emotion. This was good, she told herself. Better than good. Cruz had shown her a side of him she hadn’t known existed. There was a person inside-someone she could like. Maybe someone she could more than like.
“GET YOUR LEG higher,” Dana yelled. “He broke your heart. Worse-he said your new pair of pick-a-designer pair of shoes was stupid.”
Lexi straightened and rubbed her nose with the back of her boxing gloves. “Pick your designer? That’s the best you can do? Come on, Dana. Everyone knows Manolo. Even you.”
“I feel stupid saying it,” Dana said, not even sweating. “I work out here. People know me.”
“They also know you’re a girl,” Skye muttered between deep breaths. “No one will think less of you.”
“You don’t actually know that,” Dana muttered.
“I’m confident. If you want to motivate us, you have to use the right language.”
Dana pointed at the punching bags in front of Lexi and Skye. “Fine. The bastard just backed the car over your latest pair of Manolos. Is that better?”
Lexi pictured a poor, broken, defenseless shoe lying in the driveway while a smug, self-righteous non-Cruz type guy drove away. She kicked hard and high, then jabbed right, left, right, making the bag swing.
Dana put her hands on her hips. “Okay. Point taken. Will fight for shoes.”
Lexi laughed. Skye scrunched up her face and made the same moves. When she was finished, she and Lexi did a high-five-as much as their boxing gloves would allow.
“Who’s the man?” Skye said, causing both Lexi and Dana to stare at her. “You know what I mean,” she added.
Dana shook her head. “The point is, you’re stronger than you realize and boxing is an excellent calorie burn.”
Lexi appreciated the info, but seriously, this was so not what they were going to do with their spare time. “You realize this is never happening again until you force us,” she said, already tugging at her gloves.
“Maybe not for you,” Dana said, “but the rest of us need less interesting ways to burn our calories. We’re not all sleeping with Cruz.”
“I’m certainly not,” Skye said with a sigh. “I’m not sleeping with anyone.” She looked at Dana. “What happened to Martin? Aren’t you still seeing him?”
“Something tells me he’s not much of a workout,” Lexi said with a grin.
Dana glared at her. “Martin is perfectly adequate in bed.”
“Ooh, words to make his heart beat faster,” Lexi teased.
“I know that’s an endorsement I’ve been waiting for,” Skye added. “Perfectly adequate in bed. They should make that into a T-shirt.”
The sisters did a high five again.
“I’m ignoring both of you,” Dana said.
Skye pulled off her right glove. “So here’s the question. Why won’t you go for someone who interests you? Someone fun and cool? Someone who’s challenging?”
“My work challenges me,” Dana told her. “I want my men uncomplicated.”
“But you get bored.”
“I do not.”
Lexi pulled off her gloves. “Dana, be serious. You’re already yawning over Martin. He’s exactly like everyone else you’ve dated. Try someone different.”
“You two better back off. I’m good with weapons.”
“I just want you to be happy,” Lexi said, wondering what secrets existed in her friend’s heart that made her want to find more guys like Martin and less guys who really turned her on. Of course they all had secrets. Wasn’t that the real motivation behind every confusing action?
“I want you to find passion,” Skye said. “The kind of passion that makes it impossible to sleep, that makes your skin tingle and your hoo-hah quiver.”
Dana glared at her. “First of all, no one under the age of eighty says hoo-hah. Second, it’s not like Ray lit you up, Skye. He was your daddy’s choice, not yours.”
Lexi instinctively moved closer to protect Skye, but she was too late. Dana was already there, touching her shoulder and looking horrified.
“I’m sorry,” Dana whispered. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I lashed out. You guys were playing the sister card and that always makes me feel left out. I’m sorry. Ray was a great guy and you loved him.”
“I did love him,” Skye said slowly. “More than you know.” She paused to gather herself, then tossed her gloves into the box in the corner of the gym. “It’s fine. We won’t tease you about Martin anymore. It’s not our business.”
There was a moment of awkwardness. Lexi felt torn, wanting to protect Skye, but still caring about Dana. She didn’t ask any more questions, suddenly afraid that in her moment of contrition, Dana would say more than she wanted. That she might confess something that none of them wanted to hear.
Secrets, she thought again. They all had them.
Dana drew in a breath. “So,” she said brightly. “You and Cruz were seen in town this weekend.”
“We, ah, went to breakfast at the Calico Cafe,” Lexi said. “Then I took him to Venus Envy where he got a massage.”
“The happy-ending kind?” Skye joked.
Both Lexi and Dana stared at her. “How do you know about that?” Lexi asked.
“I hear things,” Skye told her primly.
“Apparently,” Lexi said. “And no, not that kind. We don’t do that at my spa.”
“I thought you might make an exception for your fiance.”
“I have to work there.”
They walked to the locker room.
“What else did you two do over the weekend?” Dana asked. “Or don’t I want to know?”
“We went to Louisiana,” Lexi said, then told them about how they’d gone to watch Justin race. “It was so cool. He’s just a kid with big dreams, living in this small town. It would be a long, hard road if it wasn’t for Cruz swooping in and handing over his business card. He changed this kid’s life forever. It was a great moment.”
“He’s searching for new talent?” Skye asked.
“Uh-huh. Apparently he does this a lot. He says he would rather build a team than buy one, which is also pretty cool. Changing someone’s future like that must be the best feeling in the world. I can give someone a job, but it’s nothing like what he does.”
Dana and Skye exchanged a look. Lexi took a step back.
“What?” she demanded.
“You’re glowing,” Skye told her. “Seriously, we could practically read by the light you’re giving off. It happens every time you talk about Cruz.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Lexi said. Why would she glow about Cruz? Yes, she’d been impressed with him yesterday, but that didn’t change anything.
“It kind of does,” Dana said, looking meaningfully at her, as if reminding her that she and Cruz didn’t have a real love affair. They were business partners in an unusual deal.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Skye said. “You’re marrying him. He’s supposed to make you glow. I think it’s wonderful.” She pointed at Dana. “Martin doesn’t make you glow. You might want to think about that.”
“Have I mentioned how annoying you are?” Dana asked.
Skye laughed. “Once or twice.”
They kept talking, but Lexi wasn’t listening. She was thinking about what they’d said about Cruz. Glowing? She couldn’t. He wasn’t the one. He couldn’t be. They were both moving on. She was fine. More than fine. She was safe with her heart firmly out of reach, no matter what.
LEXI ARRIVED HOME shortly after five in the afternoon and walked in through the garage to the kitchen. As she headed for the stairs, she heard the sound of voices.
Cruz had a housekeeper who came through a couple of times a week. She and her staff took care of cleaning, the laundry and stocking the kitchen with basics. But they were always gone by three or four. Had one of them left on the TV?
She walked into the hallway, then followed the sound to the media room. The massive flat screen was on and a
