Page 81 of One Wealthy Wedding

“If I tell you, are you going to go all Miles on me?”

“Bossy and invading your privacy?” He snorts, but he’s smiling faintly. “Unlikely.”

“It’s Cat.” I slip on a pair of the gloves we keep up here and secure the Velcro.

“I suspected as much,” he says crisply. At my brow raise, he sighs and ducks under the ropes of the boxing ring. “You’re distracted.”

Shit. I can’t afford to be distracted. I need to be on top. “I’m sorry—” I start.

Jonah waves his gloved hand in the air. “I’ve been there. Believe it or not.”

“With Callie you mean?” The parallel I’m drawing is an uncomfortable one. Jonah is obsessed with Callie.

Saying her name is the best way to make him soften. “Yeah,” he says, with a smile. “I didn’t get much work done when she was in the office.” He rolls his shoulders as I bring my gloved hands up. “So, what? You like her?”

“I don’t know. I shouldn’t.”

“Right.” He nods, beginning to move. Jonah is quick on his feet and quicker with his hands, which is why he was an excellent boxer before he became a businessman. “Because of the past.”

“Yep. And because of who I know she is as a person,” I say. “I told myself I’d never go down this road with her. I did once before, and it ended miserably.”

“But you can’t help it.” He gives me a knowing look before he feints the jab. I raise my fist to block, and he smirks, still weaving.

“Yeah, I guess not.” I blow out a breath. “What if she’s not who I thought she was? She has goals. She wants to take over Peterson International. She’s not a partier. She’d rather stay home and read than go out. She has this bucket list…and fuck, I don’t know.” Something inside me crumples at the thought of the experiences she put on it. She’d kill me if she knew I felt sorry for her. “She didn’t know how to drive. She asked me to teach her.”

Jonah pauses, his gaze assessing. “And you did.”

“Yeah. I told her I’d help her with the whole list, actually.”

His brows go up. “That was kind of you.” He starts to move again. “What happens if she’s not who you thought? Are you going to pursue her?”

Pursue Cat.

“No.” I give a small, bitter laugh. “Not a chance in hell. She doesn’t want me. She never has. That hasn’t changed.” You could turn on me at any moment. Yeah, Cat doesn’t think very highly of me at all, and something grinds in my chest. “I was a fling for her. A walk on the wild side.” Like I am for so many women. “I’m not going through that again.”

“Ah. Fair enough.” Jonah’s voice is cool and accepting. And that, more than anything, makes me want to punch something.

“Miles would tell me to go for it,” I say bitterly.

“Miles is emotional,” he responds.

“It’s for the best,” I say.

“If you say so,” he says. “Want me to punch you now?”

“Try not to look so excited by the prospect.”

He snorts. “No tapping out, only passing out, right?” The rule I created for our fight nights in the ring.

I grin at my friend. “Stop talking and hit me.”

Jonah hammers a punch to my stomach and one to my side, so hard that I stumble back against the ropes and gasp for air like I’m a fish on land.

Something tells me this isn’t the last time I’m going to need him to do this.

That night in the kitchen, I’m putting groceries in the fridge and glancing in corners to see if Cat left a bag of lingerie somewhere.

“You shopped.” Her voice comes from behind me, and I force myself to turn slowly. “I thought you no longer needed food to live.”

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