “You still eat a vat of rocky road when you’re cruising the red highway?”

“The red highway? My god you’re such a child.” She shoved him in the side, and he stumbled. With a laugh, he squeezed her tighter against him and she felt the tension leave her body. How did Gonzo always make her feel so at home? She didn’t remember feeling like that with Brad, ever. Maybe that should have told her something.

“So I’ll take that as a yes on the vat of ice cream?”

Bailey tensed. Unfortunately, yes. But no more. “If I’m gonna lose any of this weight, I should probably skip it.”

“Do you want to lose weight?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I do.”

“What? It’s a valid question. If you’re happy in your body, who cares what anyone else says?”

“Easy for you to say,” she muttered.

“Why’s that easy for me to say?”

“Come on, Gonz, look at you. Your biceps are the size of most people’s thigh.”

“Yeah, because I lift a shit ton of weights.”

“It’s just different for guys.”

“True, but just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean people don’t say shit about my body. They do.” He absently ran a hand across his abdomen. “People love to talk shit. It doesn’t mean you have to listen.”

Memories of her parting fight with Brad instantly swarmed back to her. “Hard not to listen when it’s people you care about who say it.”

“For sure. But we all get insecure, Bailey. I get it. I can run a little soft, and the locker room can be brutal.” He sighed and rubbed his hand over his mouth. “Especially since one of my best friends does fucking underwear ads.”

Bailey snorted. “Oh my god, there is nothing soft about you Gonzo.” They had very different definitions of soft if he wanted to compare the two.

He shrugged. “In my world, not being cut is soft. I’m one of the strongest guys on my team, but I’m not doing fucking underwear ads. And that’s okay because I’ll take my batting stats over a sixpack any day of the week. And no one says shit to me anymore.” He winked at her.

“Mmm.” Easy for him to say. His legs were like muscular tree trunks, while hers were more like table legs.

“For what it’s worth, from where I’m standing your body looks fine,” he told her.

Bailey snorted. Fine. Now that was what every woman wanted to hear about her body. “I know what I look like, Gonzo.”

He raised his eyebrow and looked back at her. “Do you?”

Unfortunately, Brad had made it painfully clear that what she saw and what he saw were the same thing.

“The apartment has a pretty good gym if you want to use it or not. Makes no difference to me,” Gonzo said. “You’re the one that has to like what you see in the mirror, not me.”

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