Page 5 of Tripped By Love
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“I just told you everything is fine. I didn’t ask because there’s anything going on. I asked because you work too hard. Constantly protecting someone else is no way to live your own life.”
I didn’t respond because I couldn’t. This was an argument we’d had for years now, and neither of us would change our views.
Instead, I changed the subject. “Did you take your meds today?”
“Yes. Jonas puts them in one of those daily pill containers for me, and then he watches me like a hawk while I swallow them before he leaves for school,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “I’m supposed to be the parent, not him. That boy is even more serious than you were at that age.”
Guilt washed over me as I realized how long it had been since I talked to Jonas, especially when I knew he was living my teenage nightmare for real. After losing my parents and being placed with Maliyah, I’d walked home from school every day, afraid I’d find her gone, and that was before her heart episode. The fear that she’d disappear from his life for good had to have been weighing on Jonas. I needed to check in with him soon.
Before I could dwell on my failings with my foster brother?like she knew I would?Maliyah launched into an update about everyone in her life, including Maria Carmen and her enormous family who treated Maliyah as if she was one of their sisters. The tightness in my muscles eased slightly when Maliyah broke into laughter while explaining Maria Carmen’s disgust with her firefighter son who was dating three women at the same time. After all the worry I’d put Maliyah through?after what had happened to her because of me?hearing her laugh was always a relief, and she knew it.
“I told her she should be happy because at least she has the chance of having grandchildren someday with Álvaro playing the field and not living like a monk,” she said as she stared into my eyes through the screen, her meaning clear. “Maybe you need to go on vacation to some Caribbean Island and find a beautiful lady to hook up with.” Shewinked, her hazel eyes sparkling with mischief before she wiggled her chestnut-colored eyebrows to emphasize her point.
A choke of laughter got stuck in my throat as images of Cassidy spread out on the Caribbean sand filled my head: in a bikini, with the sunlight bouncing off her smooth skin, and her honey-colored eyes tempting me to kiss every inch of her body.
I barely held back a groan.
“I need to finish this run,” I said, and Maliyah sighed.
“We’re not done with this discussion,mijo. And I expect to hear from you sooner than the end of the month. Do you understand?”
More remorse tore through me. I was lousy at keeping up with them.
After I hung up, I ran longer than normal, trying to beat the regrets out of me. Trying to forget my mistakes and the sadness in Maliyah’s eyes when I’d shown up on her doorstep with my dreams in shambles.
While burning myself out normally worked to stop the swirl of memories, it failed tonight, and they were still haunting me as I opened the back door of Cassidy’s home with the key she’d given me. We’d started working out together after she’d had Chevelle, and for the first year, it had been in my apartment above her parents’ garage or in their backyard if the weather cooperated. But after she moved, we’d converted one of the bedrooms into a home gym. We’d finagled a floor mat, treadmill, rower, and weights into the tiny space.
When I walked into Cassidy’s house, the sweet smell of chocolate hit me. She must have baked, even though she’d barely gotten home from the restaurant. She cooked like other people breathed. As if it was effortless. As if it was just something you did while standing.
The kitchen was neat, and the dishwasher was running with the stove light on, casting the farmhouse-style cabinets and sink into shadows. I made my way through it to the open living room beyond. It was completely feminine, full of modern colors and patterns that were splashed all over the walls and furniture. It was like seeing Cassidy’s flowered skirts morph into a living space. The pictures on the walls were mostly of Chevelle, but there were a handful of the entire O’Neil family, and one of Cassidy at the restaurant, smiling like she’d won the lottery. And I guessed she had in a way. Brady had funded it all for her, but I also knew how hard she worked to try and pay him back.
When I got to the open doorway of the home gym, my heart stopped. She was bent over, stretching with her rear-end facing me in shorts that lined every curve. That made my body respond instantly and harshly, in a way that required me to adjust myself before entering the room in my own exercise shorts, which were fairly loose but still wouldn’t hide the enormous hard-on the image of her had caused.
“You going to join me or just stand in the doorway like a weirdo,” she said without ever looking up from her legs.
I cleared my throat. “Don’t stretch too much before warming up.”
She unbent herself to shoot me an eye roll. “This isn’t my first day at the rodeo. What is with you today?”
Her hands were on her hips as if she was ready to scold me, and all I could think about was how I wanted to feel the entire length of her tucked up against me. She was tall, five foot eleven when barefoot, and while I still had three inches on her, the slight difference meant I’d barely need to tip my chin to kiss her.
I turned away from her, toward the shelf in the corner, and set down my water bottle and towel in order to give myself a chance to clear my head. To think about the last sequence of footwork we’d done the day before. To think of anything but kisses and curves and hard-ons.
I didn’t hear her cross the mat, and so I jumped when her long fingers hit my bicep. I turned my head to look down at her hand before I let my gaze slowly trail up and over all her exposed skin to eyes full of concern. Her brows were furrowed, and before I could prevent myself, I rubbed at the space between the delicate arches with my thumb.
“Don’t get frown lines because of me. I’m fine.”
Her eyes searched mine, honey ones mixing with my brown ones that were so dark they could be black in certain lights. As if I was a demon without a soul. Sometimes…I wondered if I was.
I stepped back before I did something stupid, like let my finger land on her soft-pink lips…before I let my mouth settle on hers. As I moved away, I glanced at the treadmill that was already down. “You starting there?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I already did fifteen on it. Chevelle crashed early. I guess he ran around after Molly half the day.”
Molly was Brady and Tristan’s fox terrier, and Chevelle loved the dog like almost nothing else.
“Weights, then,” I said, moving over to the two sets on wheels in the corner. I turned the dial to the level she used most and pulled the weights off the rack. I handed them to her. “Squat raises?”
