Page 16 of Wild Child
He tilted his head toward the back of the room. I had to sidestep to peer around a TRX system before I saw a black ponytail swishing through the air. A pair of fists flew against a bag, interspersed with an occasional roundhouse kick and grunt. Sweat gleamed down Ellie’s face as she danced back and forth, focused on the punching bag.
“Yeah,” I drawled. “She’s picturing me right there.”
Jax laughed outright. “Then she wants to destroy you. I haven’t seen her this worked up in months. It’s an impressive sight when Ellie gets in her rage.”
My gut clenched at the thought. I watched her for a minute more, then turned away. The deep grooves in her expression, and intense concentration, made it feel like I intruded on something. She had skill, that was for sure. The bag wasn’t something new, clearly, which hurt even more.
Did I know this Ellie?
The door opened behind me, admitting a cool brush of morning air against the back of my neck. Jax lifted his head in a short nod to someone back there.
“Hey, Kimball. Class will start in ten.”
A tall guy nodded to him and kept going. He had an uncertain gait as he strode past, bag slung over his shoulder. He slowed, canvassing the room until he saw Ellie in the back corner. A quick twitch of his lips gave him away. A second later, he headed for a changing room at the back. His eyes didn’t stray from her much before he slipped inside.
I didn’t like that guy at all.
“Who’s he?” I asked with a jerk of my head.
“Summer visitor, I think. Came in a few days ago and only signed up through the end of the month. His family owned a cabin in the mountains they’d never visited before or something? Can’t remember his story.” Jax shrugged. “Nice enough. Bit . . . chatty.”
“Huh.”
“So, how long are you back?”
While Jax and I devolved into the usual questions that I’d braced myself to answer—how long are you here for? Where are you stationed? How was deployment?— I stayed where I could see Ellie. She pounded the bag for a few more minutes before she ripped the gloves off and grabbed some water.
Thankfully, Jax kept the conversation on the surface. He didn’t ask any questions I’d already decided I wouldn’t answer. Ellie sat on the floor to stretch just as Kimball came back out. The people running on the treadmill had started to gather on the mats, where another tall, slender guy fiddled with some music.
Kimball headed right for Ellie. My shoulders tensed.
“She’s not yours anymore.”
Jax said the words so easily I thought I’d misunderstood him. Startled, I looked at him in wordless question. There was no animosity in his tone, but something lurked underneath.
“What?”
“Ellie isn’t yours, so you can act as possessive as you want, but I’m not going to let it fly in here.”
A flash of amusement crossed his expression. Maybe I looked pissed. Ifeltpissed. Defensive.
But he was absolutely right.
Jax folded his arms across his chest. “Ellie moved on. She had to. You left her, and she rebuilt her life slowly. One piece at a time. So, yes. Kimball is flirting with her. He has been for the past couple of days. He comes in early, looks for her, changes, and they talk until his class starts. She leaves. He hasn’t come any other day except the ones when she shows up. And that’s his right.”
His words felt like glass under the skin, but I couldn’t deny their truth. Coming back, I knew that Ellie would be different. That our friendship wouldn’t be the same. That we’d be new people and the likelihood of things ever reconciling were slim to none. Ellie’s sense of survival had always been greater than her sense of happiness. She no longer saw me as safe, so she wouldn’t invest time or trust in me.
At least not yet.
The only hope that I had was that those years of friendship and connectionhadhappened. Maybe there was a foundation that she couldn’t deny. If there wasn’t, I came home to tell her how I felt then and now. That mission wouldn’t change, Kimball notwithstanding.
“Roger,” I said.
Jax had the gall to look amused again, and I almost tackled him right there. I needed to hit something, and he’d suffice.
“Listen, Dev, I don’t have any more claim on Ellie than you do. We’re friends in a held-at-arms-length kind of way, and I’m fine with that. No one has any claim on a woman like her. She goes on first dates, and they never hear back. I’ve warned Kimball, but he doesn’t care. She seems to have silently committed herself to the single life. If you’re hoping to reconcile, be fair. I won’t let you break her heart again.”
“You won’t?”
