Page 104 of More To Us

"I'm playing at K6," I say. "Kira's staying home because she has class tomorrow."

"Me too," Callie says to her. "I have class at eight in the morning. Early morning classes are the worst."

"I go to the gym at six, so eight isn't a big deal."

"You work out that early?" Nash asks. "And eat like him?" He looks at me. "Shit, you two are made for each other."

I smile at Kira, then look back at Nash and Callie. "So what are you two doing here? I thought you weren't coming back until tonight."

"We wanted to stop by and see Dad. This is the first time I've missed the Labor Day cookout so Callie and I thought we'd stop by for dessert." He shoves the tray of cupcakes over to us. "Here. Try one. She made all kinds."

"The lemon coconut is really good," Callie says. "Or the chocolate peanut butter if you're in a chocolate mood."

"I'm always in a chocolate mood," Kira says, taking a cupcake.

My dad joins us and we all hang out there and talk for a few hours. I was hoping to go back to Kira's place and have us hide away in her bedroom until I had to leave, but she seemed to want to hang out with my family. The other night she told me she misses her family, so maybe she wants to borrow mine. If so, I have no problem with that. In fact, I like that she's comfortable around them and wants to spend time with them, because if we continue to date, she'll be seeing a lot of my family. We're all really close and spend a lot of time together.

At seven, I take Kira back to her apartment but I don't go inside, knowing that if I did, I'd be late meeting the guys. So we say goodnight at her door.

Later that night, as I'm playing with the band, I see all those girls in the crowd yelling my name and all I can think about is Kira. She's in my head all the time now.

The next morning, we meet up at the gym at quarter to six. Starting tomorrow, I'm back to a seven-thirty to four shift, so if Kira wants to train with me, it has to be early.

"How are you feeling?" I ask Kira after pushing her hard on the free weights. We've been lifting together for a half hour. She's working mostly legs today combined with a little upper body work.

"Good." She wipes the sweat off her brow. "What's next?"

"You just need to do the machines and then you're done. Let's start with the leg extension." We walk over to the machine and I wait for her to adjust it. "Okay, go ahead."

She does one rep. "It's not enough weight. Add some more."

"You sure? This is what you did last time."

"It's not enough. Add fifty pounds."

"Fifty pounds?" I smile, assuming she's kidding. "I'll add ten." I move the pin.

"No. Fifty. I can do it."

I step around the machine so I can see her face. She looks serious, like she really wants me to add fifty pounds.

"Fifty is too much," I tell her. "Ten is plenty."

She gets up and moves the pin herself, adding fifty pounds. Then she gets back on the machine.

"Kira." I hold her legs down. "Don't. You'll get hurt."

"I told you I wanted to push myself," she says, sounding angry.

"Yeah, but we can do that by adding ten."

"It's not enough." She pushes my hands off her legs. "Why don't you go do something else?" Now she sounds annoyed.

"Kira, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," she snaps.

"Are you mad at me? Because I wouldn't add more weight?"

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