He knew that Evan would have shaken his head at the way Colin had answered her questions, but aside from Colin’s desire to be honest, what Evan didn’t understand was that trying to hide the truth about his past was futile, even if he wanted to keep it hidden. People were both curious and cautious, and he knew that a quick Internet search using his name would yield a handful of newspaper articles about him, none of them good. And if he hadn’t laid it out there from the beginning? Either Maria or Serena may have Googled him the same way Victoria had.
He’d met Victoria at the gym a couple of years ago, and after chatting off and on for a few months, they’d fallen into occasionally working out together. He’d thought they were getting along well and considered her a good training partner until she’d suddenly begun to avoid him. She’d stopped returning his texts or calls and started working out in the mornings instead of the evenings. When he was finally able to talk to her about it, she’d revealed what she’d learned about him and insisted that he stop trying to contact her. She hadn’t been interested in excuses and Colin hadn’t offered any, but he did wonder why she’d conducted her Internet research in the first place. It wasn’t as though they’d been dating; he wasn’t sure they’d even reached the friendship stage yet. A month later, she’d stopped coming to the gym at all, and that was the last he’d seen of her.
She hadn’t been the only one who’d shied away after learning the truth about Colin, and while Evan might joke that Colin immediately volunteered his full history to anyone who asked, it wasn’t like that. It generally wasn’t anyone else’s business, and he kept it that way, unless someone was – or might become – part of his life somehow. Though it was way too early to tell whether Maria fell into that category, Serena was a classmate, and if she’d talked to him once, she just might talk to him again. He admitted that there was something about Maria that interested him, however. Part of it was the way she looked, of course – she was a more mature, more striking version of Serena, with the same dark hair and eyes – but at the bar, he’d noted her lack of vanity. Though she’d drawn stares from any number of men on the rooftop, she hadn’t been aware of it, which was extremely rare. But his initial impressions ran deeper than that. Unlike Serena – who was bubbly and chatty and not really his type – Maria was quieter, more contemplative, and obviously intelligent.
And now? He observed Maria as she tried to figure out whether she wanted to stay or go, continue the conversation or say good-bye. He said nothing, giving her room to make her own decision. Instead, he concentrated on the feel of the breeze and the sound of the waves. Staring down the pier, he noticed that most of the people who’d been fishing had cleared out; those who still remained were packing up their gear or cleaning their catch.
Maria leaned a little farther over the railing. The darkening sky cast her face in shadow, making her appear mysterious, unknowable. He watched as she drew a long breath.
“What other things?” she finally asked. Colin smiled inwardly.
“As much as I enjoy working out, there are times when I’m just not in the mood. But knowing that I have a match coming up, and knowing I have to train for it, gets me off the couch and into the gym.”
“Every day?”
He nodded. “Usually two or three different sessions. It takes a lot of time.”
“What do you do?”
“Almost anything,” he said with a shrug. “A big chunk of my training is centered around striking and grappling, but after that, I try to mix it up as much as I can. I do Olympic and heavy lifting, but I’ll also do spin classes, yoga, kayaking, circuit work, running, rope climbs, stairs, plyometrics, body-weight exercises, whatever. As long as I can break a sweat, I’m happy.”
“You do yoga?”
“It’s not only good for flexibility and balance, but it’s great for me mentally. It’s like meditating.” He nodded at the water, burnished red-gold in the last rays of the sun. “Kind of like being out here after a shift.”
She squinted at him. “You don’t look like a guy who does yoga. Guys who do yoga are…”
He finished for her. “Skinny? Bearded? Into things like incense and beads?”