Page 7 of The Jock
Colby shook his head. “No, but it might be fun.” A thought popped into his head. “I should take my brother to a show. I think he’d like it. You say you used to do drag… Are there any good shows around here we could go see?”
“My friends run a show every Saturday at Mystic.”
Colby wasn’t exactly sure what he’d accomplish by taking Taylor to a drag show. Wearing makeup and doing full drag were clearly two different things, but maybe if he showed that he was accepting, Taylor would be more comfortable opening up to him.
“Hey, Coach, go easy on me today.” Nash showed up in shorts and a shirt with a towel looped around his neck, holding on to each end of it as he approached.
“I don’t make accommodations for hangovers or other ailments from having too much fun.” Colby crossed his arms.
Nash glanced at Milo and smiled. “Hey, a new guy. I’m Nash.”
He stuck his hand out and Milo shook it. “Don’t listen to anything this guy has said about me. It’s all lies.”
“I’ve said nothing about you, you egomaniac.”
Nash was self-employed, working full-time as an author and editor. He dragged himself to a couple of Colby’s classes a week to combat all the sitting he did. And also to be a pain in Colby’s ass. He was the first one to sign up for Colby’s class when he started his own circuit at the gym.
“What kind of a best friend are you?” Nash feigned hurt. “I’m supposed to be your number one topic of conversation. My best friend Nash is so funny. My best friend Nash is so smart. My best friend Nash is?—”
“Shutting up now,” Colby interrupted. “Go warm up while I finish showing Milo around. We’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Don’t call me that.” Colby shoved Nash. “You’re an ass.”
“Love you too, friend.” Nash glanced back at Milo. “Nice meeting you.”
“You too,” Milo answered.
The interaction with Nash seemed to help settle Milo. He now looked more relaxed than Colby had seen him so far and he hoped that it meant Milo would be comfortable here.
The real test would be the first circuit together. Colby saw lots of people for one circuit, then never saw them again as they went back to their usual workouts. He almost decided to change things up and go easy on Milo, but as they warmed up, he was struck by the quiet fierceness Milo was radiating. No, he wouldn’t go easy on him and, for some reason, he doubted Milo would want him to.
CHAPTER 4
MILO
Milo was going to die.And if he wasn’t, he definitely wanted to. He lay on the mat of the gym, staring up at the ceiling. His chest heaved and his extremities were dead weights.
Maybe he’d overdone it. Or maybe it had been too long since he was in a place where he was comfortable. His old gym had been fine, but Neville was always there, hovering over him. Even when Milo went without him, it was like his presence lingered there, haunting and judging. That should’ve been his first indication that Neville wasn’t the right guy for him.
Colby was a good group leader. He was encouraging but forceful without going to the extreme. There didn’t seem to be a skill he hadn’t mastered. Milo watched him climb the rope like it was nothing. He hadn’t even used his legs, which was kind of hot, Milo thought.
A smiling, sweaty Colby appeared above Milo. “You okay?”
“Sure. Yep.” Milo panted. “Fine and dandy. I’ll get up as soon as I can feel my legs.”
“Oh, you’ll feel them tomorrow for sure. Here, let me help you up. We can walk some laps and do some stretching to help you recover.” Colby held his hand out and though Milo knew he should refuse it, he didn’t.
He didn’t want to be the guy who closed himself off to other people because he’d chosen the wrong person. If Gino wanted to live his life that way, that was fine by Milo, but he saw no reason not to be nice to Colby. Even if he had thought, for a fraction of a second, that he was some kind of femme-hating dick bag.
Milo was of the opinion now that Colby had never seen a guy in makeup before. At least not up close. And he mentioned wanting to take his brother to a show, so his brother was probably a member of the alphabet mafias. Milo couldn’t begin to guess what way Colby swung, not that it mattered. The last thing he needed was to hop into another relationship.
No. Milo had to work on himself while he was single. There were pieces of himself that he’d cut away for the sake of making other people comfortable, and he wanted to reclaim them. Somehow.
Putting even a light dusting of makeup on this morning had made Milo’s stomach clench, but he did it anyway. Once upon a time, it had been his armor. Nothing could touch him when he looked a certain way, but he’d let Neville take that away from him. Honestly, he realized it wasn’t entirely fair to put it all on Neville. Milo was a grown man who had made those decisions when the alternative would have been to dump Neville.
Colby hauled Milo to his feet like he weighed nothing and led him over to another part of the gym. At first glance, it was an empty room, but then Milo noticed that people in the center were doing things like jump rope and mobility exercises and there was a track around the outside of the room for people to run or walk.
