Page 49 of Bumping into You

Niall chuckles, his eyes crinkling at my response. “How aboutthis? Can you be ready by ten o’clock?”

“That’s better,” I say. “And why should I go to an exercise class with you?”

“It’s another one of the rules,” Niall says. “Spending time together.”

“What rules?” asks Maggie.

“Nothing,” Niall and I say in unison, more loudly than we should have.

Gillian turns toward us. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine,” I say. Not wanting to draw any more attention to us by arguing about going or not going to the exercise class, I tell Niall, “I can make ten o’clock work.”

“Grand,” he says. “I’ll pick you up then.”

The next morning, a knock sounds on the shared door. I startle and drop the water bottle I’d been drinking from, spilling water all over my exercise shorts.

I open the door to a too-cheerful-in-the-morning McHottie. “You couldn’t warn a girl first?” I say, gesturing to my soaked shorts.

Niall whistles at the sight of me, then he picks up my water bottle. “Drop this?” he asks, in a chipper tone.

“You think?” I reply stoically. “You made me spill it all over myself at your unannounced knock.” Grabbing a towel, I pat my legs dry.

“So, what you’re saying is I make you all wet?”

My head snaps up at him, and I give him my best unamused scowl, eyebrow raised at his implication. Though, my scowls are becoming less serious the more time I spend with him. I still try to portray how maddening he can be.

“Plus,” he continues as he fills up my water bottle, “I wouldn’t say it was unannounced. Technically, a knock is anannouncement in and of itself, right?” Tilting his head to the side, he watches me dry off, grinning the whole time.

“Knock it off,” I say, flushed.

“At least you didn’t answer the door completely naked save for a towel,” he grins.

True.

My face heats at the memory.

I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths before standing to look at him and setting the towel down on the counter.

“So,” I ask, wanting desperately to change the subject, “what exercise are we doing? Running track again?”

“It’s a surprise,” he says, opening the door to the hallway. “C’mon, Rose, we’ve got to go.”

I down the last few sips of my coffee, grab my now-filled water bottle, and head out after him.

As we walk into the fitness center, I notice they are holding a group class.

Niall gestures grandly. “You mentioned you couldn’t do it the other day because you didn’t have a partner, so I thought I’d come with you so you could do couples yoga today.”

I freeze mid-step.

Did he just say couples yoga?

Niall is beaming. How can he possibly think this is a great idea?

Couples yoga is all about trust, and some poses can be very . . . err, intimate. I barely know him. Okay, that’s a lie, I know him at least a little now. But is Niall even any good at yoga? Ugh, he’s going to make me hate my favorite form of exercise with this awful idea.

“Rose? Gwendolyn!”

---