6. Slutty shoulders make the girls go crazy

SIX

The bell on the door jingled as people trickled into the gym. I hated this class and loved it at the same time. If Evan wasn't teaching it you wouldn't catch me in a place filled with so many people I didn't like. But he was my friend, and I promised to support his new gym. And there was the fact that I wasn't in the position to push a friend away. I was severely lacking in the friend department these days. Or maybe it just felt like it with the massive hole Parker left in my life.

Aside from being the sheriff's deputy, Evan loved fitness. We had that in common. I loved pushing myself to my breaking point, and by the end of the class I was tired enough that my thoughts gave up their constant nagging. Evan kicked my ass and I appreciated that he didn't go easy on me.

The beginning of class started like it always did. We stretched on our own, and I listened to the women giggle and talk about how well endowed they thought Evan was based on what they could see of his body.

"I know, but did you see him after class yesterday? He took his shirt off and rang it out."

It was a 7 a.m. class so some of the high school girls were able to attend with their mothers. I smiled to myself because while I didn't see Evan like that, they weren't wrong. He prided himself on his body and enjoyed when it drew female attention. I remembered when he would pick his nose in elementary school though, so I was not his target audience.

"Morning Del." His voice boomed from the front of the room as he bent over and touched his toes.

"I don't understand why he fawns over her." Betty, a girl we went to high school with, didn"t bother whispering her dislike of me.

"Morning!" I yelled back. My arms stretched over my head as I spoke in a lower tone. "Maybe it's because I don't act like a desperate bitch around him." My saccharine smile was much too satisfied. "But I'm also not married to some douchebag I leech money from, so it could be that." The lack of sleep I'd been getting lately was making me extra testy.

Betty didn't say anything in response, only glared and went back to ignoring me.

Evan walked over and stood in front of me. His blond waves were long on top and cropped on the sides. His eyes were the kind of bright blue that other people tried to accomplish with photoshop and filters. Mine were gray in comparison. He was long and lean with defined muscle on every part of his body.

"Great form, Del. Could you move to the front today?" I rolled my eyes at his flattery. He loved to try and get a rise out of me. "You know what we're doing, and I think it might help the younger girls to be able to see you while I move around the room."

"Please don"t make me do that." My voice was a hushed plea. "You know these bitches hate me."

Evan just laughed. "They're jealous of your banging bod. Ignore them."

"Don"t ever say that to me again. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little." I faked a gag. "You know, they might hate me less if you"d quit pretending to flirt with me in front of everyone ."

He winked. "But you and I know that"s what it is babe. Pretend. I"d never do P like that. Talking to you is treason enough."

I rolled my eyes. "I"m so not interested, but if I need to ‘do you' to prove that I"m not his property…" I looked him up and down with a fake grimace. "I"ll make that sacrifice."

"Tempting." He perused my body like I did his. "But I"d like to keep my head on my shoulders. Now to the front you go!" The meathead had the audacity to smack my ass. I turned around with a glare. That was not going to help my lack of friends situation.

I begrudgingly moved my things to the front, feeling multiple sets of eyes on me, and hearing half-assed whispers.

"Do you think they're fucking?"

"No, I think Evan knows what she's like. Not even Parker felt bad enough for her to do that."

Ouch. That one hurt a little. I could ruin her day by telling her exactly how wrong she was, but I wasn"t going to put our business out in the open like that.

Evan took his place on the raised stage in front of the wall of mirrors. "Well everybody, it"s your lucky day. We have a special guest joining our class." He met my gaze, and for a split second I think I saw guilt flash over his expression. "You may know him from dominating major league baseball the last two seasons, but at heart he"s just a small town boy like me." He made eye contact with me and winced.

My heart dropped. There was no one else he could have been talking about. No one else had left this town and made something of themselves on the scale he had.

"You"re dead," I mouthed to Evan, miming that I was going to slit his throat. The door chimed and in walked the man I'd been avoiding for over a year.

All the social media stalking in the world did nothing to prepare me for the real thing. The last 15 months had turned Parker into a man. He"d always been my kryptonite, but this was something else entirely. His usually unruly dark curls were trapped under a backwards black ball cap, and his hazel eyes were harder somehow, more shadowed than before. The boyish glint that used to be there was gone. He was all sharp edges, from his chiseled jaw to his stone-like legs. He pulled his chocolate brown crew neck off, momentarily exposing his abs when his t-shirt almost came off with it

My hatred for him faltered when he threw the discarded clothing on the cushioned floor next to him. It was a shock to my system when his eyes met mine, but he didn"t look surprised at all. Instead, his expression was filled with determination and a side of loathing.

I needed to get out of here right now.

Evan refused to look my way when he addressed the everyone again. "Parker will be joining our class and doing some personal training sessions now that he"s back and I"ve been promoted to deputy." He smirked, proud of himself. "I know you'll all be more than happy to welcome Mr. James to our class, and you'll extend him the same respect you show me."

I couldn"t roll my eyes harder if I tried, but Parker wasn"t listening to Evan. His focus was locked on me, and I felt too on display in my hot pink sports bra and leggings. The urge to make myself smaller and shrink down crept up the back of my legs, but I pushed the feeling of insecurity down. I knew I looked good, and I could see the proof reflected in Parker"s gaze. His eyes were full of appreciation, but I could tell he didn"t want to have this reaction to my appearance. I didn"t notice Evan had stopped talking. As the room fell quiet, the trance we were stuck in broke.

Parker moved into the empty space on my left and set his water bottle down beside mine.

"Been a long time, Peach." The smug bastard had the nerve to circle my wrist with his fingertips and pull me into a hug. His free hand snaked dangerously low on my back and pressed my body to his. He planted a quick peck to the side of my neck.

I was completely caught off guard. How did he get off thinking he could show up out of nowhere and do that? In front of all these people. His touch had once felt like a warm blanket of comfort, but being so close to him now made my insides churn.

My whisper was harsh. "Don't touch me."

"Ah, guess you still have that little boyfriend?" His face scrunched in disgust for a second like the thought of me with someone else made his stomach roll. Then it evened out into the delicious trademark grin that was plastered all over social media. It was the one that made deep dimples appear on each side of his mouth. Parker leaned in to whisper in my ear. "I'm not worried about it." He released his hold on me, and I stepped back as far as I could.

I couldn't let myself think about how his touch made every nerve ending in my body light up.

I was too focused on the lingering warmth of him on my skin to process what he said. "Wait what are you talking—" My words were cut off by Evan clapping his hands.

"Okay, let's get started!"

Music blasted from the speakers, but I couldn't shift my eyes away from Parker as he lifted his arms over his head and stretched. His muscles pulled taut and I was mesmerized by the beautiful linework and shadows that decorated his left arm. Ink covered the expanse of his biceps and crept under his shirt to where I knew from seeing pictures that it continued over his chest. It shouldn't have affected me so much to see my rule-following, valedictorian, clean-cut best friend looking like such a rugged bad boy, but I couldn't deny it made my stomach flutter just a little. The jury was out on whether it was butterflies or puke.

"High knees," Evan snapped, and I tore my gaze from a self-satisfied Parker who caught me checking him out.

I quickly followed direction, moving in time to the beat. Evan had curated the songs so our workout was part Zumba, and the exercises seamlessly blended together. I could do the routine in my sleep at this point after how many times he made me practice before integrating it into class.

We were down in a plank when I felt Parker's gaze on me again.

"What?" I snapped.

"You look good, Del." His words were low so only I could hear. He was trying to rile me up, but I refused to let him.

"Can't say the same." I focused on the black mat beneath me. It wasn't true and I knew it.

"Liar. You've checked me out multiple times."

"Just seeing how much you've let yourself go," I tossed over my shoulder. "Do they have you training weights at all in Seattle?" I had to choke the words out. I didn't know what they were feeding him out west, but his body had filled out in all the right ways. I wiped the corner of my mouth to make sure there wasn't any drool.

"You little minx." He reached over and poked my side to try and make me tip over. I didn't, though. I'd been working on my core strength.

I couldn't fight my smile, so I looked away only to see Evan watching us. He was fully entertained by our interaction. I'd make him pay for this later. I lifted one hand to flip him off.

Halfway through the class we stopped for a water break. Parker was thankfully swarmed by women before he got a chance to say anything to me. I took the opportunity to confront Evan.

"You are so dead." I grabbed him by the collar of his dri-fit shirt and dragged him into his office, shutting the door behind us. "What the hell were you thinking?"

He raised his hands in front of him like he was surrendering. "He asked me if I knew where you hang out regularly, and I might have mentioned this class."

"I thought you were my friend."

"Don't put me in the middle. You guys need to work your shit out. It's past time."

There was a knock on the door, and Parker barged in without waiting for a response. "The class is ready to start again."

It wasn't directed at me. I turned to find him glaring at Evan with an emotion I'd never seen him have towards our friend, jealousy. I didn't get it. First he thought I had a boyfriend, and then he went all alpha about me being alone with Evan.

"Right." Evan stepped around me with a sympathetic smile and headed out the door.

I closed the distance between us and stabbed him in the chest with my index finger, then tried not to visibly flinch. Fuck, that hurt.

"You need to back off. I have my life, and you have yours. You don't get to come home all of a sudden and act like this. Evan is my friend too." I exited the office and left him there.

Evan waited until Parker and I were both back into position before starting the music again. The second half of class was filled with resistance training and core exercises. I was exhausted and breathing heavily by the time Evan ended the torture.

"Thank you for your hard work today. Next week we'll be introducing new exercises so please keep an open mind." He looked to me. "And have fun learning different ways to move your body. I'll see you on Wednesday."

Chatter started up immediately when he stepped down from the stage and headed to his office. I knew he had a patrol shift in 30 minutes, so he would shower and dress in his locked ensuite bathroom. I was also sure it was his way of avoiding my wrath.

I grabbed my water bottle and keys, then glanced over to where Parker was having a hushed conversation with Betty. He looked uncomfortable. Whatever, he was a big boy and could handle it just fine on his own.

Parker had his back turned when I walked by so he didn't see me approach. "I don't care what you have to say Betty. I don't want to hear it. Didn't then, and definitely not now. I've never tolerated you shit-talking her, so I have no idea why you felt comfortable saying that to me. Get a life."

That caused me to pause midstep, and the toe of my sneaker caught on the raised mat. I was headed for a face plant, but Parker reached out and caught my wrist. The press of his skin on mine was warm to the touch, and it sent a shiver up my arm.

"Careful." His gravelly murmur vibrated low.

Betty huffed and walked away.

"Uh, thanks." I pulled my hand back.

He assessed me, eyes narrowing slightly. "That was hard for you, wasn't it?" He was smug and it had me feeling slappy. "Thanking me."

I just looked at him with a blank expression and waited for him to continue.

"Okay well, I guess I'll see you later then?"

"Not if I drop the class."

"You wouldn't do that to Evan. Either way, I'll see you at Jenning's. Five like usual right?"

"Our families don't go together anymore."

"Why?"

I didn"t know what to say to that. "Things have changed."

"Let's at least pretend to get along for our family's sake. My mom lit into my ass last night because of it."

"Oh, that makes two of us who want to yell at you." I turned and walked out the door, but Parker followed me.

"You want to yell at me because…? You're the one who wouldn't hear me out and then had a boyfriend before I even had a chance to explain myself." He shook his head. "I don't know why I expected this time to be different. I get too close, you latch onto someone else."

"You have no idea what you're talking about." I grabbed the car door handle and yanked it open, but Parker closed it before I could get in. "Hey!"

"You're not walking away from me again. You need to stop running from your problems, Delilah."

I could feel my temper rising as I turned to face him. "You don't get to talk to me like that."

"What did I do?" I could see his chest muscles move under the tight cut off as he propped his hands on his hips. I was momentarily distracted, but I snapped out of it when he cleared his throat.

Parker took advantage of the opening and stepped closer. I retreated every time he moved forward until my back was against the car.

"What did I do to make you hate me this much? To make you ignore all my calls and cut ties with my family? I wanted everything with you Delilah, you're the one that was too scared to commit." Our chests were flush, and I watched his eyes flicker to every part of my face, gauging my reaction. I was always the one ready for a fight and slow to back down. For the first time, probably ever, Parker was meeting me head-on.

I gulped and shook my head. I wasn't equipped to handle this.

My voice was barely above a whisper, but it was seething. "Whatever, Parker. Feel free to act high and mighty in there with everyone else, but that shit won't fly with me." I couldn't look him in the eye. "One weekend as a star and you forgot about me like I was nothing."

"I've been trying to forget the way I feel about you for years, Delilah. It didn't work when we were kids, and it definitely didn't work after Buffalo." He tilted my chin up, but pulled away quickly when I flinched at the contact. "It seemed pretty clear that you didn't want anything to do with me when you didn't respond to any of my messages for weeks."

He had a point, but I wasn't backing down. "That weekend was a lot to process. I was going through a breakup and you decided it was the perfect time to have sex and declare your love for me."

"Don't even try to make it sound one-sided." His nostrils flared, angry at the mere suggestion that I wasn't as in it as he was.

"I didn't."

"You didn't give a shit about him anyway."

"You're missing the point. I tried to reach out to you. You didn't respond."

"I never got a message from you." I shrugged at his flimsy defense, and he bristled with fury. "You're not even going to give me the benefit of the doubt? Seriously, Del."

"I don't owe you anything. Not anymore." I pushed him away from me and opened the car door. "Any chance of us died the night I found out I was pregnant, and you didn't have the decency to call me back. I heard you loud and clear, though. Kids aren't part of your plans."

"Wait, what are you talk?—"

"Lily and I don't need you, Parker. Go back to Seattle and pretend you never came home."

I slammed my door shut and hit the locks before he had a chance to even process my words. He was still standing there stunned when I backed out of the parking space and drove away.