“IMMEDIATELY? I can’t go to his place right now.” Everly tried her best to stay composed, but she was unraveling, losing whatever mask she held up to protect her from the world. “I’m not—”
“It’s effective immediately.” I cut her off. “We do what it says or we lose the things that matter to us. That’s it. Carl knew how to handle people, Everly, and he’s handling us.”
I don’t know why that realization had me cracking the first smile since we’d lost him. It was like he was giving a solid fuck you from the grave, proving his boisterous personality stood the test of mortality. He was still getting what he wanted, even in death.
I hated him for it. But loved him for it too.
“Everly, weren’t you the one who wanted to start your management job right away?” I lifted a brow at her.
She guffawed and wiggled in her pressed black dress. Other than the funeral, I’d never seen her in a dress or professional attire. The tights and sports bras were enough to make my dick stir, but the prim and proper look shouldn’t have gotten as much of a rise out of me, especially when I was missing her father. “Are you enjoying this?”
“Carl was always a stickler about certain terms and such.”
“If you think I’m moving in and marrying you because my father is still having a hissy fit over me dating a rival team’s player, you’re mistaken.”
“Why don’t you let me drive you to my place where we can discuss it further?” I winked at Mrs. Johnson.
Everly rolled her lips between her teeth before she responded with a measured tone. “Don’t wink at her like this is some joke. This is a year of our lives.”
“What’s a year if we’re already working together in the same city? Or are you planning to go back to your hometown?”
There it was. The way she shut down and closed off when I mentioned something she didn’t want to discuss. A whole history and a whole life she wouldn’t bring up.
The first time I’d met her, she’d done the same damn thing.
“No. I’m not going back to my hometown,” she ground out. “You underestimate me. You did that once before and it didn’t work out well for you, or don’t you remember?”
Yeah, I remembered that shit all right.
CARL’S estranged daughter stood in front of me at HEAT Health and Fitness after being given a tour and meeting my brothers. Everyone had accepted her with open arms except me. She was wringing her hands because she must have realized we didn’t hire just anyone at this gym. “I know this is weird. I really will get you a resume, and you can interview me if you’d like.”
Chewing my cheek, I figured I’d ask her a few questions. “You’ve taught in a gym before?”
She nodded vigorously. “Yes, I like to teach and was taking classes in college. I—”
“Did you get a degree?” It was something all of my managers had.
“Well, no. But a bachelor’s degree isn’t going to make or break my skill set. You can get life experience as the equivalent.” She squared up with her reasoning, and then narrowed her bright-blue eyes at me. “Did you get a degree in football?”
She did know I was voted the NFL’s MVP for five consecutive years at one point during my career, right? “I’ve been playing football since I was five years old.”
“I’ve been doing yoga since I was three,” she shot back. “Are we hiring people based on a sheet of paper that says they did four years of some schoolwork?”
“If you’d interviewed, you’d know that’s not the only thing I base my hiring process on. You have experience in yoga. What else?” I countered, because now I was just fucking annoyed. She had to be ten years younger than me, and she was questioning how I hired people?
She took her time looking me up and down. “I’m great with kids’ yoga too. Don’t forget self-defense. I’m happy to teach that too. You’re twice my size, but I could easily bring you to your knees.”
“Wanna bet?” My competitive streak was problematic, I admit. “You can have the yoga instructor job. If you bring me to my knees, I’ll give you the self-defense position too.”
“Great.” She smiled wide and it was like I was seeing her for the first time, because that smile alone was capable of bringing a man to his knees. Her eyes scrunched up, her cheekbones rounded, and a pair of dimples showed that made her cute and sexy at the same time.
Cute and lethal.
She’d wreck a heart or two with it, I was sure. Mine just wouldn’t be one of them.
She spun on a running shoe heel and beelined to the door. “I already put my duffel in a locker. Saw a few things. The ring in the middle of the gym is a nice touch. Shall we go there so I can earn my place?”
“Whoa. Take it down a notch, Rocky,” I chuckled out.
She turned to tilt her head at me. “Rocky?”
“You don’t know Rocky?”
She scrunched her little nose.
Fuck. That solidified it. She was young. Too young. It was like a bucket of ice-cold water was
thrown on my overactive dick.
“He’s the legendary boxer in the movies of the same name!” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How old are you?”
“Oh, I don’t think ageism can be part of an interview.” She smiled softly. “Plus, it’s not an age thing. My mom and I didn’t have a TV or go to the movies growing up.” She shrugged like it was normal and then continued out the door.
“Didn’t have a TV?” I almost tripped over myself at her admission.
“Are you giving me a tour before or after we get into the wrestling ring?”
“Before. You’re going to be too tired after.” Because her ass wasn’t going to knock me to the ground. “Now, you won’t be on this floor a lot. Except for management meetings and large clients, we barely use it. If you have a question, though, the HR department is down the hall, my office is at the end of it. Although, I’m not in there much.”
I pointed to the elevators and pressed the button. Almost immediately, the doors slid open for her to walk in. “I never liked an office anyway.”
“Why?”
“My father belonged in one, and my mother and I didn’t.” The statement wasn’t one of pain or animosity. It’s like Everly knew where she belonged. Most people tried to claw their way into a group that didn’t want them. They tortured themselves to be a part of something they weren’t, only to find they would have been happier if they’d found the right fit in the first place. I’d tried it with other sports, other positions, other careers. But Michael Jordan didn’t belong in baseball, he belonged in basketball.
We waited quietly in the elevator until the doors opened. I waved her forward so we could walk the premises. A few clients stopped their lifting to walk over and introduce themselves. Everly practically preened. “I’m so excited to get started. It seems you have a wonderful clientele.”
“If you say so,” I grumbled as I cracked my knuckles, and we went around the other side of the gym to the wrestling ring.
When she got up to it, she dove under the rope so effortlessly, I started to consider whether or not she had some skill. “Want some protective gear?”
“For what? You going to hit me?” She feigned a pout and fluttered her lashes like she was making fun of those she’d seen use that tactic.
“I don’t think I’ll need to, Everly. You’re as small as a raindrop.” I grasped the rope so I could crouch between them and walk in.
She narrowed her eyes. “Rainwater can be dangerous. It can flood … take a life, wash away cars, it can move mountains. A raindrop is small but together, with others, they’re a force.”
I could tell right then, Everly was going to be a problem. “There’s only one of you here in front of me today.”
She let a small smile escape before she straightened and widened her stance. “Let’s see what you got. Come at me.”
I met her gaze, determined, focused, brilliant. It held no fear, like she knew she was capable of more than I’d come at her with.
Something stirred deep within me, something that shouldn’t have at all. I enjoyed taking a woman and making her mine, enjoyed ravaging her and controlling her when she wanted it.
I’d come at a woman in just that way before because she’d wanted it, not for her to defend herself.
So, I gave a half-ass effort as I walked toward her, reaching my hand out to grab her arm. She grasped my hand in just the right way and twisted it fast. She swung it over her head and cranked on it so hard that had I not curved my body and fallen to the ground that instant, I’d have a broken wrist. “Jesus Christ, Everly, what the fuck?” I bellowed.
I didn’t mean to yell, but it didn’t matter. She was beaming down at me, her pearly whites so bright against her lips that I immediately wanted to say sorry for my outburst. “Rule number one—you can’t underestimate your opponent and give them the upper hand. It only takes one raindrop to bring you down it seems.”
I glanced up in utter disbelief. “You … You almost broke my arm. I didn’t expect you to—”
“Yes, again, underestimating probably isn’t a good idea.”
Shit. I knew that. I’d played sports forever and the underdog was always capable of the win, could always gain the upper hand when they were underestimated. Yet, this was different. “You’re not even half my size.”
“I know. It’s extremely invigorating to know what the body is capable of.”
I grumbled, “I guess the job is yours.” I snatched my hand out of hers and got up. “When do you want to start, Raindrop?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like nicknames. Everyone just calls me Evie. And today if possible. I worked back in my hometown and hate to not be working.”
“Right, can I ask why you left that hometown of yours?” I was prying, and I knew it. Yet, I needed to know the type of person I was dealing with.
Her face fell, she shut off all emotion, and she didn’t elaborate. “Sometimes, people just need a change.”
I had a feeling she was about to change my life in more ways than one.
OUR GAZES WERE at war with one another, like we were both recalling the first time we’d met. “Hard to forget that, Everly. You can take care of yourself in a ring, you can take care of yourself now. Let’s work through this, huh? We’ll ride out the marriage, and that way the shares won’t be given to an anonymous company.”
“If we’re doing this, I’m not living with you.” She almost bared her teeth as she said it, blue eyes burning bright with hatred toward me suddenly.
“I have a guesthouse. Completely detached from my own,” I informed her, straightening the suit jacket I was so sick of wearing already.
“Of course you do. Everyone here does.” She shut her eyes, frustrated. “I’m not like you all, Mr. Hardy. I can’t … I don’t live this lifestyle like Melinda and Anastasia and—”
“Don’t include me in the lineup,” Dom jumped in, a small smile on his face. She glanced over at him, and I saw how her eyes softened.
“Dom, you know how ridiculous this is,” Evie said to my brother. Seeing how they’d became friends, how he could calm her in this moment pissed me off. It pissed me off because I wasn’t me.
“It’s only a change in location and a license for a year,” I reminded her, stopping her from engaging with my brother any further. This was between her and me. “Have your own life. It won’t really interfere with mine.” She chewed her cheek for a moment, and I knew I had her. “If you can’t handle it, I can try to work with Melinda and Anastasia about your mother’s yoga studio.”
That had her narrowing her eyes. Everly didn’t want to ask that woman for anything. I understood why too. She’d been vicious to her since the moment they’d first met. “There will be rules if we do this.”
I smiled in triumph. “Of course there will be.”
She stood so abruptly the chair flew out from behind her, but I caught it before it hit the ground. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I need to read over the will again.”
“If you agree”—Mrs. Johnson cleared her throat—“there will be further stipulations that can’t be read until month three of your marriage.”
“What?” we both said in unison.
“It’s unconventional, but I assure you, it’s nothing you can’t handle and—”
“We need to see the documentation.”
“Legally, I’m contracted—” She glanced at my legal team. Well, they were also Carl’s legal team. “My hands are tied, Declan.”
I glared at all of them. “You realize I could fire you all.”
“Sure. But we’re the best,” one of them stated. “And you know that. These are his last wishes.”
Was he tearing up? Jesus Christ.
“Fuck,” I swore angrily and glanced at my brothers. “Guys?”
“Your call. Everly’s call. We’ll be behind you the whole way,” Dimitri said, loyal as always.
“Now or never, Declan,” Mrs. Johnson pushed.
“Fine.”
“Fine?” Everly screeched. “Are you insane?”
“You want the damn yoga studio or not? We can always back out at three months.” She had to understand we lost everything if we didn’t.
She took two deep breaths and folded those clean, unmanicured fingers together. Then she pulled at the assortment of necklaces from under the collar of her dress and held them tight. So tight I knew her nails were cutting into her skin as she mumbled, “I’m gonna regret this.”
“Me too,” I grumbled. I met the stares of my brothers. “Don’t tell a fucking soul until I say.”
“One moment, then.” Mrs. Johnson got up and opened the door, and in walked a tall man with gray hair in a black suit. “Meet our ordained minister. I’ll be the witness, and we’ll get you two married off.”
The whirlwind began.
We repeated vows. We made promises that were completely empty. We made commitments we weren’t sure we could keep.
Then, the lawyers put papers in front of us. They explained our prenup would keep our finances and assets completely separate in the case of divorce. We signed. They explained the conditions of the will. We signed.
They pointed to our marriage license.
We signed on the dotted fucking lines.
