Page 20

Chapter 20

APRIL

T hat morning, I completed a nine-mile run like it was a breeze. My swimming felt less like a struggle with each stroke and more like a glide. Cycling had always been my favorite, but now I felt powerful behind my pedals. Not only was I confident about the upcoming Ironman, I was excited about it.

I used to see the race as a giant in the distance. An impossible, immovable foe. Not anymore. I felt stronger than ever. Gabriel Torres had lived up to the hype. No doubt. He was coach of the year in my mind.

So why was I staring at my phone, expecting more from him?

It had only been three days since our kiss, but he’d been especially quiet. At the very minimum, he’d always text to ask how the workouts felt, but even that stopped after the kiss.

I should have been happy to have a coach who wanted to remain professional. Instead, all I could think about was how his hands gripped my wrists. The heat of his body pressed against mine. The way it felt to be tasted by him .

“Why don’t you put the phone down,” Billie said, startling me enough that my phone nearly went hurtling toward the floor.

“Could you not sneak up on me?”

“I don’t sneak. There was no sneaking. I’ve been standing here for the past minute, watching you stare at your phone like it’s going off to war.”

I scoffed and tossed it on the counter.

“Who is it?” she asked, hands on hips.

“What? Nobody?”

She narrowed her eyes at me.

I sighed, then looked over her shoulder to make sure no one would overhear, but Trevor was with the only customers we had in the shop. “It’s just . . . I—” There was a finished bike on my stand, ready to go home to its owner, but I spun the tire and pretended to be interested in how the chain looked. “I kissed Gabe,” I muttered.

“You kissed Gabe?” Billie said, in a voice that could have warned all of China that the Huns were coming.

“Shhhh!”

“April Baird,” she opened her arms for a hug. “The girl finally becomes a woman.”

I swatted her arms away, which made her laugh. “You act like I’m a virgin,” I said, then my eyes widened—worried a customer had overheard. Luckily, they were too busy jogging around the shop in a prospective pair of shoes. Trevor, on the other hand, made a face and then gagged dramatically.

I rolled my eyes but pulled Billie closer to the counter so we could talk without scarring my cousin for life, a smart move because, in true Bille fashion, she took the conversation to another level of inappropriate.

“Yeah, but I bet with Gabe it will be like the first time all over again. I mean, look at the size of him, and then look at you.” My cheeks grew feverishly hot, but she kept going. “Logistically, I’m not even sure how you two would work.”

I put a hand on her shoulder to stop the onslaught of her words and the image she’d projected in my mind: lying under Gabe, his weight pressing down on me.

“That’s not happening,” I said both to her and myself. “Because the kiss was a mistake.” Chocolate chip cookies were a mistake, too, though , I thought. The baker had wanted the chocolate to melt. Instead, she accidentally invented the world’s favorite sweet treat—the second most delicious error known to man after kissing my coach.

“Why? Is he a bad kisser?”

A dark chuckle escaped because I only wished he’d been a bad kisser. If he’d used too much tongue, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time accepting his wish to keep things professional. “If only.”

“Then, is it you saying the kiss was a mistake or him ?”

“Why does it matter? I thought you didn’t want me to get with him anyway.”

“No, no, no. Do not twist my words. I wanted you to be careful, not abstinent. Big difference.” She ducked her head to catch my gaze. “So, what’s going on?”

I shrugged. “He said we should keep things professional.” Billie rolled her eyes, but I kept going. “And he’s right. I finally feel ready for an Ironman. Do I want to make things complicated with my coach? And it’s worse for him. This is his livelihood. What if his company finds out?”

“That two consenting adults had sex?” She wore a mock-scandalized face. “Oh, no!”

My lips went to a flat line. “It’s more complex than that, and you know it.”

“Okay, so again, be careful: have sex, keep your feelings out of it, and don’t advertise it to the world. Simple.”

“Yes. Simple because we won’t be having sex.”

She opened her mouth, but Trevor’s exclamation stopped her. “Holy shit!” He gaped at his phone for a moment before cutting a glance at the customer. “Sorry.” Then he looked right at me. “I got an interview with Exposure .”

“No way!” My mind reeled. Working for this company was Trevor’s version of making the Olympics. “Trevor! That’s crazy!”

“It is crazy.” He looked like he stood in the center of three concentric circles of excitement, disbelief, and panic. “But it might not mean anything.” And there he was, trying to get ahead before his hopes could get up. “It’s just an interview.”

“No, don’t do that,” I said. “This is huge! The fact that you even got an interview—” I had to stop, my throat clogged with emotion. When we were kids, he always had an Exposure magazine with him. To this day, he kept the latest issue on his coffee table. The photography in it is the reason he asked his mom to buy him a camera for his seventh birthday. “I am so proud of you!” I crossed the shop and pulled him in for a hug, not able to keep from getting his T-shirt damp.

“Are you crying?” he asked, rearing back to look at me.

“No,” I lied, sniffling.

He put me at arm’s length. “Wait to get your snot on me until after I’ve gotten the job , ” he said playfully.

But I knew. I already knew. How could they not hire Trevor? When he took pictures of people or animals, he always managed to capture a part of their soul. The job was his.

“When’s the interview?” Billie asked .

“On Monday.” Trevor frowned. “And it’s in person.” He looked at me. “It’s going to be tight—with the road trip. I’ll have to turn around for a flight to San Francisco early the next morning.”

The only reason I hadn’t been worried about the trip to Waco was because I knew Trevor would be a buffer between Gabe and myself. Without him, I couldn’t imagine how awkward the drive would be, not to mention staying in a hotel room alone with Gabe.

But there was no way I would let anything stand in Trevor’s way.

“No. Call one of your photographer friends to take pictures at the Waco race.” My tone left no room for argument. “You need to be well rested and at your best Monday. You’re getting that job at Exposure , Trev.”