Page 8 of Man Advantage

Cam turned, eyebrows up. “Difficult to please?”

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. “I always thought mother-in-law stereotypes were exaggerated, but I have seen the light, let me tell you.”

He grimaced. “That bad, huh?”

“Worse. But fortunately, she’s not my problem anymore, and the bright side is…” I gestured at the room. “I’m not just sticking you in a tiny guest room. This way you can have some space to yourself, you know?”

He gave a slow nod as he looked around the room, and something in him seemed to deflate. No, that wasn’t right—it relaxed. As if he were releasing a breath he’d been holding. Tension visibly melted out of his shoulders. “My own space,” he murmured, more to himself than me. “That’ll be—God, that’ll be nice.”

I cocked a brow but didn’t ask. As curious as I was, I reminded myself again that he’d only just arrived. We still needed to catch up as friends, and he was also working for me now. The personal stuff could wait until I knew where we stood with each other.

“This is…” Cam shook his head and exhaled. Facing me again with wide eyes, he said, “You’re sure this is all mine?”

“Well… yeah?” I gestured over my shoulder with my thumb. “Mine’s up the hall across from the stairs. The boys’ rooms are at the other end of the hall. We’ve all got plenty of room, andyou’re doing me a gigantic favor just by being here.” I waved at his surroundings. “Giving you all this is theleastI can do.”

He looked around the room again, still obviously dazed. “Wow. This is… It’s amazing. The room. The job.” He met my gaze. “You’re seriously saving my ass right now, and I’d have slept in a broom closet if it was all you had. This?” He motioned at the suite. “Is phenomenal.”

“Well, like I said, you’re saving my ass, too. I have no idea what I’d have done otherwise.”

“Yeah. Same.” Cam swallowed. Silence hung between us that I didn’t know how to fill, and the moment threatened to get awkward. Then he shook himself. “You said you have a home gym?”

Grateful for the diversion, I said, “Yeah. Downstairs.”

He grinned. “Show me the way.”

CHAPTER 4

CAM

Walkingthrough this enormous house with Trev was nothing short of a miracle.

If I thought too hard about the odds of us making it here, I’d probably dissolve into tears. Or a damn panic attack. Something. Because what if his world hadn’t gone sideways at the same time mine had? What if he’d decided that I’d blown him off too many times and he wasn’t going to waste his time trying to reconnect again? What if he hadn’t married his ex, and adopted their kids, and then gotten a divorce and found himself desperate for a nanny? What if he hadn’t made it into the pros in the first place so he could meet the ex, afford the house, and?—

The odds were probably some ridiculous number with a ton of zeroes to one. Somewhere on par with a meteor landing in precisely the right spot to smite my controlling, cheating, dickweasel of an ex-boyfriend. While I would’ve been seriously thrilled if that had happened, this was even better, and it… God, there were so many ways it could havenothappened, and I was going to drive myself insane imagining them.

As we took the stairs down to the ground floor, I subtly pushed out a breath. Regardless of the odds, we were here. I hada job and a place to live. My best friend from high school was back in my life despite all the reasons he could’ve just pretended I didn’t exist anymore. I had a bedroom—a damnedsuite—that was bigger than any apartment I could’ve afforded back home, and Ididn’t have to pay rent.Not apennyof rent.

And part of the deal included full access to his house (minus his bedroom and home office), whichalsoturned out to include…

“Oh my God.” My jaw actually went slack as I looked around Trev’s basement home gym. “Dude. There are home gyms, and there are…” I flailed a hand.

He laughed. “Eh. Sometimes I don’t like going to the training center, and I want to work out alone.”

“Right, but…” I blinked a few times. “I trained some pro athletes back home, and none of them had a setupthisnice.”

“You should see our captain’s house,” he mused. “He’s got a half-sheet of artificial ice in his basement.”

I whistled. Okay, so Trev may not have had his own rink, but his setup was phenomenal. An elliptical, treadmill, recumbent bike, and stair machine, all from the best manufacturer on the planet. Top-of-the-line resistance equipment. A rack of dumbbells and another of barbell plates that would’ve made the owner of my last gym weep with envy.

None of it had that pristine, unused look either. It was all in great condition, but was obviously used regularly. I’d worked with a couple of wealthy clients back home who had home gyms that were utterly spotless—not a scratch or scuff on anything. It was for show more than anything—something to impress their rich friends or to be featured in home magazines or whatever.

Trev obviously made judicious use of everything in here, but he kept it clean and in excellent condition.

“So… I can use this stuff?” I looked at him. “You don’t mind?”

“Absolutely. Have at it.” He paused. “And yes, the boys are allowed in here, but only if they’re strictly supervised. They know what equipment they can use”—he gestured at some mats and smaller dumbbells—“but they’re kids, you know? They’ll try to push limits.”

I nodded. “Oh, I get that. One of the gyms I worked at didn’t enforce their policies about kids, and they’d get into and on everything.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m genuinely shocked the place didn’t get sued into oblivion.”

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