Page 52 of Every Move You Make

“Ninguno para ti,” Ana admonishes. “Los churros son para la gente que no dice groserìas delante de mis nietos.”None for you. Churros are for people who don't swear in front of my grandchildren.

Crestfallen, Jonah whines. “¡Me detendré! ¿Por favor?”I’ll stop! Please?

Ana slaps his hand from opening the lid and returns to English. “You need to prove yourself.” She turns her body away from my brother and offers me to open it. “That wasa hard loss, Isaiah. Go ahead, you get the first pick.”

Smugly, I pluck one out and deliberately make eye contact with Jonah while I savor it. “Mmm. Still warm.”

“Fu—” Jonah begins, before correcting himself. “Fudge.”

Dane comes up next to me and takes one for himself. “No, it’s not fudge,” he teases, opening the dip inside the container and dunking his churro. “It’s chocolate sauce.”

I’m beginning to love these family dinners.

Chapter 21

Meddling

Dell

When Isaiah walks through my door Monday evening for his session, a tendril of guilt wraps around my heart and tugs. I have two plans mapped out, and they’re either both going to work or both will fail. It’s about to get messy, and friendships are going to change one way or the other. Because here’s the thing: Robyn deserves to be happy, and I think I know just how to push Isaiah’s buttons to make that happen.

Chester immediately hops down from his window perch next to BooBoo to greet his man. Weaving between his legs, Isaiah is forced to stop and acknowledge my attention-hungry cat.

“Hey, pal,” Zay coos, picking up the orange furball and walking over to me. “You clearly don’t give him enough attention.”

“All I do is love him,” I reply, taking the big loaf from him. Chester climbs up my back and sits on my shoulder like a parrot. “He’s obviously my son because he gets his lovability from me. I’m very lovable, Zay. You should give me more attention,” I say with a wink.

Heat rises in his adorable round cheeks before he lowers his head. “You’re hard to miss.”

“What was that?” I taunt.

“You’re hard to miss. You, um…” he pulls at the back of his neck. “You have quite the following on social media.”

“Oh,” I beam. “You finally found it, huh? Don’t be shy, BigDaddy. Tell me, are you watching for workout tips or for less respectable reasons?”

Right when I think he’s about to turn away and ignore me, he looks me directly in the eye. “Why can’t it be both?” He flashes me the faintest grin and saunters off to our warm-up area.

“I do declare,” I drawl, fanning myself like I’m Blanche fromThe Golden Girls. “Did you hear that, Ches? I think Isaiah made a pass at me.”

When he doesn’t confirm nor deny it, I lean into my plan.

Grabbing the resistance band connected to a post, Isaiah sets up for his bilateral external rotations. His back is to me as he faces the wall.

God, his dark, hair-dusted legs are so thick and tightly muscled, and his back… What I wouldn’t give to see him shirtless right now. I wonder if he has more tattoos than the team crest on his thigh and the black and blue partial sleeve.

No, think of Robyn.

His first few reps are smooth, and though his right shoulder dips a little from his injury, all in all, he’s made good progress. When I think he has the cadence down perfectly and he’s essentially trapped, I take a step closer and lean in.

“How’s the new job?”

“Good,” he breathes.

“Yeah? It must be hard having feelings for one of your players.”

Mid-rep, he falters but catches himself quickly. “Yeah. It’s kind of hard.”

“I don’t know how you do it. Being around her that much and not being able to do anything about it. She’s so pretty, isn’t she?”

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