Page 15

Chapter 15

Territorial

Isaiah

A t exactly 1:56 p.m., I pull open the door to Personal Best Training and my already anxious heart explodes into a cold sweat. Approximately two million questions have been swirling around since I saw Dell and Robyn together at the club a couple nights ago. Questions I desperately want answers to, but am petrified to ask.

I’m scared to know the answers, too.

“Hey Zay,” Dell grins while finishing a few pull-ups and dropping to the ground. But when he saunters over to me, his smile fades and he crosses his arms over his chest. “Do you have somewhere to be after our session today?”

“Um, no. Today’s my day off.”

“Okay,” he nods and takes a deep breath. “I think we should talk about Robyn before we get started.”

The cold sweat intensifies. “I agree.”

We take a seat across from each other on parallel weight benches, and I watch his hands rub against his thick khaki-clad thighs and squeeze his knees.

Before he can say anything, I beat him to the punch. “Are you dating her?”

With a forlorn look he shakes his head, “No. I don’t date my clients.”

“She’s your client?”

He curses under his breath and sighs, “Yeah.”

“What’s wrong with her? What did she injure? I didn’t know she was injured,” I say, failing to keep my composure.

“Whoa, back up. She’s not injured like you. I’ve been her personal trainer for years.”

Waves of relief wash over me, but there’s a stinging poke in my chest at the same time. Am I relieved to know they’re not together or relieved Dell is single? Goddammit. One question answered and five more pop up. “Then what was going on Saturday night?”

He leans over and braces his elbows on his knees before looking at me. “How much did you see?”

“Everything,” I say through clenched teeth.

“Everything at ChaCha’s?”

Suddenly I’m cursing myself for being so naive to not realize there might have been more before or after that. “Was there more?”

He swallows. “We went to dinner before that, and I drove her home after the club, but nothing happened, Zay. Nothing was ever going to happen because I was just helping her out like a wingman.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to say too much, but,” he pauses. “She’s not exactly confident in dating. And, as her friend, I offered to help her.”

Relief and confusion battle it out while I try to piece together my next question. “What are you talking about? Next to my older sister, Robyn is the most confident person I’ve ever met.”

“‘Fraid not,” he shakes his head slowly— knowingly —and it makes my blood boil that Dell knows this about her and I do not.

“Are you gonna see her again? Outside of work, that is.”

Dell’s line of sight trails to some unfocused location on the floor between us, and he strokes his full lips with the tip of his thumb. He’s taking entirely too long to answer my simple question, but he finally looks back up at me. “There’s nothing wrong with two friends hanging out. ”

“Friends don’t grind on each other the way you two were,” I say firmly.

“I was showing her how to dance on a date.”

“Her dancing is perfect the way it is.”

“You two,” he mutters, shaking his head. “Fine,” he says resolutely. “I won’t dance with her anymore. I assume you’re acting like this because you like her?”

Understatement, I think to myself. “She’s mine,” I say instead.

“Yeah,” he says, dejection etched all over his handsome face.

Dell isn’t the first man I’ve chased out of Robyn’s life. He’s well on his way to becoming the seventh, though. But something deep inside tells me I cannot cut him out. Not from her life and not from mine.

“Then can I ask…why aren’t you with her now?”

“It’s not time.”

His thick eyebrows furrow. “What does that mean?”

I can’t tell him. I can’t admit the truth because all that will do is expose my cowardice and insecurity. It’s better to keep it locked away.

“I just need to have my ducks in a row first.”

“Oh god,” he mutters. “You’re one of those people. I should have known. What’s wrong with diving face-first into a depth unknown, huh?”

“That sounds horrific.”

“That sounds exhilarating!”

“That sounds like trouble.”

“Live a little, Zay. You’re a goddamn rugger; you play one of the most blood-thirsty sports, and you can’t live on the edge a little bit?”

I don’t tell him Robyn is anything but a lighthearted decision. She deserves the world on a silver platter, and I’m going to do everything in my power to give her that.

“Rugby is calculated,” I correct. “I don’t need to seek out any more adrenaline outside of it.”

For a long moment we’re silent. Dell’s expression softens and he tilts his head. “Have you been thinking about what life looks like after retirement?”

I nod. “Been thinking about it a lot lately.”

“How does it feel?”

“Unnatural,” I reply with a despondent tone.

Just then my phone vibrates. I pull it out to give a cursory glance, but all of my attention zeros in on the email.

“Are you gonna miss it?” Dell asks. “Rugby?”

“No,” I say, unable to tear my eyes from my phone. “Because I’m the new head coach for the USA Valor.”