“Nasty?” She took a few steps toward the desk. It was ridiculous how glad she was to see an entire pack of matching pens. Then she paused again. They were purple.
Alex gave her a toothy grin, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve done some traveling. What one individual or group might think is a good thing can be received as downright evil by another. It can result in some…unpleasant reactions.”
“Ah.” She considered him for a minute. Both he and Brandon were very fit. Yesterday, she’d accepted it as part of running kennels and training dogs. It was a fairly active profession, requiring them to be on their feet most of the day. Plus, Alex trained at Revolution Mixed Martial Arts Academy. There’d already been fighters getting in their early morning training when she’d left, and they had some impressive conditioning as far as she could tell. But it occurred to her that maybe Alex and Brandon were in excellent condition for other reasons.
Former police, maybe. Or ex-military. Maybe even reserves. They were in shape enough to still be involved in something requiring a uniform. Her mind did her the favor of conjuring up mental images of Alex in a succession of uniforms. Yum.
“Oh.” Alex rolled his shoulders in what seemed like a self-conscious move. “What do you think of the shirt?”
Whoops. She must’ve been staring while her mind wandered. Damn. He was going to think she was weird. “It’s nice. I hadn’t realized there was a…uniform.”
Must delete mental images.
Or at least tuck them away for some other time.
“There isn’t. Yet,” Alex responded with wry grin. “Sophie brought a few of these over this morning. It’s one of her ideas to make us look more businesslike or something.”
“Whoever Sophie is, she has a good point.” Elisa bit her lip. Might have been better to keep her opinion to herself.
“You think?” Alex didn’t seem irritated. The opposite, actually. “It’s not as comfortable as polo shirts, but I guess I could work in it. Sophie says these are washable and stain resistant. She keeps our books for us and ambushes us with new ideas for the business.”
The button-up and collar put a polish on Alex, taking him a step away from muscular and ruggedly attractive to downright handsome. The light fabric contrasted with his darker skin tone, providing an accent against the bronze of his arms. The cut of the shirt and short sleeves complemented his broad shoulders and muscular arms. Close-fitting Tshirts suited him, too, based on what she’d seen yesterday and the other night at the ER, but she liked this look in a safer, sort of easygoing way. Tees were more casual but made him look ready for action. This look made him look ready to settle in for a day of work.
“It’s more professional.” She struggled to sum up what she thought without coming across as creepy. No need to let him know how much she wanted to see what he looked like in a suit now. “And uniform shirts make it easy to immediately differentiate the trainer from the rest of the class.”
He jerked his head in a quick affirmative. “See, I can get behind a practical reason like that. Just wearing a uniform for a uniform’s sake didn’t make sense to me.”
Pleased by his compliment—being considered practical was a good thing in her mind—she reached for something else to say to fill the conversational lull. “Just before we left, Greg asked me to remind you it’s your turn for parents’ night.”
Alex scowled and dragged his hand through his hair.
“Not a good thing, I take it?” She really didn’t like to be the bearer of bad news.
“No, no.” Alex waved away her concern. “All of the instructors and some of the regulars take turns to supervise. I just lost track so it snuck up on me. Besides, Boom loves it when I’m in charge of parents’ night at Revolution.”
“You’ve been doing a lot of favors on my behalf,” she said slowly. “Could I help, then?”
See? She could find a way to repay every one of them for the favors. Not just because they were kind but because she didn’t want to owe anyone anything.
She’d learned the hard way how things could add up and trap a person when they least expected it.
Alex was studying her. “Let’s get you settled in to work for the day and we’ll talk next steps this afternoon. I’ll try to think of a couple of extra things we’ve been meaning to do around here but haven’t had the chance to get to. If you could do a few of those, we could call it even.”
No anger, not even the stillness she was starting to associate with him controlling his temper. He’d taken what she’d said into consideration. The novelty of it triggered a slow swell of happiness in her chest, and she breathed in deeply, then smiled. “Okay, but I still want to know more about this night at Revolution MMA.”
*