by Claire Adams
The ref announced Paul as the winner and when they opened the cage to help Wilson out, he was starting to come around. Paul came out next and the crowd was going wild, cheering for him like crazy. He saw us in the front row and the men were all high-fiving him. Bodies were pushing and shoving up against other bodies and I found mine close enough to Paul’s at one point that if I’d wiggled just a fraction of an inch we’d be chest to chest.
I looked up at him and said, “Wow, you were amazing.” He was smiling and looking down at me with those sexy blue eyes and suddenly it was like we were in a vacuum. I couldn’t even hear the rest of the crowd, all I heard was the sound of his breathing and the pounding beat of my own heart in my ears. It was that feeling that you got right before you kissed a man for the first time and I swear he was thinking about it. I was so sure of it that I was inching up on my tiptoes. That was until there was suddenly a female hand on his shoulder and he turned away from me. He hugged the woman tightly, picking her up off her feet as he did. She was facing me, then, and she had the exact same color of eyes as Paul. I told myself it was his sister…it had to be.
CHAPTER FIVE
I went to sleep that night still buzzing with the sexual tension that I’d felt when Paul and I had stood so close after the fight. I dreamt about it that night. In my dream he actually kissed me and it was one of those kisses that you want to last forever and one that you know you’ll never forget. I woke up the next morning and it was once again the first thing on my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d felt when he stood so close to me no matter how hard I tried. It was crazy. It wasn’t like we even kissed. Here I was acting like we’d spent a passionate night together. There were hundreds of other people there and he was standing so close to me because the crowd kept pushing him forward. I told myself that I wasn’t going to blow it all out of proportion. Then I took a cold shower. It didn’t work.
I was still thinking about him after I showered and while I dressed for work. While I had my coffee and a couple pieces of toast I actually let myself wonder if maybe he was thinking about me too. I thought about it again as I drove to work. The more I thought about it, the more I found myself wanting to believe that he felt the same chemistry as I had and I let the magic of that moment last right up until I drove into the parking lot and saw all the police cars.
I had to pull back out on the street and park because our lot was so full. When I got out of the car and started toward the front of the gym I couldn’t believe my eyes. The two huge glass windows in the front were completely shattered. I walked up to the door and was stopped by a police officer.
“I’m sorry, miss, you can’t go in there.”
“I work here,” I told him. He started to say something else when I saw Sam approach us from inside.
“It’s okay,” Sam told him. “You can let her in. She’s the one who locked up last night.” The officer stepped aside and let me in.
“What the hell happened?” I asked Sam.
“Greg got a call from the alarm company early this morning. Whoever did it was gone by the time the police got here.” I looked around once I was inside and saw that some of the equipment was missing and other pieces were lying on their sides or broken. Trash had been dumped everywhere out of the trash can in the parking lot and the big metal can was lying on its side in the middle of the room. “The police want to talk to you since you were the last one here last night.”
I nodded. I was numb, feeling so bad for Greg and Yolanda. This was going to be a huge setback for them. They poured their souls into this place and Yolanda even kept her day job so to speak to help support it. That day, the gym was completely unusable. I hoped it was at least all covered under their insurance.
Sam led me over to the lead officer and that was when I saw Paul. He looked really pissed. He was standing inside talking to Greg and one of the officers and I could almost feel the rage emanating from him. I wondered if he was like me and just pissed because Greg was a friend, or was there something else on his mind?
“Miss Cooper?” the officer asked.
“Yes, Jessie Cooper,” I said.
“You closed up last night?”
“Yes, I did.”
“You set the alarm?”
“Yes, I always do when I’m the last one out. It went off, right?”
“Yes, it did. I’m just trying to get a timeline here. What time was it when you left?”
“Maybe four forty-five or five p.m.”
“Did you clock out before you left?” I thought about it. I was bench pressing…showing off to Paul and then I’d stood up next to him and my insides had turned to Jell-O and I’d ran out…I didn’t stop to clock out.
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“Was there a reason for that?” he asked.
“No, not really,” I said. “I just forgot. I do that sometimes.”
“Was anyone else around when you left?” he asked. I looked back over toward the door. Paul was standing off by himself now but he was still obviously fuming.
“Um, yeah. Paul Delport was our last client. He left at the same time I did.”
The officer looked at Sam and he nodded and said, “The other officer was just talking to him, he’s over there by my boss.”
“Was anyone hanging around outside, any vehicles in the parking lot that shouldn’t have been there?”
“Not that I noticed…I know that my car and Paul’s truck were the only ones in the parking lot.”
“Okay. Miss Cooper, were you here yesterday when an incident took place between Mr. Delport and another man?”
“Yeah, I was here.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Victoria was trying to close up and the guy pushed his way in. She told him we were closed but he came in anyways. Paul was minding his own business and working out over there on the bench press. That maniac just barreled up to him and got in his face.”
“Did you hear the words exchanged between them?” I wasn’t in the habit of lying to or withholding things from the police but I didn’t know all of the details, and anything I said about it could be taken out of context.
“Not really. I heard a lot of cussing coming from the big guy. I had stepped back out of the way. I couldn’t hear what they were saying clearly,” I told him.
“Can you describe the man that fought with Mr. Delport?”
“Yeah, he was about six four…really big guy, maybe two-fifty or two-sixty…dark hair, and dark eyes…white guy. I think he had some tattoos on his arms.”
“Okay, thanks. Do you mind giving me your phone number in case anything else comes up?”
I gave it to him and he thanked me. Then I went over to where Paul was standing. “Hey,” I said. “Are you okay?”
He looked at me with an angry look still etched into his features as he said, “Victor’s dad, Mitch, did this.”
Now it made sense why he was so angry. “Are you sure?” I asked him.
“Who else would do this? It wasn’t a burglary.”
“They did take a couple of the machines…”
“If they were going to burglarize this place they would have taken more than one or two machines out of the front window. The place was more vandalized than anything else. This was Mitch, pissed because I won’t tell him where my sister is, and because I kicked his ass yesterday. You and Greg both heard him say we would be sorry before he left…” He was so angry that his voice was shaking. I was suddenly worried about what he planned on doing.
“Hey, why don’t you and I go out for a run and get some fresh air? I’m a little bit pissed myself and exercise always helps me.”
Paul looked around the gym. Realizing there was nothing for him to do there he said, “Yeah, okay. Let’s get out of here.”
I told Sam we were taking off but to tell Greg and Yolanda to call me if they needed anything. Sam said the police would have the gym most of the rest of the day and we’d probably start clean-up in the morning.
“I feel kind of like this is my fault. I feel bad for Greg.”
“This is not your fault.”
“It’s just…I don’t know…Mitch is my fight, not Greg’s. I know Mitch did this. He’s a terrible person and this is actually mild for him. I tried to tell my sister that I could just sense it the first time I met him twelve years ago. I was just a kid and even then he gave me a bad feeling. He treated her like shit…and then all of a sudden she was pregnant. I think she felt trapped, like she had to stay with him, then. He was pushing for her to marry him and my mom and I were begging her not to. She was hard-headed back then, and I think she was feeling so badly about getting pregnant and having to drop out of high school that part of her self-induced punishment was staying with Mitch. She was also getting fifty different kinds of hell from my father over it which didn’t help at all. I guess we’re lucky it only pushed her out of the house and she didn’t actually marry him. She stayed with him for five years. I don’t know how she managed that. I was so happy when she called me and said that she’d left him finally about six years ago…right about the time Victor started school. She got a job and her own place and Mitch left her alone for the first couple of years. I’m not sure what he was doing during that time…maybe he was in prison or something and couldn’t bother her. Anyways, he found her and he slowly started coming back around. She’s had to change her phone number three times, she can’t have a Facebook page and she even had to pick Victor up and move him and make him change schools…The bastard doesn’t even care what he’s doing to his own son. Now he’s saying that he wants joint custody. Screw that bullshit!”
“Is he abusive?” I asked.
“My sister wouldn’t tell me if he was. I’ve never seen her hurt or beat up…lucky for him. She knows that if I find out that he ever laid a hand on her I’d probably wind up in jail. She protects me by not telling me exactly what she’s going through sometimes. If he hurt her…I wouldn’t be able to control myself.”
“What about to Victor? Do you think he abuses him?”
“No…not physically. My sister would have killed him herself in his sleep for that. Victor is her world and she’ll do anything to protect him. Mitch has this mean streak that Victor shouldn’t have to put up with. He should never have to see it as far as I’m concerned. Victor’s a good, quiet kid. Being around someone like that, especially if that someone is your father, it can ruin a kid. I know that for a fact. Being raised by an angry man only makes an angry kid and later on an angry adult. He was a horrible boyfriend and he would be a worse father. Marie, my sister and I have experience in that department.”
“Your sister and nephew are lucky to have you,” I told him. I was more impressed by his love and affection for his family than I had been at his skills in the cage the night before. “It’s nice that you want to protect them so badly.”
He shrugged. “That’s what you do for family,” he said simply as if it were a fact for everyone. “You’re supposed to look out for each other, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “I’d love to meet your sister.” It wasn’t really a request, just a statement.
He pulled his eyebrows together in the middle and said, “That’s probably not such a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t want her to know I’ve told you all her business,” he said. “She doesn’t like that and she’ll feel like she can’t trust me. I need her to trust me so that I can keep her safe.”
He stopped walking completely. We were a ways inside the park and standing alongside the bank of the little man-made lake that ran through it. Paul was breathing hard and sweating. I thought some of it was from the rage he was still feeling, but I was sweating and panting myself. He looked at the lake and then back at me.
“How about a swim?” he said with a grin.
“That actually sounds really good,” I told him. We both gleefully ignored the “No swimming” signs posted pretty much everywhere.
He didn’t wait for more conversation about it. He pulled off his shirt and without even bending down he kicked off his shoes and socks and dove in. I didn’t have the luxury of pulling off my shirt; although he’d already seen me in my bra and panties I didn’t think it would be too appropriate in the park. With my luck, the rangers would’ve come along and caught us in the lake and I’d have gotten hauled to jail in my underwear.
I took off my socks and shoes and dove in behind him in my shorts and T-shirt that I’d worn to work. Paul was already swimming across to the other side. When he got there he turned on his back and spread his arms open wide and floated on the surface of the lake. The water was cool and it felt amazing as I dove under and then came back up to the surface. I did that a few times and the third time my head popped up right next to him. He looked at me strangely and then to my surprise he reached over and gently moved the long hair that was hanging down across my face back with his fingers and tucked it behind my ear. That caused me to shiver. Then further shocking me he leaned in and brushed his lips softly against mine, almost tentatively like he was waiting for me to object. When I didn’t, he kissed me for real, taking hold of my shoulders and pulling me closer so he could cover my mouth with his. He parted my lips with his tongue and deepened the kiss, and then just like that, he pulled away. He looked into my eyes for just a few seconds and then without saying a word he dove back under the water and swam away. I sat there treading water with my head spinning and every nerve ending in my body on fire. He was just swimming around again, acting like nothing had happened. What the hell? Maybe all of those emotions surging through his body had found their way to the surface and boiled over into a passionate kiss?
CHAPTER SIX
When we finally climbed out of the lake Paul said, “I feel better…or at least less like killing someone, thanks.”
“Anytime,” I told him. “But getting your last clean work outfit sweaty and then smelling like the dirty old lake is probably not too smart when your washing machine is still broken.”
“I have a washer that works,” he said.
“Thanks. Your bragging makes me feel better.”
He laughed. “I meant you can come wash your clothes at my house,” he said.
I was embarrassed again. I really thought he’d been teasing me. “Oh, well then, thanks for real,” I said. “I keep trying to make it to my mother’s house to wash a load or two…but she’ll turn it into a whole big visit and I’ll never get out of there. I just haven’t had that kind of time.”
“I promise not to turn it into a whole big visit,” he said with a smile as we jogged back to the gym.
“Why don’t you just leave your car here since you live so close and I’ll drive you back later?”
“Okay.” I locked up my car and got into his pickup with him. The police were still there and I saw Greg and Yolanda’s cars there too. It was going to be a long week for them. I intended to do everything I could to help them clean up as soon as the police released the building.
We were both lost in thought on our way to his apartment. I was thinking about first the gym and now the kiss. It was so funny to me how he kissed me like that out of the blue and then went on to act like nothing happened. He was a strange one, that’s for sure.
When we got into his apartment he left me in the living room and went into his room. A few
minutes later he came back with a big, long T-shirt and handed it to me. “I don’t think I have any underwear that’ll fit you.” I was sure that he was kidding, but he’d said it so seriously that I hesitated for a second. He grinned then and I laughed.
“I think the T-shirt will work,” I told him. “I’ll do my best to sit like a lady.”
“Don’t stress about that on my account,” he said with another grin. My poor stomach was doing somersaults. He went into his room to change while I went into the bathroom and got out of the wet, dirty clothes and into his shirt. While I was in there I tried to repair my hair a little bit and wipe the mascara from underneath my eyes. I came out in the T-shirt that came down to my knees feeling a little strange about Paul knowing that I wasn’t wearing anything underneath.
“The washer is in that big closet in the kitchen,” he said. He was sitting on the couch in dry clothes playing his nephew’s video game. Or maybe it was his game and he just let Victor play it. Either way he looked damned good doing it.
“Where is your nephew today?” I asked him.
“He’s at school,” he said.
“Oh, I forget what day it is sometimes since I usually work seven days a week.” I went in and opened the accordion doors in the kitchen where I found the washer and dryer. I put my clothes in and started it and then went back out to the living room. Paul had set two cold bottles of water on the coffee table in front of him. “Is one of these for me?” I asked him.
“Yep,” he said as he pushed a button and had the man he was controlling throw a punch that landed in the center of the other guy’s face.
“Thanks.” I took a long swig and said, “Where’s your sister?”
“Job hunting,” he said.
“Oh.” He played his game for a while and I watched and then suddenly, without knowing what came over me, I said, “Why did you kiss me earlier?” He stopped pressing buttons and his poor character on the game was suddenly getting beat down.
He finally said, “It was just an impulse, I guess.”
